An outdoor one year old photo session is an ideal way to capture the energy and spirit of a one year old. They love to explore and to be on the move (and don’t take direction very well!). So, the best thing to do is to give them a chance to do just that, and be there to capture the curiosity, wide-eyed wonder, giggles and tottering first steps as they happen.
A few things to think about when planning an outdoor one year old photo session
Thinking ahead about a few things will help make your outdoor one year old photo session go more smoothly.
- variety- choose an area with several different spots to use. Toddler attention spans are very short, and it’s good to have another option when they get bored.
- keep them interested, but not too interested- once they’ve seen play equipment, those one-track minds usually don’t have any interest in anything else
- safety- find spots that don’t have lots of traffic nearby, and avoiding fast-moving or large areas of water is a good idea, too. Water’s another thing that magnetically attracts toddlers!
For Tre’s first birthday session, we chose Crane Park in Kalamazoo. It’s a quiet neighborhood park with no through streets, and has gardens that are beautifully kept up by volunteers. It was almost startling to see how he had grown since his newborn photo session- he’s a little man now! The ‘then and now’ –
another thing that’s handy with toddlers? Containment devices- aka chairs, baskets, crates, etc. Parents can be in this category, too.
Anything that will keep them in one spot for a brief moment helps, and a quick shutter finger helps, too. Here are a few we used…w
e couldn’t resist the empty bird bath-
Tre loves his mama, and I love the images we got of him with his mom-
and my favorite, his serious, thoughtful gaze-
