Capturing those "Back to School" moments!

Hi.  My name is Tiffany and I'm a picture-holic.  I can never have too many pictures and my poor computer hard drive will confirm that.  I love taking photos and spend time dreaming up ideas or poses to torture my children with.  With school just about to start for most of us, I thought I'd share some fun photo ideas for the infamous First Day of School.  We all take them, so why not have some fresh, new ideas right?

First off is the classic "backpack" pose.  These are a MUST if you have a little Kindergartner or preschooler.  It's so fun to look back and see how HUGE the backpacks were on them.

Especially when they keep that same backpack for many years and you can watch them grow with it!

Next is probably one of my favorite things to do - documenting what grade they are going into by having the kids hold up their fingers. 

My other favorite that is a MUST each year . . . taking their picture in front of the door (or some other stationary object that has features on it so you can measure/see growth).  I am still perfecting this one though because as I looked through their pictures last year to show their growth from the 1st day of school to the last day of school, I realized that I don't always take the picture from the same location or angle.  That makes a difference because it can totally negate the whole point of it all - being able to see exactly how much your kid grew! So my word of advice is pay attention to where you stand to take the picture as well!  Also, don't let your kids lean back and slouch against it either.  Seriously, look how much my little girl grew last year though! <sniff>

Besides those 3 suggestions, all I have to say is HAVE FUN!  Kids grow up way too fast, so document every little thing you just cherish about the whole day.  The next time you get this chance, they will be another year older so take advantage of TODAY!  Here's some "little things" I take pictures of:

Take pictures of the kids getting ready to head out the door together.  Take pictures of the kids on the playground before they separate to their classes.  Take pictures with their teachers or in front of their classroom.

Take pictures of the kids getting on the school bus or of your kids walking home together.

Then you can take all those pictures and make fun little collages/scrapbook pages and print them out in your Blurb books and treasure them forever!