Kids at play offers photographers endless opportunities for creative engagement. The multitude of emotions kids go through as they go about playing — delight, joy, anger, annoyance, excitement, fear, disappointment — serves up a great palette for the photographer to choose from. Combine that with the dynamic nature of play — movement — and there is no dearth of creative challenges. To capture those fleeting moments a photographer simply needs to be just as engaged as the kids, alert and absorbed in the moment.

Making good photographs of kids is challenging because they don’t generally sit still which means that the photographer — assuming she wants to capture the best angles and the best light — needs to be just as nimble as the kids. And that alone makes it great fun to make pictures of kids at play. The photographer gets to play and be a kid herself! 

I made these images of a friend’s daughter when they visited us a couple years back. She was, and still is, a firecracker — bustling with energy, curious, and so full of life — and she had taken a fancy for the kitchen playstation. During the whole time she was at our place she was not interested in any other toy. When the family left after dinner, it felt like the calm after a storm. I missed her but also realized how much fun I had all day, thanks to her, playing with her and making pictures of her at play.