Your kids are adorable, right, so you want to take lots of great photos of them. But the lighting doesn’t always cooperate, or you don’t know the best angle to get the shot. Luckily for you, Vegetarian TravelingMom Judy Antell went to a Techlicious Lunch and Learn where she gleaned photo tips and tricks. She shares her advice, so you can click away and take the best photos of your children.

Smile and Say Cheese

With a smartphone in hands, almost anyone can take high quality photos of their children. And who doesn’t want to capture family vacations?

At a recent Techlicious Lunch and Learn, attendees saw and tested new stand-alone cameras rivaling pro cameras. And I learned the new iPhone X has image stabilization and light projectors that make photos sharper. But even with an older model of an iPhone, there are easy ways to up your photo game. Just follow these five photo tips and tricks to get better pictures of your family or family vacation – no expensive camera needed.

Five Photo Tips and Tricks for the Best Pictures of Your Kids

1. 1. Use Burst Mode to ensure you get the shot. Don’t miss that great smile or expression! The Burst Mode enables you to take multiple shots with one press of the shutter button. Start shooting when you anticipate the action and keep going.
   2. Use HDR mode for composed shots. Ever wonder what that HDR button on your iPhone is? It stands for high dynamic range. In this mode, your camera takes two or more shots at different exposures and then combines them so both the light and dark areas of your shot are properly exposed. If there’s any movement, though, the shot will be blurry.
   3. Use a flash in bright sunlight. This may seem counterintuitive, but it is the best way you can get rid of shadows. Faces often look dark in bright scenes because the camera adjusts its exposure to the brightness around your subject. You can have your subject face into the sun for more light, but then you’ll wonder why everyone is always squinting in your photos. Instead, have them face away from the sun and use the flash to brighten their faces without the squint.
   4. If you are taking photos indoors, use your blinds as a diffuse light source for portraits. This eliminates harsh shadows. Pose your children near a window with the blinds closed for better lighting.

1. Taking pictures of an infant or pet? Get on their level to capture the best shot for your DIY gifts and seasonal cards. [This changes when your kids become teens and tower over you].

Shooting video? You need a steady hand

If you want to take videos without making viewers dizzy, it’s easy. Just put your phone in a Tiffin Steadicam Volt to keep it from bouncing. The $199 Steadicam can hold any size phone, with or without a case, and the app works with iPhones or Android phones.

Photographing your food

We learned these photo tips and tricks over a yummy vegetarian lunch at, of all places, Quality Meats. To be clear, everyone else at my table had meat. But though I was a little worried about vegetarian options at a restaurant with meat in the name, I needn’t have been concerned. We had hors d’oeuvres of roasted beets and appetizers of salads, crab cakes and sashimi. (I eat fish, so technically I’m a pescatarian.) For a main course, they served more fish, and so many sides that even if I didn’t eat seafood, I would have been stuffed.

Low cost storage

If you are taking a lot of HDR photos and using the burst mode, you can quickly hit your storage limit on your phone and/or computer. The Kwilt Shoebox gives unlimited storage so you don’t have to pay for premium dropbox or more cloud storage. The tiny device, which requires downloading a free app for  iPhone or Android, is $49.99. If you are traveling and left the Kwilt connected to a router at home, you can transfer on the go and free up space.

Note: I was a guest of Techlicious at the Lunch and Learn, and was given a steadicam to try. I was not otherwise compensated. And I did enjoy a great vegetarian lunch. Opinions expressed are my own.