Plan to take purposeful pictures of your kids

Take some advice from this grandma.

Photograph your kids. Regularly. Weekly, monthly or annually.

Document their growth, their personalities and their smiles.

Make a plan to get the camera out — and stick to it.

I wanted to do this starting 30 years ago, but I was never fully successful. Life gets in the way. But don’t you let it.

Now that I have two grandchildren, I’ve been thinking again about this idea.

This past summer we added to our collection of black-and-white photos of four generations of women on my mom’s side, beginning with my mother as the toddler in the first picture and including my 1-year-old granddaughter in the recent four-generation portrait.

Family documentation also has been on my mind this year because of the acclaimed Richard Linklater movie “Boyhood,” which was filmed over the course of 12 years with the same cast. The boy in the title role grows up before your eyes.

And in November, New York’s Museum of Modern Art and photographer Nicholas Nixon published a book of his black-and-white photographs of his wife and her three sisters. “The Brown Sisters: Forty Years” is a collection of these annual photos, always shot in the same order from left to right, of Heather, Mimi, Bebe and Laurie. The images reveal much about these women, though we really only know their names.

Then, of course there’s the oft-viewed four-minute YouTube video made by Frans Hofmeester, a Dutch dad who filmed his daughter each Saturday morning from birth until she was 14.

And perhaps you’ve seen online the project called “The Family is an Ongoing Series.” Zed Nelson took the same photo of a family every year beginning in 1991. It’s dad on the left, mom on the right and son in the middle, sprouting up between his folks. Interesting parental changes are documented, too.

This is not difficult. You can do it.

Heck, you can let other people do it for you. Color photos with Santa Claus and school portraits are an option. I have collections of this sort, as do most parents.

Birthdays, the first day of school and holidays are easy target days for photos. I tried shooting photos on these days, too.

But consider this:

Pick a season each year when you bring your kids outside, take a picture and print it up in black and white. It doesn’t have to be taken in the same location, they don’t have to be dressed up and they don’t have to smile.

Everett freelance photographer Annie Snodgrass Mulligan, the mother of a toddler and a newborn, thinks people should be relaxed about such a project.

“Don’t wait for the perfect setting or until your house is clean,” she said. “If you want to take on a long-term posed photo project, at least don’t stress about the details.”

Mulligan encourages people to produce black-and-white photos.

“That way the kids’ clothes don’t have to match and the viewer focuses much more on the faces,” she said. “But, also, we see constant technical changes in color photography. A black-and-white presentation ensures that your photos taken over time will mesh well.”

With small children, be sure to get down on their level. Take full-body shots or fill the frame with just their faces. Or both.

Treasured family photos, taken randomly or deliberately, are a great source of joy, Mulligan said. “So be sure to back up your photos, especially those taken with your cellphone.”

Yes, cellphone pics. If you have the advantage of good outside light, you often can get pretty crisp photographs, she said.

Upload them to your computer and then email them to Costco or other photo service with your print order.

Mulligan also suggests exploring photo book options offered by online companies such as Shutterfly and Pinhole Press.

Photo books make great gifts, but framed photos can be a centerpiece in any home, said Doug Gemmell, owner of Anabel’s Framing in Everett.

Consider where you might hang the photos and your home decor style. Is it a modern, rustic or formal? Framing should look appropriate within the surroundings. Seasonal family photo displays are popular, too, Gemmell said.

Just this past week, he framed a set of photos taken each December for 12 years of a child sitting on Santa’s lap.

“Santa has to be in color,” Gemmell said.

However, for serious black-and-white photographs, Gemmell usually suggests simple black frames with off-white mats.

Photos in an annual series also can be placed in large frames with multiple mat openings, or in a shadow box with spots for baby shoes and graduation tassels, he said.

“But most people are not that organized,” he said.

Fair enough. I wasn’t that organized. But you can be.

So, young parents, get out your cameras and go make a treasure.

Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @galefiege.