It’s not easy to get great photos of your kids. They are constantly on the move, they haven’t quite perfected the art of smiling and your house is cluttered with so much crap, it seems like the mess in the background is always distracting from the subject.
What’s a mom to do?
I have a suggestion. Take some photos of your kids during bath time. They are contained, usually against a simple white background and if your kids are anything like mine, there are many smiles to be found.
Baths are some of the most joyous and imaginative moments I have witnessed, especially when Mazzy and Harlow take a bath together. They splash around, play mermaid, beg for more bubbles, have tea parties on the ledge and love to pour water on each other’s heads.
Last month, I attended a seminar given by JOHNSON’S® that showcased their new global campaign, SO MUCH MORE™, and how multi-sensory opportunities in your bath time ritual could aid in your baby’s development. I learned that bath time is about touch (infants who experience routine touch and massage are 50% more likely to make eye contact) and smell (familiar scents have been shown to improve mood and alertness). According to research, bath time activities, like playing with bubbles, can help with hand-eye coordination and show babies that items exist even when they can’t be seen.
I find bath time to be one of the more low stress parenting moments since the kids are totally occupied. I can play with them and use it as an opportunity for some great mommy-daughter time, or I can let them play together while I casually observe.
Until the actual washing part— they both still need my help with that.
While they play in the water, I love snapping a few photos. They can’t run away, they’re in a bright clean environment and they are almost always doing something adorable.
Here are a few tricks for taking creative bath time photos, along with some of my favorite bath time photos on Instagram. Thank you to the people who let me use their photos— I encourage you all to follow and get inspired by these great photographers!
1) Shoot from down low
If you want to make sure your kids are decently covered in their bath time photos (so they don’t haunt them later), the best way to do this is to get down on the floor and shoot up. This obstructs your kids’ bodies with the side of the tub and puts the focus mainly on their little faces.
Photo: @mommyshorts on Instagram
2) Leave a lot of white space
Bath time photos often look best when the bathroom is all white. Don’t be afraid to crop the photo so that you leave a lot of tiles above your children’s heads.
Photo: @haleykjar on Instagram
3) All that white space is a great opportunity for some color
Don’t worry about removing bath toys and towels from the shot. Often, they make for great pops of color.
Photo: @littlemissparty on Instagram
4) Try an aerial shot
Hold onto your camera extra tight for this one, but some of my favorite bath time photos have been when I am holding onto my smart phone precariously over the water. You can get some great angles of your little mermaids this way.
Photo: @churchill_chris on Instagram
6) Just Add bubbles
Bubbles make kids smile, look great in photos and are another way to cover up.
Photo: @samanthapierson on Instagram
Plus, they can make for some really fun framing.
Photo: @mommyshorts on Instagram
7) Use the ledge
If your kids are anything like mine, they like to line up all their toys on the ledge of the tub. These often make for some really fun photos.
Photo: @mommyshorts on Instagram
Try playing with perspective.
Photo: @mommyshorts on Instagram
8) Go black and white
I don’t know why, but bath time photos often look great in black and white. If you don’t have a pop of color and everything is white and skin tones, try seeing what happens when you take out all the color altogether.
Photo: @ruffledsnob on Instagram
9) Stick as many kids in the tub as possible
Twins, siblings, cousins… more kids means more expressions, often bigger smiles and your best chance of getting a framer.
Photo: @micharlivy on Instagram
10) Do some crazy hair stuff
The fun is just beginning when the shampoo makes an appearance. If you work the lather just right, you can create mohawks, pompadours, and unicorns.
Photo: @popsicleblog on Instagram
Photo: @bart_vrdrn on Instagram
I like to call this one the “Harlicorn”.
Photo: @mommyshorts on Instagram
Today, I’m giving away a JOHNSON’S® prize pack with their signature Baby Shampoo & Conditioner, HEAD-TO-TOE® Wash, NO MORE TANGLES® detangling spray, Baby Bubble Bath, Baby Soothing Vapor Rub, Calming Lavender scented Baby Shampoo and JOHNSON’S® Baby Powder.
JOHNSON’S® has the only baby shampoo with the NO MORE TEARS® formula, which is as gentle to your baby’s eyes as pure water. It leaves hair looking shiny, feeling soft and smelling fresh. In 2014, JOHNSON’S® transformed their products to remove formaldehyde-releasing preservatives and reduce traces of 1,4 dioxane. The newly reformulated JOHNSON’S® Baby Shampoo is also paraben-free. For more information about the brand and its product offerings, visit www.johnsonsbaby.com.
