Photographing my hyper, pouty, "I don't wanna" toddler

Children, especially photographer's children, go through phases where they are sometimes extremely difficult to photograph. My 3 year old Timothy is going through one of those phases now.

It kills me as a photographer, but even more as a Mom.

Everyday cellphone Photos of him are either non-existent, of a random body part, blurry, frowny or otherwise skewed by him jumping on me while I'm holding the camera. Family and sibling pictures rarely have him in them.

He moves too fast,

He doesn't want to,

He would rather lick the lens,

He Pouts,

He flat out tackles me.

I beg,

I use "don't you want your grandparents to see this?",

I tell him he'll be left out of the photos and ask me why in 20 years,

I sigh and switch to video.

3 years ago his sister was the same way, and I expect in 3 years my newborn will be going through the same phase.

And it's frustrating. Really frustrating.

When we're not doing everyday cellphone grabs, I have some tricks to make him WANT to take photos. I took him out on his "fair day" (no fair in 2020) and got some shots that make my mommy heart sing.

So if you have an impossible toddler, remember, it's not really impossible when you have a few tricks up your sleeve.