Camera Ready: How to Shoot Your Kid

Rating:
Summary: A reader from California
Review: I love photographing children and found this book to be very inspiring. I purchase this book as a gift for every friend or family member who has a baby, and I always receive rave reviews. This book is about inspiration and getting your children to a place where they are comfortable and familiar with having the camera around. This way you will have candid photographs of your children where they are natural and unaffected - by capturing their true essence. ... By following Arthur Elgort's simple advice, my photographs of children have improved tremendously.

Rating:
Summary: I do not recommend this book
Review: I was looking for specific advice about "how to shoot" my kid (photographically). I did not get it. This book REALLY IS just a photo album of the author's own kids. While some people may be able to infer how to achieve great photos of their kids by looking at Mr. Elgort's photos, I needed more "how to" instruction. There is very little text in this book at all and I felt the title was misleading. If you are looking for excellent instruction on how to photograph your children (babies in particular) buy HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH YOUR BABY by Nick Kelsh, a far superior book which I bought after trashing this one.

Rating:
Summary: A reader from California
Review: I was looking for specific advice about "how to shoot" my kid (photographically). I did not get it. This book REALLY IS just a photo album of the author's own kids. While some people may be able to infer how to achieve great photos of their kids by looking at Mr. Elgort's photos, I needed more "how to" instruction. There is very little text in this book at all and I felt the title was misleading. If you are looking for excellent instruction on how to photograph your children (babies in particular) buy HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH YOUR BABY by Nick Kelsh, a far superior book which I bought after trashing this one.

Rating:
Summary: More of an inspirational source than a "how to" book
Review: I've been a photographer (professional, at times) for a long time, so I didn't need a book on selecting film and shutter speeds when I adopted my new son. I needed something that would nudge me out of the "dad with a camera" cliche, showing me how to capture the inherent beauty of my son.

Elgort's book did just fine.

Some have complained that this is "nothing more than a photo album of his own kids." Well, in a way it is, but that's what makes it useful and inspirational. Everybody has the potential to take bad photos, and everybody has the potential to take great photos. To see a highly-respected professional photographer include a few "duds" among his favorite pictures makes one put things in perspective. To see that even a highly-respected fashion photographer includes among his favorites some of the "cliche" beauties (kids and food, bare buns, sleeping babies) is to get rid of some of the anxiety parents have about taking only "perfect" pictures. If we only took perfectly-planned and executed pictures, we would inevitably lose some of the priceless, unplanned gems we get when we shoot more freely.

Elgort delivers his lessons with humor, and that's important when you're photographing kids; no kid is going to put up with a sour, all-business geek with a camera!

I like the book, and I think it's a useful tool for parents who would like to take better photos of their kids.

Rating:
Summary: Learning by Doing
Review: This is a fantastic book that I return to again and again for inspiration. Granted, there is not a lot of text, not a lot of "how to". But, as with anything one tries to do at a high level, photography is mostly art and not science. You can read lots of books with f-stop measurements, shutter speeds, etc., but those won't teach you nearly as well as looking at good pictures, and taking lots of pictures. Elgort's text provides the basics, all one really needs. By studying this book, you get the same lessons as Kelsh's book: Get Close, Study the Light, and Use Lots of Film. You don't get to be a great music composer by reading books on composition, you get better by listening to music and studying scores. Most "how to" photo books are like reading books on bicycle riding -- this book has you actually get on a bicycle and ride. In addition, Camera Ready is a beautiful coffee table book -- the subtitle "How to Shoot Your Kids" also gets a lot of smiles.
By the other reviews, I can see that this may not be a book for everyone: not for techie photographers, not for absolute beginners, etc. But with a little knowledge, this book can really help you with your most important pieces of photographic equipment: your mind and your eye.