All of us take pictures of babies whenever an opportunity presents itself. Nick Kelsh's book will elevate your photographic abilities to a whole new level. With numerous tips and techniques packed in 9 foldout sections, it will teach you how to take pictures of your baby like a professional. Given that time is precious with a baby around, this book is consciously designed as a light reading material without any technical details. The simple writing style and lovely pictures will appeal to photographers of all skill levels.

A recurrent theme is that the moment and mood captured on film, rather than the technical quality of a photograph, is what your baby will cherish forever. You can create impressive photographs with just the photographic equipment you currently own. Early sections in the book discuss techniques for successfully working your baby into golden photographic moments. Lighting creates most of the visual mood especially when a baby is bathed in naturally soft light. Such light sources are all around us and another section in the book helps you discover them right in your own house. Nick Kelsh also points out common errors while photographing babies and how rectifying them can dramatically improve the quality of your pictures. Interesting project ideas and advanced topics (creating a photo montage, using off-camera flash, photographic composition etc) are discussed towards the latter half of the book.

As the title suggests, thos book is for (1) somebody who already owns a portrait studio and wants to start photographing children or (2) somebody who has been photographing babies but now wants to try photographing them in a studio setting. In other words, this book assumes that you are familiar with the basics of photography.

The first half of the book covers all the basics about dealing with babies and children and how to plan a portrait session for them. The second half covers basic lighting techniques and suitable films for photographing babies. Then the book discusses other aspects of a successful portrait photography business such as developing a unique photography style and how to market your business.

An easy way to find out if you are your family photographer is to count how often you figure in your family photographs, a low count assuring your status. Well, in that case, perhaps you want to make the best of your opportunities and capture your children and family in memorable poses. "Mom's Little Book of Photo Tips" is a book by moms, for moms (or another family photographer). It features 75 photo oriented tips (such as "triangular formations", "kids at work", "pool gear") and photographs illustrating the tips.

The book is broadly classified into four chapters but I would look at this book only as a collection of photo tips. There is very little discussion of technical details of photography but where they are mentioned, usually they are not adequately described, potentially leaving the reader confused. In an easy to read book aimed at amateur photographers, such discussions are best left out altogether. This book attempts to train the photographer's eye into identifying photographic situations and hence the emphasis is on making the most of minimal photo equipment. So one should be able to gloss over the very few places containing a discussion of "depth of field" or "apertures". Sometimes a tip contradicts the accompanying photograph. For instance, in tip 16, the text recommends refraining from the user of a flash. However, the photograph illustrating "reflections" clearly used a flash. Common amateur problems such as a cluttered visual scene and the joining of objects are only mentioned in passing. On the other hand, useful tips on coordinating the clothing your subjects and getting close to your subjects are stressed enough. Motion blur is a wonderful way to show kids in action. For some reason, there is no tip on this subject.

This book was published in the late 60's or the very early 70's. It covers the subject all the way from the earliest photographs of children as daguerrotypes from the 19th century to the late 1960s. Hardbound book with black and while photographs. Lots of good ideas on photographing children and flipping through the pages, you can see how today's leading photographers of children have built on the earliest visions. Way back in the late 19th century, photographers had seen children as angels and this book has a couple of photographs where children have been photographed with wings. Today, it is known as Anne Geddes's photographic style.

This is the earliest book I could find on the subject of photographing children (although this book references "Baby, the Camera and You" by Walter Nurnberg, published by Chapman & Hall). The author wrote this book just before the second world war and the second edition followed just after the war. This was the era when color films first hit the market. From a historical point of this, this book is a very valuable volume of work.

Children are notoriously fidgety. For a sharp picture, it is essential to use relatively high shutter speeds to freeze their motion. This requires either a faster film or brighter lighting. Considering that films speeds were fairly slow (around the time this book was published) and flash technology was still in its infancy (and hence very expensive) and considering that these are very important factors to obtain sharp photographs of children, this author's work should be highly commended.