Getting a good photograph of a baby is really hard. Newborns, okay, no problem—add milk, with a warm room and you’ve got pliable, squishy, easy baby face. Older babies—the ones who don’t yet know how to talk but have figured out how to move on their own—are different creatures all together.

I just got home from a trip to Texas. I love going home to Texas. I get to visit friends and family. And the weather always offers another perspective from the Pacific North West. But much like my other trips to Texas, this trip was too short. I didn’t get to see everyone. I was going 50 mph. Plus, Bren and I got sick. (Why do I always catch something when I travel to Texas!?!? Not cool, not cool at all).

On a more positive note, Mom and I got to get the baby cousins together for a little photo shoot. Which lasted over an hour and we got very little by the way of results. As I mentioned, photographing a baby who moves is difficult. Photographing two babies who move, well, I’d rank it up there with capturing Osama Bin Laden, or knitting (I assume this is hard because I can’t figure out how to cast a loop).

Yes, I just equated knitting with military operations, when you don’t have the skills or resources each one is just as difficult. It’s a matter of perception, stop arguing with me, this is my blog post.

So, based on my experience, here are a few amateur suggestions.

• Get help. No, not psychiatric help, though you may want to consider it afterward for the trauma. We had five people working two babies. It was barely enough. My friend Christa was there. By the end of it she said, “I have a whole new respect for those who photograph babies.”
• Test your lighting and equipment before you start shooting. The babies will not wait. I repeat. They. Will. Not. Wait.
• Got keys? Flashing lights? Musical skills? Work it. But remember to work it in the direction you want the babies to look. If all of you are yelling “Baby, Baby” in that high-pitch sing song you are going to get photos of a kid who doesn’t know which direction to look. And they’ll get bored. Quickly.
• I repeat, they’ll get bored quickly. Change it up. If you’ve been using keys and a high voice, try music and a low voice. They respond to change.
• Don’t forget to shoot some candid shots. Let them crawl off and see where they go together.
• Finally, be patient (no Duh) and remember to keep it fun. Photos of crying babies may have its charms, but that may not be the effect you are going for. And if it is, you are just mean (come sit next to me)!

Okay, so, that’s my advice. Now, here are the BEST photos we got. And by “we”, I mean my mother, Bridgett Bradford Norris. I was just a baby wrangler no. 1 (and post production editor).

And here are some of the outtakes (candid shots) that my grandfather and I took.