A genuine smile

Just hear me out... I love when kids give these smiles. Look to the left, he's in his big cheese but not quite genuine smile phase. They often think they're giving a "real" smile. Telling the difference can be hard.

I think of it like a phase like when they can't say animal correctly or they want to be a dinosaur. There are so many phases in their childhood, some shorter than others, and even though we may want them give a "good smile" what they give us is their "good smile" While it may seem frustrating now but it won't last forever. it is adorable and something to look back on with laughter later.

My daughter wore her blow up Blue (the dino from Jurrassic World) costume in our

Christmas card when she was 6. At the time I wasn't so sure, now I look back at that as one

of our best family photos. For 2025 we were able to add a T-rex to the Christmas card as our youngest got to wear his blow up dino.

What I've learned is as much as we think we want a perfect smile fixating on that can make the session more stressful for everyone. Through chatting, singing, dancing and just having fun I often find that the children are more at ease, parents can be more present and we capture some genuine, real smiles from your child.

This also means that we get better smiles from you. Having parents present and engaged gives you time to enjoy the session and so when your child gives me that darling smilie I am able to snap the picture and you're smiling instead of talking. This gives you a wider variety of images in your gallery later on.