I have worked with many different types of photography... from weddings, to landscape, to sports. I am often asked what type of photography I enjoy most... and the answer is simple. I love to photograph kids. There is an innocence and a charm in children that is always refreshing to me. Yes, it can be challenging to get a baby to smile, or to get a youngster to hold a certain pose more than a second or two... but I still love working with kids. There are many different theories about how to get the best "kid shots", but I have come to a simple conclusion. Whenever possible, I believe that photographing a child in surroundings that they are comfortable with... and just letting them "be themselves" will produce, by far, the most appealing images. I've found that the same techniques that I use in nature photography, work very well in photographing children. The same methods used to aquire a shot of a fleeting hummingbird... produce great results when trying to capture a shot of a child scampering through a playground. There is, certainly, nothing wrong with guiding a child into a certain pose... but if you can, truly, capture a child being themselves... a natural smile, getting ready for church, peeping around a tree, playing with a kitten ... these are the types of images that I find that parents often treasure most. Share                      Hawaii Time! All photographs appearing on this site are the property of Joe West Photography. They are protected by U.S. copyright laws and are not to be downloaded or reproduced in any way without the written permission of Joe West Photography.