Easter is upon us, and as well as being a religious celebration plenty of people all around the world enjoy the occasion with lots of chocolate Easter eggs.  It is a big tradition in many parts of the world so much so that some adults arrange Easter egg hunts for the children.

An Easter egg hunt is where adults will hide eggs (sometimes painted eggs, sometimes wrapped chocolate eggs) and children are invited to discover these and collect them in their basket.  It becomes like a treasure hunt that’s fun for adults and children!  Some people organize hunts in their own home and garden, sometimes local venues and parks will arrange an Easter egg hunt.
Whatever you decide, make sure you are well equipped to take some photographs!

1.    Bring in the landscape

Easter egg hunts will be outside the majority of the time so make sure you make full use of any us landscape that you have.  If you are in a park or garden, capture the lush green grass or pull in any trees.  You can also use plants to draw some kind of perspective into he image – for example, a little child next to a big tree can give a unique, fairytale like look to the image.

2.    Use Color

Easter Egg hunts can be colorful things – since they take place in spring, flowers are usually starting to bloom and the eggs look bright and colorful. Therefore think of ways to draw in the bright colors and make the image look interesting.

3.    Group and Solo Images

Try to photograph kids in a group or by themselves.  If you have a relationship with one of the kids you can of course ask them to pose for you – ask them to smile, to run, to jump but when you have a group of kids, you can also shoot their puzzled expression as they look for things.

Take both a wide angled lens and a standard 50mm lens for close ups.  There won’t be time for a tripod as children tend to run around, so make sure you have a fast lens and if necessary a flash gun with a diffuser attachment added on the end of it to soften the effect.

4.    Safety

Whenever you photograph children that aren’t yours you must always ask permission from the parents.  If you are going along with a group of friends, they will know what you are doing but if there are strangers there and their kids, do tell them what is happening and what you are doing.  If they don’t want their child to be photographed, then make sure you avoid them.

Also make sure you are with a group of adults as well as children – whenever you are in a large space with small kids, there must be enough people to keep an eye on them especially if you are concentrating on taking pictures.

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