A Cute Baby Photo Contest Could End Up In The Movies
September 8, 2009
Have you ever wondered where they find the cute kids who feature in movies and advertising? Are they related to the director or the adult actors? Well the truth is it could just as easily be your cute kid in that movie, if you are prepared to put in the work and take some really great photos of your baby. A cute baby photo contest is a brilliant entrée into the showbiz world, if that is what you’re after for your child. Start by entering one of the monthly cute kid contests and you could find your child called up for a casting in New York for a nationwide advertising campaign.
If you’ve got twins and triplets, you know how much hard work goes into raising them. But if you’re tempted by the movie business that hard work and love could pay off in a big way, because identical twins or triplets are in huge demand for photo shoots and movies. You can keep an eye on all the latest casting calls on www.thecutekid.com and send in your kids’ photos to the casting agents, as well as to the photo contests and give your kids a chance to be discovered.
There are a few things to bear in mind before your dreams of fame and fortune for your kids start you planning out your big night at the Oscars!
• First of all, most castings take place in the major cities, with New York and LA top favorites, so it helps a lot if you live within easy distance.
• Second, your child needs to have an out-going temperament to enjoy this sort of activity. Kids only look good in photos when they’re having fun, so if your child doesn’t like bright lights and talking to strangers, then they are unlikely to shine on the casting circuit.
• Doing the rounds of the castings can be time-consuming for you as well as your child. You may have to wait all day to be seen and end up being disappointed, as only one child will be chosen at the end, and it may not be yours. Go for fun and be prepared to enjoy it as a day out and a chance to meet other Moms and kids. Let your child think that it is a fun day out, and don’t weigh him down with too much expectation.
• The starting point for these all-important castings is a set of great photos of your children that really show their personality. Even if you don’t end up on the casting circuit those photos could win you prizes in the monthly and annual photo contests, so it’s worth spending plenty of time photographing your child with that in mind.
There have been some amazing success stories of kids who have started off winning a cute kid photo contest and gone on to featuring in movies. So indulge your dreams a little and start taking pictures of your kids. You never know what might happen and in the mean time you can have the fun of the photos themselves. After all you already know that your child is the star of the show!
There Is No Age Gap Between The Unborn And Baby Photo Contest Genre, Enter As Soon As You See The Second Blue Line.
August 24, 2009
My baby boy, Aiden, turns one year old tomorrow. I can’t believe how time flies. One year ago this very minute I was begging a doctor to admit me and start my epidural. Twenty hours later I finally got to hold my beautiful baby boy. While I was collecting pictures to display at his party I came across many of my pregnant belly that filled the gap in my memory about the unborn baby photo contest I entered.
I think pregnancy is a beautiful, magical time. It thrills me that they hold pregnant belly contests; it’s a real moral booster. I watched my previously twenty-five inch waist expand to a whopping forty-eight, if it weren’t for the sweet adoration that most people give that growing bump I would have cried even more as I outgrew the maternity clothes meant to house it.
My husband took pictures all through nine month waiting period, but around month six I found a very amusing contest that encouraged entrants to compare their bump with their spouses. I had already asked my mother for a photo shoot of us so we could show our son how we happily awaited him. After dozens of photos I convinced my husband to bare his belly against mine, resulting in our very favorite photo from that time.
Bumping bumps.
In fact, my aunts displayed a very large copy at my baby shower and just about everyone begged for their own copy. I even entered it into the contest, but the winner’s had a photo where their bellies matched inch for inch. There are other great traditions for pregnant belly as well, decorating it or making a cast, they are all just fascinating.
How many contests can you enter with a popped out belly button and pants that won’t zip? Not many. If you run across one, whether you are barely showing or about to burst, enter and show off the little one that is on its way.
Just like with the baby, every day provides new and wonderful opportunities to capture memories. You may not think right now that you will want to remember the days when you didn’t fit behind the steering wheel, but trust me someday you will. Even if it’s not until your own little one is having a baby, you still have to take the picture today before the moment is gone.
Enter A Child Photography Contest – A Fun Way To Improve Your Skills
August 18, 2009
None of us need an excuse to photograph our kids. They are the reason in themselves; from cute babyhood when every smile just has to be recorded, to the emerging characters of toddlers and the gap tooth grins of growing children. Sometimes it’s nice though to have an extra reason to put new photographic skills into practice; to take photos of your kids for a specific purpose. If you’re intent on improving your photography skills then it’s a great idea to think about entering a child photography contest.
There are lots of cute kid photo contests about. Online you can probably choose from hundreds. If you look carefully you’ll find that some are genuine contests with experienced expert judges and worthwhile prizes, while others are barely disguised attempts at marketing products, with the products themselves as prizes. Others will offer prizes of say a voucher for a canvas print.
It’s up to you to decide what your priorities are when you decide to enter one of these photo contests. If you’re just doing it for fun and to improve your photography, then the prizes aren’t important, but it does make sense to choose a contest where some sort of photographic quality standards are used in the selection process. Look for contests that explain their selection criteria. Photos may be short-listed by experts and then voted for by the public, or judged completely by a panel of photo industry professionals.
