I've been enjoying this extra time with my daughter during this time of social distancing. At first I was worried how this would all go as she loves her friends and school, but she has adjusted so well (and seems much more calm and less frustrated). I'm so impressed with how much she has learned over this year. She's always been good at telling us about her day, but more focused on telling us about her friends with small details on what she learned. Between plans from school and ideas I have, I'm blown away with how far she has come! I do worry if she'll be ready for school next year if this lasts longer, but I also feel she has learned way more in Kindergarten than I did in my half day Kindergarten and 1st Grade combined! I love that she now has more time to learn through playing indoors and outdoors. This extra time is a great excuse to capture the natural and everyday moments with our kids...memories we can look back on when these simple times are over and life is back to a bit crazy. Here are some ideas and inspirations for capturing your children during this time. I would love to hear your ideas too!

  1. In the bath - bubbles, foam,, play...baths are a highlight around here and who wouldn't want to capture that!
  2. Take a nature walk looking for signs of spring, shadows, or some other fun theme. Capture them running and enjoying the outdoors...bonus if you can get them to dress up in a fun outfit (think twirly dress). Still snowing where you are? Capturing the joys of snow is so special!
  3. Art projects - drawing, crafting, chalk art...it's fun watching their little creative brains make a masterpiece.
  4. Building and playing in their fort. Who doesn't LOVE a fort.
  5. Baking & cooking projects. Not many things cuter than a little one baking. I also love the life skills this teaches!
  6. With their pets...real or stuffed!
  7. Playing with their favorite toys. We all know how toy phases are intense one day and then all of a sudden switch to a new theme out of nowhere...capture time with their favorite toys now before it changes!
  8. Celebrating a birthday? Purposely use light to highlight capturing them opening gifts, eating cake, etc.
  9. Get in the frame too! Use a self timer or even just take a selfie!

Some fun ways to amp up capturing your children in a storytelling fashion is to play with lighting both inside your home and outside. How can you use light to help tell a story? Shadows, backlighting, rim light, defused windows...lighting options are limitless and play a huge part of increasing the interest factor in your images. Don't forget to capture details, play around with different angles, and look for ways to add layering with furniture, house structures, and textures. Think outside the box and try something new...perhaps a double exposure or composite image. Hopefully you'll have so much fun trying new things for yourself that you'll back at this social distancing time with fondness...and have amazing moments captured forever!