In the middle of January, I had a charming session with a family of three, celebrating their little one crawling, sitting and doing all of the things a seven month old usually does. Such a cheerful little boy. One of the zillions of reasons I just love my job!
To post photos of your children on social media, or not? It’s all about personal preference
When I work with clients, one of the things I always ask is whether or not I can use a few of their photographs for my marketing. In reality, this could be a blog about our session or an update to my photo library on Facebook. This is always personal preference as we are all so different when it comes to how we share our photographs with loved ones.
What do I choose?
Personally, I do share photos periodically on Facebook. Photography is an enormous part of both mine and our families life. It’s usually relates to key milestones such as birthdays or major events in our lives. Therefore, this is one of the main ways I can share this with close friends and family who are dotted all over the world. My settings are set to the level I am pleased with. I understand that some people don’t want to share on social media, it’s all about personal preference. (If you want to read up about Facebook’s latest settings, have a look here)
How do I decide?
As a result, I have two practical pieces of advice I tend to consider before posting photos online.
1. Would my child (or the one that I am photographing) be happy if they saw this aged 12, 15, 18? If not, it’s not even a contender
2. Does the photo have any other children in it? Would their parents be happy for this to be posted online? Have I check in with them?
Social media is not the only way
From the day we had our first scan with Joseph back in December 2013, I’ve taken one photo to document our life, every day. That’s right. Every day. As much as I have enjoyed it, it’s been hard and at times I have wanted to give up but over 1000 pictures on I’m delighted that I’ve done it. You can take a look at some of my favourites here…
The vast majority would never, ever make the cut to go online but why not take a look at the following blog post which showcases some of the ways these photographs are displayed around my home.
So, back to last week’s photo shoot where this blog originated. The family decided they didn’t want me to use any of their photos online. Absolutely fine and decision totally respected. They aren’t the first and they certainly won’t be the last clients to make this request. What I do know though is that they will enjoy displaying their fabulous memories around their house to share with generations to come.
Do you have some useful tips? Why not comment below and share them with my community so that we can all help each other?
Other blog posts you might find useful:
Three useful photo apps that will help you create better photographs