“The range of the 17-50 lens was just outstanding,” she says. “Even when you went all the way back on it, it wasn’t like a fisheye at all. Plus it was really fast, and the autofocus was spot-on. I was impressed with how quickly it was able to keep up with my subjects.”

The Vibration Compensation (VC) feature on the 17-50mm lens helped keep Mom looking sharp. “I always keep the VC on if a Tamron lens has it,” Wilson says. “I definitely noticed the difference, especially when I had the lens fully extended and zoomed in. It did a really nice job of keeping the focus; my pictures have no blurriness at all.”

The 17-50’s fast response time was critical as Wilson photographed curious children and squirmy babies who could change up planned poses with little notice. “I kept shooting as the babies were crawling toward me, “ she says. “I was photographing this one family at the park, and the little boy simply didn’t want to get in the shot with his mom and the baby,” she continues. “Then, out of the blue, he ran right up to me; I loved that the 17-50 was able to keep up with him and I was able to shoot him real quickly. And I was finally able to get that family shot with him in it a few minutes later.”

Eliciting just the right poses and reactions is simple when you’re doing this kind of portraiture: Just let the mom and her kids interact—everything else will fall into place. “You have to simply let the mother and child sing the songs, play the games,” Wilson explains. “The pictures will emerge from that; posed shots happen organically. Often the moms have to keep picking up the babies and move them around to keep them from squirming and trying to get away. And you, as the photographer, have to also move all around to keep up—get on the floor one minute, up on a chair the next. Just have your camera set on continuous shooting and keep going.”

Being open to whatever unfolds in front of your viewfinder is exactly how you can capture those special “Mommy moments” where the mother and baby naturally interact. “I captured one little boy reading with his mom,” Wilson says. “Then I took a few shots of him dancing in front of a toy bunny. I wasn’t sure what would come out of that scene, but he was so full of energy, it was great. It was definitely a moment—and I just let it happen. Moms know what’s going to make their children happy, and I’m there to show that connection.”

In fact, unlike a lot of other posed child photography sessions where the photographer may pull out props and make silly faces to evoke a response from her young subjects, a Mother’s Day portrait highlighting the bond between mother and child often requires the photographer to remove herself from the action. “The moms really do a good job of keeping their kids entertained—they pretty much forgot I was there,” says Wilson. “I wasn’t trying to make the kids laugh, I wasn’t trying to interact with them or build up any kind of rapport. I was just there to be part of the scenery and get what was happening all around me.”

If you’re shooting kids as part of your Mother’s Day pictorial, aim to start right away in the a.m. “The morning is a magical time to take pictures,” says Wilson. “Life is rich then—if everyone slept well! Don’t wait till midday when the sun is directly overhead and people are at their craziest.”

Besides classic mother-child shots, try to incorporate a tradition, ritual, or other daily routine that’s important to the family you’re photographing—especially if you can capture multiple generations in one shot. “That doesn’t mean you necessarily have to get Mom and Grandma stirring a pot together on the stove or looking at a recipe book,” Wilson explains. “One family asked if I could come at dinnertime and just shoot them eating together. What touched me about their family dynamic is that making a meal at the end of the day meant so much to them. You want to show what your role is to each other in the family—it’s different for everybody, and your images should show that.”

If you decide to concentrate just on Grandma, focus on what makes her special. Wilson did just that with a portrait of her own mother-in-law. “I wanted to show that she’s ageless,” says Wilson. “She’s 71, but she’s very active, she plays tennis. I wanted to photograph her in her element at the tennis court, in her tennis outfit, in this very bright, sunny environment, because that’s who she is. It’s portraits like these that really tell the story of who a mother or grandmother is to her kids and grandkids. There’s a tendency, especially with the older generation, to always go for the serious portrait. Catch Grandma doing what she likes to do best and keep the light bright, natural, and vibrant: What older person doesn’t want to be remembered as vibrant and exuding happiness?”

This segues seamlessly into Wilson’s philosophy on lighting: namely, to keep it as natural as possible. If you’re stuck indoors, make use of the layout of the room you’re in and window light to control your environment. “For the mom and baby sitting in front of the bookshelf, I used a flash and bounced it off of the ceiling,” says Wilson. “If you’re shooting inside and there’s a ceiling that’s not too high, you’re set. If you’re in a brightly lit apartment, however, you won’t need anything but natural light.”

Don’t be afraid to play around with the window treatments to focus the light you need. For a series of shots of her own infant son, Nigel, Wilson took advantage of the curtains in his room to direct the light. “They’re almost like blackout curtains that we keep completely shut when he’s sleeping,” Wilson explains. “If you open them just a little bit, though, you can let this line of light shine through. You can, of course, use fancier lighting setups, like barn doors and snoots, to direct the light, but you can do the same thing with your drapes.”

When shooting outside, look for the best location so that your images don’t get blown out. “We were in the park for a few of the shoots, and it was very sunny,” Wilson says. “Luckily, there were a lot of trees that offered enough coverage so it wasn’t so dappled.”

Consider what you, the photographer, are wearing before you head outdoors for your Mother’s Day shoot. “When you’re shooting in bright sunlight, if you’re close to your subject, the color of your shirt may reflect back onto their skin,” says Wilson. “If you really want to be prepared, wear white. You’ll get a lot of light reflecting back. I was shooting one day and wearing this really bright lime-colored running shirt and wondering what was wrong with my subject’s face. Then I realized what was going on. Alternatively, dark-colored clothing will suck that light away.”

To minimize eye squint on a bright day, ask Mom and the kids (if they’re able to take direction) to close their eyes until it’s time to smile for the camera. “I tell them, ‘Rest your eyes until I tell you I’m ready,’” says Wilson. “Then, when they finally open their eyes for the shot, I tell them to overcompensate by opening their eyes really wide. That overcompensating actually looks normal in this type of scenario.”

Wilson warns not to get distracted by today’s complex DSLR cameras. “There are so many features and options on today’s cameras,” she says. “But when you’re shooting kids and families, you don’t want to miss a shot by jostling back and forth between f-stops and shutter speeds and other variables. Pick one variable you want to concentrate on—say, a high f-stop with the foreground and background in focus, or a shutter speed that lets you capture the movement—and stick with that variable. Let your camera compensate for the rest—it’s work enough to keep up with your subjects and try to come up with great compositions. If you try to do everything, you’ll get frustrated when you miss shots.”

Finally, don’t obsess about getting “perfect” photos of an immaculately groomed mom with an always-smiling brood. “With the digital age, we’re able to delete any pictures where people have their eyes closed or someone isn’t smiling,” says Wilson. “When you look back at today’s photo albums, you’re going to think that everyone was always happy and that their eyes were always perfectly open! But life isn’t like that—keep the portraits that aren’t ‘perfect,’ too, because you’ll always want to remember exactly how things were.”

For more of Wilson’s photography, go to www.emilywilsonphotography.com.