Did your daughter take her first steps today? Or did your son lose his first tooth?

These priceless moments certainly make parenting all the more amazing. And since you'll cherish those things forever, why not capture the memories with a camera (or smartphone) so you'll be able to look at them over the years?

Don’t regret missing them. Instead take every picture you can. Photography is the best way to take memories captive.

Think back to your childhood photo album that your mom put together for you. Does it remind you of all the happy times you had with your family? Albums will also show you the moments you don't remember from your younger years.

Aren’t you thankful your mom put a scrapbook together for you with all of those memories tucked inside? After all, who doesn’t like childhood photos?

Want your kids to remember fun family moments from their childhood? How about their first haircut or a snapshot of their first steps? If you answered yes to any of the questions then keep reading to get ideas on capturing your child’s first years with photography and Instagram.

6 Tips For Documenting Your Child's Life Using Instagram

 

1. Showcase Their Personalities

Watch for the things that make your child unique. Do they like to make certain faces? Do they get food all over their faces when they eat? Catch those fleeting moments. Also, be sure to take pictures from different angles.

 

  

 

2. Show The Interactions

Are the grandparents over? Is baby playing with the dog? Is the dog napping near baby? Or is big sister reading to him? Get those pictures and don't let those interactions slip away.

 

 

3. Details... Details... Details...

Catch all the small details. Just as wedding photographers do detail shots of rings and the wedding dress, make sure you do the same with the photos of your kids.

 

 

Here are a few ideas for capturing detailed shots:

• Baby toes
• Smiles
• Pudgy little faces & dimples
• Adorable Handmade clothes 
• Story time
• Selfies
• Activities - with little friends, family and events.

 

4. Edit Away

Editing your pictures will make them pop. They will be even more brilliant with the right filters.

 

Check out a few of these editing apps:

FREE Editing Apps -                   

PS Express

Snapbucket

moreBeaute2

PAID Editing Apps -

Picfx

Afterlight

FREE Word Overlay Apps -

Color Cap

Overgram

PAID Word Overlay Apps -

WordSwag

Now all you have to do is play around with the apps and your images. In no time you will have awesome print & share worthy pics.

 

5. Share The Cuteness

Share your pictures with others so they can enjoy them as well. Send texts with pics to family and friends.

Create a hashtag for your kids and use it whenever you share your photos on social media. So, if your family and friends want to see more they can search your hashtag and find more pictures.

 

 

We live in a digital age, where most of our photographs are online and on our mobile devices. That’s both a good thing and a bad thing. 

It's a good thing because it’s much easier for us to get our pictures printed than ever before and it’s super easy to add a personal creative touch to them. It's a bad thing because having your photographic memories stored on a machine leaves your memories susceptible to that machine having problems and crashing. Make sure you have a backup, not only on a computer, but also on a hard drive or cloud.

6. Print Your Photos

And, lastly, get those pictures printed. Printed photos look awesome! And of course, you will want to display them everywhere!

There are so many exciting things you can do with your Instagram pictures. Have your memories made into pillows and blankets, as well as magnets and mugs.

You can even make a memory book. There are many different companies out there that will print Instagram style books. They also offer other creative things for you to make with your Instagram pics.

Here are a few companies that offer this service:

• Shutterfly
• Printstagram
• Printicular (Walgreens)

All in all, when your child is grown up they will thank you for capturing their childhood. Especially in such a unique way.

 

Huge thanks to Jessica Handy for allowing us to use her lovely photos.
www.jesshandy.blogspot.com