by JordanEdwards on Thu Feb 23, 2012 1:32 pm
You are setting yourself up to fail if you get nervous and think you are not any good. Change that thought quickly. I am going to give you advice assuming that you know nothing technically about photography.
Set your camera to shutter speed priority and set your speed to 1/500 sec. If it's cloudy outside you may need to raise your ISO but don't go above 800. If you need to go above 800 to take a picture, start slowing your shutter down in one click increments until you get to 1/250. Let the camera expose for you, it may be off a little but you can still fix the shot. Under 1/250 you run a serious risk of getting motion blurs with a moving child.
Take your pictures in the first or preferably the last 2 hours of the day. Expect the kid to last 20-30 min at most. Don't be afraid to put the sun behind them. A cloudy is okay too.
As far as posing goes. I do not think you should plan anything, just go out and ask the kid to have fun. When you see something you like, work around that for a while and move onto something else. Make it fun for the child. If you are struggling with a stiff child, have them run. You can put the wider lens on at around 25mm and run next to them and fire away. A child will always laugh when they are running, they can't help it. The main thing is to not to take boring, static pictures that look like a run of the mill portrait person took them. You can look me up and if you like what I do, then follow my advice. If not, no worries, do what you like. It's your vision that is important.