Holiday mornings are hectic, don't miss these Easter picture ideas for capturing your family celebration. Grab the free printable checklist so you don't miss a moment.
When it comes to shooting holidays, I feel like Christmas gets all the attention.
Easter is actually one of my very favorite holiday to capture. I love everything about it -- the pretty pastel colors, the overflowing containers of flowers, the swirly dresses, the bunny ears.
Today I'm sharing my favorite Easter picture ideas for capturing your Easter festivities with the kids.
40 Easter Photos to Take of Your Kids:
Whenever I'm documenting a holiday, the first thing I think of are all the little details that go into the planning of it. If you closed your eyes and imagined what "Easter" looks like, which symbols pop into your mind? For me, it's all about bunnies, eggs, baskets, flowers, and candy.
Church and the true meaning of Easter is also very important to us, but our time spent in worship on Easter morning is not a place I feel comfortable bringing my camera along. So for today's tips, I'm focusing more on the secular images of the holiday.
Things to Capture Early Easter Morning:
Easter Photo Props
Easter jammies:
We always splurge on matching Easter jammies for the photos during our egg hunt. For years I bought them at Gymboree, but this year I was able to find adorable matching nightgowns at Target.
Bunny ears:
I bought 4 pairs of these when the girls were itty bitty and we've used them every single year since! You can find all different colors and styles of bunny ears here. When we're not using them, the girls love to put them on their stuffed animals as "Easter decor." ha! Check out Louey the Giraffe sporting a pair in one of my all time favorite Easter pics here.
Easter baskets:
Do you buy new baskets every year? We don't. I splurged on cute ones a long time ago and we use them over and over again. There's something that makes my heart happy about seeing the same prop used in the pictures over the years. It's the ones table thing compared to the change and growth I see in my kids.
Details to Capture Later in the Morning
Before the Hunt: Try to get one staged photo of the kids with their baskets before they are off and running for their eggs. To help overcome their excitement, tell them they can each pick out a piece of Easter candy as soon as you've got your picture. Bribery at it's best.
With their candy: Which is the piece they grab first? The chewy yellow Peep or a fistful of jelly beans? Take a picture of their choice either in their hand or as they devour it. You are sure to get awesome happy expressions here.
Hunting for the eggs: This is the hardest of photos to capture since they'll be running all around. I try to plant myself in the center of a room where I have good light and wait for them to run past me rather than try to chase after them. If you're really planning ahead, try to let the Easter Bunny know to hide the eggs in the best lit rooms!
"Show me!": My favorite trick for getting cute Easter morning pictures is to pause the kids from their frantic running around by asking them to show me their eggs. They'll either hold up their most recently found one or show off their entire basket before scrambling off again. To get them to slow down even more, ask them to count how many are in the basket.
Playing with their baskets: This works especially great for the tiniest kids. I loved capturing shots of them pulling out the goodies from their baskets.
Reading Easter books: Tim captured one of my favorite Easter pictures one Easter Eve -- me reading The Country Bunny and the Golden Shoes to the girls before bed. When the egg hunt is done, prop your kids with their favorite Easter picture book and have your oldest read it to the youngest. Or even better, you pop in the picture too and pass the camera over to your partner.
Tips for Capturing the Easter Eggs
Egg dying is one of my favorite holiday activities. I just love all the colors. Don't wait until Easter morning to get all the pictures of your kids, capture some of the Easter prep work, too!
Kids dying eggs: This is the obvious shot but have some fun with it! Pull back and get the whole scene but then get in closer and capture details of their hands dropping the eggs into the dye. Experiment with different angles. Get shots of each of your kids separately but then also as a group.
Detail shots of the eggs: I love how pretty the eggs are as they dry. Capture detail shots of them in the dye cups, drying on the rack, and the light shining through the dye.
Personalized eggs: We always write each family member's name on an egg with white crayon. Once they are dyed and dried, capture photos on Easter Day with each kid holding their egg.
Eggs on platters and in baskets: I have a special egg platter we display them on the Easter table, but I also love seeing piles of eggs inside an Easter basket.
Taking Pictures of Easter Outfits
I'm obviously a Girl Mom, so all my examples here are of little girls in Easter dresses, but I can imagine all the Boy Moms out there could pull off something similar. Nothing is sweeter than little bow ties on young men!
Head outside: If the weather permits, try to capture the outfits outside in natural light. Some of my favorite spots to look for good backdrops:
- Our own front porch
- The neighborhood landscaped corners
- The front of our church
- A local greenway where we went for our own "Easter parade" stroll after lunch
Groups + Singles: I always capture both my girls together but then take a second to try to capture a portrait of each of them individually as well. As they get older, it's not so often where they are dressed up and picture-ready.
Full body + close-ups: To make things go quickly, I'll do the full-body shot of the kids together as a group but then get closer for the individual pictures. It's nice to see their whole outfit and a little scenery in the pulled back picture, but I really want to see their pretty eyes and smiles close up, too.
Get in the picture!: If you don't have anyone to take a whole-family picture of all of you, take turns with your partner and pop in the picture too. Tim was sure to capture my girls and I wearing our Easter bonnets and I just love the photo.
Don't Miss Capturing the Connections
The heart of any holiday is the family and friends you spend it with. Don't get so busy capturing just your kids that you miss out on the special moments of the day.
Cooking the holiday feast: Who's in the kitchen helping out? My mom makes killer deviled eggs, so I caught that simple picture of the Peanut eagerly waiting for the first batch. Tim is the glazed ham expert, so of course I had to capture him carving it for the table.
Snuggles and hugs: Be on the look out for affection and capture that. On our puppy's first Easter, the kids wanted to make sure to include her. You'll also likely spot kids snuggled on laps and on couches. Don't be shy about prompting affection, ask the kids to give Grandma & Grandpa hugs and kisses and capture the looks of delight on everyone's faces.
Holding hands: Even smaller bits of connection can make for really memorable photos. Especially when the hands are from different generations.
Cheek-to-cheek: When I'm capturing my kids together, they know I love it when they get in close and touch their cheeks.
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