Still, Summer says, strategies can be adapted and family knowledge can be put to work. Your kids may not be surprised by you, but you know the area of the house your children prefer; you know what they like to do; you know their schedules. Sometimes you just stumble on something – as Summer did for the second photo here. “That’s my daughter, doing her own thing, [playing] with the magnets on the fridge. I might have said something to get her to look at me and smile. The most important part about photographing your own kids is to capture the moment they’re involved in. It’s those natural moments you have to look for.”

And when that moment arrives, you’ve got to be ready.

Well, actually, you should be ready before the moment arrives, almost pressing the shutter release a millisecond before the moment. “That comes with experience,” Summer says, “with knowing the kind of image you want to get and what the child does.”

Although there are exceptions, for the most part you should be shooting from the child’s level. “You can’t overpower a child,” Summer says. “She doesn’t want to look up; she wants you to be on her level, where she’s going to trust you and look at you.”

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