Once you’ve picked a contest that you’d like to enter, have a look at previous winning photos and see what makes them stand out. Besides the cuteness of the child’s face and expression, look at the light; often soft natural daylight falling from one side makes for a photo with winning appeal. How are the kids dressed in the winning photos? Often simple but pretty clothes enhance the cute kid factor. Probably the most important element in a child portrait is the eyes. Look at any portrait and you’ll notice that the eyes are what draw you in. So when you’re taking photos of your child make sure that you get their eyes in sharp focus so that you can catch the sweetness of their expression.
Most photo contest have monthly divisions and then the winning photos from those go into an annual contest which has the grand prizes. This means that you can enter every month to stand a better chance of winning. Challenging yourself to produce a great picture to submit every month is a great way to add motivation to work on your photography skills. Start with a basic online course and use the photo contests as a reason to keep photographing your kids and trying out new ways of using your camera. After all, you already know that your child is the cutest kid in the world. The challenge is for your photo skills to show that to the world!
You Don’t Have To Enter A Beautiful Baby Photo Contest To Have A Fun Modeling Shoot.
July 31, 2009
This weekend someone sent me a link to YouTube, which of course led me to click on more video clips. It is like the perfect pick-me-up, a one minute video clip can have you laughing for hours. My friends and I still chuckle about Charlie Bit My Finger and we all saw if for the first time over a year ago. One of the clips I just saw was the winner of a beautiful baby photo contest bouncing through her photo shoot and I was inspired.
My son is only a year old, so I am currently doing mostly paparazzi photos of him. I take pictures of whatever he is doing and try to catch great shots because he is at that age where posing him, or saying “Give me a smile” is a lost cause. I realized that I missed the fun I used to have with my niece and nephew when I babysat. So having a few days free, I packed up Aiden and drove to New York to surprise my family.
Everyone was thrilled when we showed up, since we don’t visit very often. I got my niece and nephew really riled up and we all piled into the play room because it was raining. At ages two and three, they are thrilled to be the center of attention. My mom and I both got our cameras out and started taking pictures of the little wild ones.
Lately Aiden’s favorite activity is crawling under and over anything so unsurprisingly he started going under the art table and peeking out before he’d loop out and do it again. Dylan and Madie grabbed all their new toys to show me and started posing with them. Dylan, all boy, all the time, started hunting imaginary animals with a squirt gun which at some point turned into a whole cowboy ensemble.
Aiden watching his cousins
Madie started by mimicking her brother, but soon added heels and hats from her toy box and tried with all her might to get her swimsuit on over her jeans. I did little prompting, I just sang songs with them and asked what they were trying to be and went with it. It was a cross between a New York photo shoot and show and tell and it was thoroughly entertaining.
Just like the little YouTube model, the kids were having a great time in their element, and Dylan and Madie were able to give me very cute, very real poses. I printed a trio of peeking pictures before I left; Dylan peeking over his gun, Madie from under her hat, and Aiden from beneath the easel which made the most adorable collage. If your little ones are old enough to ham it up, grab your camera and give them an hour of your attention. You will probably end up with tons of contest worthy photos, even if that’s not your intention, it’s not a big leap from pretending to model to actually modeling.
Your Cutest Baby Pictures Could Win Big in a Photo Contest
July 28, 2009
Every Mom knows that her baby is the cutest baby ever, we don’t need to win a photo contest to prove that to ourselves! Submitting photos of our kids to some of the top online photo contests can be fun though and, more to the point in this uncertain economy, gives you great chances of winning cash prizes. Cash that can start off a savings account for your child and give him a head start in life
One of the biggest online photo contests offers monthly cash prizes, but also an option to enter their annual contest, with a top prize of a $25,000 college tuition fund. Their biggest draw card is that the contests are judged by photography industry professionals, so if you like the idea of your child modeling for photo shoots and earning an income before they’re even out of diapers this could be a great starting point!
The photographic industry is always needing child models. Just think of all the products that feature gorgeous babies and kids in their advertisements and packaging. Casting agents need a constant supply of photogenic babies and very often they look to high profile photo contests to snap up new talent.
Joining the child modeling circuit is not for every baby and mom, but can be great fun if you are both sociable, like to get out and about and meet new people. There will be a round of castings where you’ll meet other moms and babies and have time to chat while you wait to be seen. If your baby is chosen for a job, then you’ll have all the excitement of the photo shoot in a professional studio. You’ll be able to keep a scrapbook of professionally shot pictures of your baby and also start up a special savings account for their earnings. There’s nothing like starting a college fund early!
When our first two kids were babies, we were perfectly placed for them to have careers as child models. We ran a London photographic studio that was hired out to magazines for fashion shoots. Models, casting agents and photographers came through all day long. But apart from the photos that my photographer husband took of them, they only once featured in a professional fashion shoot. The photographer was a friend of ours who they knew, but they were just too shy and didn’t really like being surrounded by the bustle of a shoot, with stylists brushing their hair and arranging clothes. After that we kept them out of the spotlight and just carried on taking lots of photos of them ourselves.
So think about your child’s temperament if you’re considering child modeling for them. Outgoing children who love being the center of attention and thrive on new environments will love it, shy stay at home babies won’t. My daughter, once an unwilling, red-cheeked-from-teething, baby model, is now nine and wants to be a photographer herself. She obviously always knew which side of the camera lens she should be!
Whichever type your child is, enter their photos in a cute kid contest anyway. You can enter every monthly contest for free and only pay an entry fee to enter the big prize, once a year contest, if you want to. If you’re lucky and win a cash prize you can start building up a savings account for them, to start them on their future careers one day!
Child Photographer
