California commercial photographer Amy Cantrell, who teaches workshops and conducts seminars both in the United States and abroad, used her Tamron 18-250mm lens to zoom in on the excitement of this special day. “This lens offers you the flexibility of taking a wide-angle shot of your kids and then pulling them in as close as possible,” she explains.

The action and photo ops begin way before the first bell rings. “Kids like to show off their back-to-school outfits,” says Cantrell. “They’ll be excited about their new school clothes and probably won’t mind modeling them for you. Backpacks are a big deal, too, especially if they picked out new ones for the upcoming school year.”

You can even use these accessories to distract kids who might otherwise be reluctant to sit in front of the camera on such a nerve-racking morning. “Put your child in a room where there’s some decent available light and not a lot of distracting elements, hand him his backpack, and ask, ‘How many pockets are on your backpack?’ or ‘How many zippers does the backpack have?’ Get him playing and interacting with it. Then either catch candid shots with him examining the backpack, or, as he’s checking it out, ask him questions so he’ll look up at you, or do something silly to make him laugh.”

For older kids who might not be as keen on showing off their designer duds or counting the zippers on their backpacks, evoke the same natural expressions by using more high-tech methods. “Try to get them in a nicely lit room and let them do something that they usually do—texting a friend or browsing through their iPod playlists is perfect!” says Cantrell. “After a few minutes, once they’re absorbed in what they’re doing, ask a question so they’ll stop and look up at you. You can zoom in on their face and crop out their hands and the electronic device they’re focused on.”

It’s in these situations where the 18-250mm lens comes in especially handy. “If you were working with a short lens, you’d have to be there right on top of your kids,” says Cantrell. “It’s nice to have a little distance so they aren’t as aware of you. You can be across the room and still zoom in on their faces.”

Remaining nonintrusive is, in fact, the key to getting great portraits and candids despite those first-day jitters. If you want to get truly natural expressions, you could try initially photographing something in the same room as the kid, suggests Cantrell. “Maybe you’ve got the kids playing on the floor and you’re thinking it would be such a cute picture, but you know by the time you get all the way into the room and set your camera up, they might notice you and start posing or wander away,” she says. “Instead, go into the room and start photographing a vase or some other object. Out of the corner of your eye, keep watching the kids—at the perfect moment, you can turn and grab a few photos without having any kind of forced poses.”

But even though you don’t want their nerves to overwhelm them, you also don’t want to totally eliminate all of your kids’ nervous energy. Cantrell recommends channeling some of that anticipation by getting them to be active and zooming in on their expressions. “I like to get the kids having fun so they don’t feel self-conscious,” she says. Using a wide aperture to blur out the background will allow you to zoom in on their excited expressions as they goof around in front of the swing set or run around the yard before the bus pulls up.

Keep the mood light by experimenting with different angles and getting a variety of shots. “Get down and lay on the grass with them, roll around—be silly,” Cantrell says. “You can also shoot up at them a little bit, which is a totally different perspective. Shooting down on kids is also a flattering look. Plus, you as a parent are usually staring down at your child, so it’s a common stance for you to be in. The important thing is to mix it up.”

Once you’ve put the kids on the bus, your back-to-school photographic duties aren’t over. If your little ones walk to school, you could follow behind them and snap a few images, or even get them standing in front of the school gazing wistfully into the schoolyard. Capture them running off the bus at the end of the day, playing with friends after school, or even doing their homework. In fact, because this could be an all-day endeavor, it’s important to know how to use the different types of light to your advantage.

“I would definitely try to shoot either early in the morning or toward the end of the day,” says Cantrell. “Natural light is great for shooting kids if you’ve got good light. But if you do find yourself in a bright-light situation, try to find a shady area so it’s not so harsh. Or look for an area where your house or the school is casting a nice fill—if you’re in front of a white building, for example, that can help reflect some of that light back on your subject.”

Using flash can also assist during tricky lighting situations. “If you’re zoomed in with a lens like the 18-250, you might be at f/5.6 on the telephoto end,” says Cantrell. “Flash would help you bring in a little more light during lower-light situations because you might not be getting as much natural light as you’d like. Plus, flash will help you freeze the action if it’s later in the day and the kids are playing in the yard after school, for example.”

When it comes time to hit the books later that afternoon or in the early evening, position your child in front of a window for a natural-light homework shot. Cantrell offers one caveat, however: “If you put a child right in front of a window and there’s a lot of light coming in, your eye will focus on the child and see her despite the bright light. A camera doesn’t work that way—it sees the bright light, and the child goes dark. In situations like that, understand what you see isn’t necessarily what you’re going to get.” You can up the ISO if necessary to combat light that’s starting to wane—you won’t get as much noise and grain shooting with today’s digital cameras.

It’s important that you keep clicking away all day long. “During the days of film, you wouldn’t want to waste a picture if your kid was making a funny face at the camera,” Cantrell says. “Now, to get them to loosen up, they can make that funny face and then laugh about it afterward—and when they’re laughing is when you can get the shot you want.”

The most critical factor for all parents who are photographing their kids on the first day of school, however, is to make sure the photo shoot isn’t uncomfortable. “If you’re frustrated with your equipment and with the kids because they’re not doing what you want them to do, that just sets you up for failure the next time you try to take pictures,” says Cantrell. “If the kids experience that frustration, it just gives them a vibe of ‘this is no fun; this makes Mom stressed out.’ Make sure everyone’s having fun, and your pictures will reflect that.”

For more on Cantrell’s photography, go to www.amycantrell.com.