Just tell me your baby’s favorite part of the bath time ritual in the comments below.
I’ll pick a winner on Friday!
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UPDATE: Congrats to Alison Cupernall, whose girls pretend that they are making milkshakes in the tub, Janine, whose daughter likes to play “Naked Parade” on the way to the bathroom, and Jenny, whose kids like to play with the bubbles in the bath! You have each won a JOHNSON’S® Prize Pack. Please contact abby@mommyshorts.com to claim your prize!
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This post was sponsored by Johnson’s Baby, but all thoughts and opinions are my own. To learn more about the SO MUCH MORE™ campaign and JOHNSON’S® Global Bath Time Report, follow #SoMuchMore and visit www.johnsonsbabycare.com/somuchmore.
MY 2.5 Y/O SON LOVES TO PRETEND TO SNEEZE AND HAVE THE BUBBLES GO EVERYWHERE!
Tea parties! Every night. And Jilly likes to hide plastic spiders under the bubbles to scare her sister with.
the BUBBLES!
Watching my boys pop bubbles is so fun! The way my oldest can make his younger brother belly laugh is the best!!
My kid loves doing “duckie splashdowns” where I pretend the bath toys are doing high dives into the bath.
My son’s favorite part of bath time is putting his toys on the ledge and then smacking them into the water for a gigantic SPLASH!
My boys love their baths. Their favourite part of bath time would either be adding the bubbles or the splashing. I close the tub doors and let them splash around ‘like Dolphins’. Love all these bath time photos. They are canvas worthy.I have lots but these tips are wonderful. I can’t wait to capture some more memories using these tips and get some canvas worthy photos of my own. Thank you.
My 2 year old son Ryan loves stacking bubbles on his head. We recently visited family in Colorado and now he calls a big mound of bubbles “snow” so he makes himself a snowman by lathering on the bubbles!
My boys love to slide down the slanted back and crash into all the duckies!
6 mo old Eliza loves to sit in my lap on the edge of the tub and look at herself in the mirror while the tub fills up!
My first granddaughter is due soon, we fell in love with the Johnsons new bath time commercial. I’m looking forward to learning to bathe a baby again!
My kids favorite part of bath time is bubbles. Always the bubbles! 🙂 They pop ’em, they make beards out of ’em, they create streams of bubble-less water and drive their bath toys through ’em!
How exciting to have won, thank you so very much!
I love watching my 4 year old play “mermaid” and watch as she tries to swim in 5 inches of water. 🙂
My son loves to play with the water coming out of the faucet. He splashes around in it and uses it to fill cups and make water falls! He’s so adorable!
My 2 year old loves helping wash her 4 month old sister!! They’ve recently started taking baths together. It’s the best how “helpful” she is!
He loves the bubbles, but I think his favorite part is squirting me with water and hearing my reaction. His laughter is so adorable and contagious that I can even bring myself to make him stop! 🙂 I’m excited to try some of your photo tips- thanks!
Both my kids love splashing in the tub. I just throw an extra towel down on the floor when they get in to try to soak up most of it.
My baby’s favorite part of bath time is throwing her toys out of the tub! It makes for some soggy bath mats, but her giggles are worth it!
she loves to swim like nemo!!
My son’s favorite part of bath time is splashing. He also loves scooping water into a bucket with a toy shovel.
I love the videos I can get of my 3 year old singing in the bath tub…must be the acoustics in there or something but she loves to sing in the tub.
My one-year-old LOVES grabbing the shower hose and letting mommy have a bath too… Every. Single. Time.
My 10 month old loves to lean back on daddy’s knees in the water and kick his legs until he splashes himself in the face! He laughs and laughs then does it again. Those chubby-cheek grins with those tiny two bottom teeth sticking out are priceless!
My 14 month old son just loves bathtime. I really loved this article because I always take photos but can’t post bc I think they are inappropriate, so I love the shoot low tip. I’m going to try tonight. He loves splashing, bubbles, dumping water with the cup, throwing his toys, playing with his big boat and most importantly trying to get mommy wet!! It’s my favorite part of the night!
My 2 year old son loves to fill his cup up with water and pour it out. My four year old daughter love making bubble beards or hats and “swimming”. 🙂 My kids hear bath time from any place in the house and come running pulling off their clothes!
My son loves to splash in the water! He fills cups with water and forcefully splashes it down into the water, onto the walls, onto his toys, his hands, etc. The bigger the splashes, the better! (I won’t let him splash with the glass doors open, so he requests “Doors closed!!”)
my favorite thing about bathtime with my toddler is we sing silly songs after she is clean. Wheels on the bus, twinkle little star, and itsy spider are her favs.
