By Eric Kim
The most precious thing in the world isn’t your money, your house, your car, or your possessions.
It is your children. Your grandchildren. Your family.
And the beautiful thing about photography? You have the power to transform ordinary everyday moments into priceless memories.
Imagine this: 30 years from now, your kids or grandkids are looking through your photographs. They see themselves running through the backyard, eating breakfast, laughing with grandma, holding grandpa’s hand.
They don’t care what camera you used. They don’t care about megapixels, sharpness, or technical perfection.
They care about one thing:
You were there. And you loved them enough to photograph them.
1. Don’t tell your kids to smile
The biggest mistake parents and grandparents make?
Forcing their children to smile for the camera.
“Say cheese!”
The problem? The moment you tell a kid to smile, you destroy the authenticity of the moment.
Instead, photograph your kids when they’re simply being themselves.
When they’re laughing, crying, being silly, playing with toys, or making a mess.
Don’t photograph what you want your kids to look like. Photograph who they really are.
2. Get down to their eye level
Most adults photograph children from above, looking down.
But imagine seeing the world from the perspective of a three-year-old.
Everything is enormous. Everything is fascinating. Everything is an adventure.
Squat down. Kneel. Sit on the ground.
Even lie on your belly.
The lower your camera, the more intimate and immersive your photographs become.
3. Photograph the mundane
Forget birthdays, Christmas, and vacations for a moment.
What about brushing teeth? Eating scrambled eggs? Putting on shoes? Reading bedtime stories?
These are the photographs that become increasingly precious with time.
Why?
Because the everyday moments eventually disappear.
Your five-year-old won’t be five forever.
One day, you’ll miss the tiny shoes scattered across the floor.
You’ll miss the messy breakfast table.
You’ll miss the way your child used to reach up to hold your hand.
Photograph ordinary life. Because ordinary life is extraordinary.
4. Capture movement, not just faces
Children are energy.
They run, jump, climb, dance, and tumble.
Don’t try to freeze every single moment perfectly.
Experiment with movement.
Let their arms blur. Let their legs become streaks of motion. Photograph them running toward you or away from you.
A little blur can communicate more emotion than a perfectly sharp photograph.
Photography isn’t merely about what something looks like. It is about what something feels like.
5. Photograph your kids with their grandparents
Some of the most powerful photographs you will ever make are intergenerational.
A tiny child’s hand wrapped around grandpa’s enormous finger.
Grandma reading a story.
A grandfather teaching his granddaughter how to ride a bicycle.
Three generations sitting around the same dinner table.
Photograph the difference in age, size, hands, faces, and gestures.
And grandparents: don’t always be the person behind the camera.
Make sure you’re in the photographs, too.
Your grandchildren will cherish those images someday.
6. Embrace black and white
Color photography documents how things look.
Black-and-white photography often helps us concentrate on the emotion, gesture, and soul of a moment.
Remove distracting colors, and suddenly the viewer pays more attention to expressions, shadows, light, and composition.
Try photographing your children exclusively in black and white for a week.
Look for dramatic sunlight, silhouettes, reflections, and interesting shadows.
Make your photographs less like ordinary snapshots and more like timeless works of art.
7. Photograph hands, feet, and little details
You don’t always need to photograph someone’s face.
Photograph tiny feet next to grandpa’s shoes.
Photograph a hand clutching a favorite stuffed animal.
Photograph the little fingers gripping a spoon.
Photograph a child sleeping with one hand resting on a parent’s chest.
These details are easy to overlook today.
But decades from now, they may be the things you remember most vividly.
8. Shoot more, but curate ruthlessly
My philosophy:
Shoot 1,000 photographs. Choose your best one.
Don’t feel obligated to share every photograph you make.
Instead, become your own toughest editor.
After a day photographing your children or grandchildren, review the images.
Ask yourself: Which photograph has the most emotion? Which one tells the strongest story? Which photograph would I want to print enormous and hang on my wall?
The goal is not to accumulate 100,000 mediocre photographs.
The goal is to create a handful of unforgettable ones.
9. Use the camera you already own
You don’t need an expensive camera.
Your iPhone is phenomenal.
A compact camera like the Ricoh GR IV is also a wonderful option for everyday family photography.
The most important characteristics of your camera are that it’s accessible, fast enough for moving children, and enjoyable to use.
A camera sitting at home is useless.
A camera you carry everywhere is priceless.
10. Make photography a family ritual
Imagine photographing your grandchild every Sunday morning.
Same kitchen. Same breakfast table. Same window light.
Do this for five years.
Or photograph your child on the first day of school every year.
Or photograph grandma and grandpa with the grandkids every Thanksgiving.
Over time, these photographs become something far greater than individual pictures.
They become a visual record of your family’s history.
And don’t just keep everything trapped on your phone.
Print photographs. Make books. Hang framed images around your home.
Give your children and grandchildren something physical they can hold.
The ultimate secret: love is your photographic superpower
Here’s something I’ve realized:
You don’t have to be the world’s greatest photographer to make the world’s greatest photographs of your children.
Why?
Because nobody knows your children better than you.
You know their personalities, their eccentricities, their favorite games, their funny facial expressions.
You know when they’re about to laugh.
You know what makes them happy.
You have access to the most intimate moments of their lives.
A professional photographer might spend two hours with your family.
You have years.
Decades.
A lifetime.
That is your greatest photographic advantage.
So don’t obsess over making technically perfect photographs.
Don’t obsess over expensive equipment.
Don’t obsess over social media likes.
Instead, photograph your children and grandchildren as an act of love.
Because one day, those tiny children will grow up.
Their voices will change. Their faces will change. Their little hands will become big hands.
And the photographs you make today will become an extraordinary gift to the future.
Your children will never be this young again.
Photograph them today.
ERIC KIM
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