Say "daddy"!

Earlier this week Betz and I got the opportunity to watch a bunch of kids while their moms had a meeting upstairs. I wanted to take some pictures of the kids, but none of them really liked the idea. Once I came up with the idea to bribe them with use of my camera, I had no problems. Then they all were more than willing to let me take their photo real quick! Unfortunately kids these days are kind of trained to say "cheese" when they see a camera. However, this leaves the kid with an unnatural fake smile on their face, even if they had a great natural smile only seconds before.

Obviously the best way to get around this is to try to capture their natural smile, but that's easier said than done! One thing that I tried this time was to have the child say "daddy", instead of "cheese." When I asked her to do this, the picture looked completely different:

Her eyes lit up, and I could tell she loved her daddy! Go look in the mirror and see the different position your mouth ends in when you say cheese and daddy. A word that ends in an "E" sound, makes your mouth end in much more of a natural smile position!

Here is one more before/after example. 

If you try this out, let me know how it goes! I'd love to see your before/after photos.