So what happens when you Refuse to Say Cheese and see your kids about ready to do something you know you’ll want to remember? Here’s what happened for me!

It was nap time, and Pascaline loves to take her naps in the guest room. Blaze wanted to give her a kiss goodnight, (but we all know he just wants to keep playing) and for whatever reason I had energy to play along with it.

He crawled up on the bed with her and started to cuddle, I was totally surprised at how sweet they were being, so I grabbed the camera.

Recipe: I wanted natural light instead of having to use my flash, so I bumped my ISO to 800 since 400 wasn’t giving me enough light. I dialed my aperture down to a 2.8 and set the shutter speed at 1/60. I knew at 1/60 shutter speed, I’d probably get some blurry shots, but it was okay because I wanted to accentuate their motion.

Two Little Monkeys…

The 2.8 aperture was for shots like this, where his feet are in focus and the rest is a nice, soft blur.

Pascaline tried to amuse Blaze with her amazing, aerial blankie tricks, but he wasn’t to interested.

So without warning, Pascaline attacked Blaze. And the games began!

Momma even started jumping on the bed!

And can you believe it, they actually pooped themselves out!

This was one of the best times shooting the kids playing together, and I never had to say cheese. Can you imagine how the fun would have stopped if I had busted out with a “say cheese!”

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Exercise for “Monkeys Jumping on the Bed”!

1. The next time you see your kids playing well together break out the camera!

2. If you can, steer their play to a room with a lot of light so you don’t have to use your flash. (it gets tricky here b/c trying to do this could totally make you lose the moment).

3. If you don’t want to wait for “the moment”, do what Brian and I do ALL the time with our kids and clients–set up the shot. Pick a good time of day when the natural sunlight is pouring in to your favorite bedroom and let the kids jump on the bed (could I be sued for suggesting this if one of your kids got hurt? keep a close eye on them while they jump and shoot away! .

4. Try the recipe for the camera settings I’ve got above. If you don’t need that much light and your images are coming out overexposed, bring the ISO down to 400. If you still have overexposed images, speed up your shutter speed until the exposure is right.

5. Send me some results! More and more of you are sending me your images, and it’s so great to see! mera@merakoh.com

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To learn more about me visit About Me Ra.

For information on Me Ra’s popular photography workshops, visit “Documenting a Child’s Life.”

To see our day job, visit our website.