ParentsTalk: Experts' Advice: Parenting: Take Great Pictures of Your Kids

As a parent, I loved taking pictures of our daughter and son as they were growing up. Capturing a posed portrait or an on-the-run candid can be extraordinarily rewarding. Actually, it's quite easy to take very good pictures of your kids. Here are a few simple concepts that will improve your pictures dramatically.

To take pleasing photographs, whether you're using a simple point-and-shoot or an expensive, bells-and-whistles camera, you must use your eyes. You must see through the viewfinder. Look, look, and look again. Your camera is merely a tool for taking a picture. Photography is not a passive undertaking. You must claim the role of visual boss. Nothing - no camera, however sophisticated - is a replacement for your eyes, your vision.

One of the best ways to improve your photos is to use your feet and to move in close. You want your child to be the dominating star in your picture. You want their face, their body, to fill the frame. (Keep in mind, that every auto focus camera will tell you if you're too close to your subject to focus.)

First, pick up your camera and look through the viewfinder. Does your child look insignificant and lost in the scene? If the answer is yes, you can move in closer, or you can move to the left, or you can move to the right. You may even decide to move your child to improve the composition. Using your camera's viewfinder, be the visual editor until your child's image fills that small rectangle, and you have chosen a point of view that crops out the surrounding extraneous odds and ends. You can make all of these visual decisions very quickly, even in a few seconds.

It sounds rather absurd to emphasize the fact that you can see through your camera, and that you can move your feet to create your image. But time and time again, I see people lift up the camera, point it vaguely in the direction of their subject, and press the shutter. It's as if the camera is a barrier to making decisions, rather than a tool that you control. Don't be shy about taking control of your camera. The improved quality of the photographs of your kids will astound you.

Plan Ahead

Planning ahead is especially important for a posed portrait. Before you even pick up your camera, think about the best location for your photo. Choose a spot with a simple background that won't distract visually from your child's face. Choose simple clothes, and a time of day when everyone is in a good mood. In general, avoid taking photographs in the middle of a sunny day. The overhead sunlight is harsh, and casts strong shadows.

Next to "using your eyes," being playful and patient are probably the hardest goals in taking photographs of your children. We all know as parents that demanding a smile practically guarantees failure. You have to make the picture-taking process fun, a game. Tell silly stories; play-rhyming games based on words that sounds like cheese; tickle the toes. And remember not every photo needs a smile. A serious expression can also be wonderful.

And if you've really tried, and nothing is working, and you're running out of patience, STOP. Put away the camera and try again tomorrow.

Shoot at least one roll of 24 to 36 images if you're looking for a really good image. Often it takes a roll to get in rhythm with your child; to establish rapport. Sometimes you'll hit a great streak in the middle of the roll when your child responds with glorious smiles, and then the mood vanishes for the remaining images

Enjoy the fact that you're documenting your child's life. As the years pass by and you look at your collected photos, I can guarantee that you will always rejoice in the images and never regret the time, effort and money, because you will have captured on film wonderful moments that are gone forever.

This "how to" sheet has been provided by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing and can be reprinted for publication either in full or excerpted as individual "tips," so long as they are reprinted in their entirety.