The holiday season is my favorite time of year. After a hectic fall, I try to slow down a bit and make sure I make time to enjoy the season with my son and document it as well! This year I've put together a quick post with five ideas for photos you can take of your kiddos during this time of year.

Note: We live in the warm southeast so I don't have pictures of snow, but there are so many more possibilities if it snows where you live!

Christmas Tree Lot/Farm

Do you get a live Christmas tree? Take your camera with you and capture the fun of picking out a Christmas tree. When you get home (or if you use an artificial tree), make sure to capture a few moments of your child(ren) hanging ornaments on the tree!

5 Photos to Take this Holiday SeasonCopyright Kimberly Tank Art & Photography

Christmas Tree Silhouette 

In 2016, I chose to do a silhouette for our Christmas card. My husband is finally coming home for good shortly after Christmas (he's in the Navy) and I wanted to represent the wonderful gift we are getting this year. So I had him and our son sit in front of the tree for a silhouette. This is also a fun one to do with just your kiddos. Just make sure you get down lower than I did in this one so you capture most of their bodies silhouetted by the tree. 

Settings note for parents: You want to set your exposure for the tree but focus on your subjects and try to get profiles if you can. Your tree may or may not be as bright as mine, but my settings (to give you a starting point and you can adjust from there) were: f/2.8, 1/160 sec, ISO 1000 with a 50 mm lens. 

5 Photos to Take this Holiday SeasonCopyright Kimberly Tank Art & Photography

Under the Christmas Tree

The best view of the tree lights is achieved by lying under the tree and looking up into it (especially with how many lights I put on our tree, haha!). My son LOVES lying under the tree and looking up at all the lights. I wanted to capture this special part of his childhood and remember the magic of Christmas through my young son's eyes. (This was our Christmas card photo one year!)

Settings note for parents: Again, this will depend on your tree and how well lit it is, but you want to expose for your child's face and leave the rest of the image a little darker. My settings were: f2.5, 1/125 sec, ISO 1600 with a 50 mm lens.

5 Photos to Take this Holiday SeasonCopyright Kimberly Tank Art & Photography

Gingerbread House/Holiday Craft

We've never built a gingerbread house because of food allergies, so when we found this gingerbread house craft at Michael's, I was excited and my son was thrilled! He had so much fun putting it all together, and since it was mostly foam stickers, he could do just about all of it himself. It was the perfect holiday activity to capture as I'm sure it likely won't make it to see next year, and one made of gingerbread probably wouldn't make it long either!

5 Photos to Take this Holiday SeasonCopyright Kimberly Tank Art & Photography

Holiday Baking

Some of my favorite holiday memories were baking Christmas goodies with my mom. We all especially loved to help her decorate the spritz cookies with sprinkles. My son loves helping in the kitchen as well and documenting this time will give him something tangible to look back on later when he's older. This was just the first day of holiday baking we did this season and I'll certainly be documenting more as we get into making cookies. I wish I had photographs of my siblings and I helping my mom with Christmas cookies!  
5 Photos to Take this Holiday SeasonCopyright Kimberly Tank Art & Photography

One last note... while I feel it's important to document our families (and print those photographs!), I also feel it's important to make sure to be a part of the memories and not get too carried away with taking pictures. I try limit myself to 5 or so minutes with the camera and then put it down and be a part of the memories. 

Which one of these will you do this season? I'd love to know! Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Kwanzaa!

<3

Kim

Owner/Photographer-Artist

Kimberly Tank Art & Photography

Want to learn more about how to take better photos of your kids? Contact me today for more information on my camera classes for parents/grandparents!