Today I’m going to share with you one of many games I like to play with my 3 year going on 4 year old. Because while she is super cute and sweet and awesome, she really doesn’t love posing for pictures constantly. And really I mean, who does? If you want to get great pictures out of your toddler, you have to make it fun. And when you’re using your phone camera, it’s just too easy.

So today I went outside and I needed to get one last cute photo for the launch of my brand new mobile presets I created (click HERE if you’re interested in checking them out!).

I first asked her to stand and smile (rookie mistake).

She blew a raspberry at me and ran away and screamed PLAY WITH ME.

I yelled back OKAY, come here I have a game for you! I actually didn’t have a game in my mind of what I was going to do.. but that’s the thing about getting great photos of your kids. It doesn’t take a lot, truly! I figured out last year that making a game out of something will get my child to do almost anything enthusiastically.

Let’s go race to the bathroom and see who can brush their teeth faster. Ready, set, GO!

Let’s race and see who can put their clothes on faster! You or your sister, go!

I’m a big scary monster RAGH!!!!! (visualize me out in my front yard with a fully packed car ready to go and my daughter is refusing to get in) I’m going to chase you and eat you… the only safe place where there is no lava and I can’t eat you is in your car seat RAGHH!!!!!!

You get the idea.

Okay so back to today. I needed a picture of my 3 year old.

I said, Okay come over here and let’s play a game!

She stops, her interest is peaked. She comes over to the spot that I point to and I say, Okaaaaay. I want you to spin around in 3 circles (1, 2, 3 – snap photos as she’s spinning in circles) GOOD! Now I want youuuuu toooooo jump up and down 5 times!!! (say it super excited – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5! snap pictures with my phone as we’re jumping because you gotta do it with them). GREAT JOB!!!! I want you tooooo run toward me and try to get around me, OH I’M GOING TO GET YOU!!! (let her run by me, take a picture randomly as we run past each other a bunch of times and I reach my hand out to fake tickle grab her)

Once she’s back in the spot I want her in, the one with the good light, I say OH DANG YOU BEAT ME!!!! And fell to the ground with all the drama and flair possible and pretend to cry.

Boom. From the ground, I get my picture.

Don’t forget, if you want great happy smile pictures of your kids, you can’t just demand they stand there and smile at you (that’s a recipe for training your kids to give the weird creepy fake smile that is so not them). Kids are just like you and I, they don’t want to just do something for nothing. They want you to play with them, engage with them, make it fun! And if you’re using your phone camera, it’s really so easy to be discrete about it and sneak pictures in while you’re playing.

If you find yourself discouraged because you’ve nailed down the play part, but you can’t seem to get your photos to look as good as they should, check out my Simple Presets. A pack of mobile presets designed to make your phone photos great, no matter what situation you’re faced with (there’s 18 presets total in the pack to cover you no matter what!).

Click here to check them out and start transforming your photos now!