As a professional photographer who specializes in kids, Summer Lyn has an arsenal of tested, proven, no-doubt-about-it successful techniques, strategies, plans and approaches for getting the best images of her clients’ children.

But when it comes to photographing her own kids…pretty much none of it will work.

“My kids see me every day, so nothing I do or say is new or interesting to them,” Summer says. And make no mistake—being interesting is the first and most important key to getting great pictures.

Fortunately, Summer says it’s the easiest part of her job because it just comes naturally. “Babies, toddlers, older kids—they can see through you if you’re not really interested in them. When people ask me, ‘How do you do it?’ I always tell them, ‘Just get to know the kids. Kids are fun, they’re intriguing. If you get to know them, you’re going to capture them.”

“I always approach with the camera,” Summer says. “I’ll have it in my hands or around my neck when I get out of the car at their house. So it’s never that I’m around the children, getting to know them and then I suddenly pull out this big, black box and put it in front of my face. I have the camera in sight always, so they know its part of me.”

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