Once the little one is done with his bath, my 3 1/2 year old likes to stay in for a few more minutes to ‘swim laps’ (it’s a regular size tub).
My daughters favorite part of bath time is trying to drink the water and then pouring it out on the floor.
My 7 month old loves to kick in the bath! We just moved him out of the baby bath and into the tub. He loves it!
my boys love the tub, especially with lots of bubbles and splashes. i am usually more soaked and sudsy at the end than they are. when the baby gets out, my 3 yo gets to “swim” when the water is draining. he loves it. he practices what he learns in swimming lessons-even if it is in inches of water.
My 16 month old loves to slurp up the bubbles. Yes, it’s kind of disgusting but hey, it makes him laugh. The more I tell him not to, the more he does it and laughs!
My boys both loving pouring the water on each other and shaking their heads around! Also, bath time has turned into dinosaur time where all their toy dinosaurs roam the tub and swim in the water.
She loves the massage that comes before it – like in her 6 month old little head, I think she is definitely the queen of the mermaid universe and has decided that my sole purpose in life is to rub olive oil down her slinky little baby back and baby bums. You would not find grown-ups having massages with this much ‘relaxation’ in the most expensive spas of the world.
My daughter loves to splash water everywhere – mostly outside the tub. This is my least favorite part of bath time
My son loves me to line of his toys on the ledge so he can knock them in!
My girls love to bake cakes in the tub!
I love the time out with my five year old. Like you said, they’re contained and not flying about the house like rabid squirrels. Also, listening to her play, the imagination she has amazes me like no other. It’s always facinating to sit back and watch without her knowing I’m watching. You don’t get those times back, I’ll take them all.
My girls love to have a tub full of bubbles and splash each other. Of course, the more toys the better! They are never ready to get out!
My daughter LOVES bubbles. She is so happy at bath time, and I love hearing her giggle 🙂
My daughter (3yr) and son (1.5yr) love putting bubbles on their face and calling themselves Santa!!
My daughters have been playing rescue lately. Ariel rescued Prince Eric from Captain Hook’s boat. They love bathtime!
Can you please tell me what the cupcakes are in your first pic? They are so cute! We’ve never done tea parties in the bath but I think we will try that tonight.
My son will practically drown himself pouring water over his head or drinking it. Cups and bowls are a must at bath time!
Mine love filling and pouring water out. I put a wire rack in the tub so they can have a surface for the cups that is not the ledge where things can fall off of. For some reason, they love to stay in the tub and stomp and smack the last bit of water in the tub at the end.
playing with their sibling in the bath.
My daughter loves adding the bubbles while the water is running. Then at the end of bath she makes a big production of “saving” all her toys from the drain as the water is draining. And all the parts in between (except getting her hair rinsed) 🙂
My 2.5 yo son loves throwing ALL of his bath toys in the tub at once, and then makes them “swim” all around him.
My grandson, Matthew, loves to play with cups in the bathtub. He practices filling them up and dumping them out. He also loves chasing his rubber duckies.
My husband bought a bathtub soup toy. My kids LOVE making suds soup with the plastic vegetables floating inside the plastic pot. Of course everyone within earshot has to come try their creations!
My daughter loves making new scenarios with all her toys. When she was younger, the first time I noticed it was when Zurg (from Toy Story), was trying to save Rapunzel from drowning but was having issues because he didn’t want to get his cape wet. Now, she does full blown theatre productions. Bowls are props and Ariel makes ‘potions’ in them, cups are boats – and all of this is done while she’s belting out Fleetwood Mac’s “Little Lies”, which she translates into “Little Eyes”.
It might not be original, but my boys love to play “Santa” with bubble beards! They also love to splash so much that I need to mop the floors…
My 7 month old loves to splash! Tub, pool, it doesn’t matter, splashing is happening!
Emi’s favorite is drawing, writing or scribbling on the walls … often we’ll find little love notes from her left behind. She’s older now – nearly 8, so after a particularly difficult day, it’s nice to see she loves us 😉
Putting the foam fish/star on their bellies instead of the wall. Especially since “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” is a current twin favorite.
My daughter is OBSESSED with the water flutes we got her for Christmas.
The BUBBLES!
My son (3 yo) loves to pick up the bubbles and blow them. And he loves to practice to “swim” in the tub along with his dolphin, crab, duckie and octopus.
My son loves to pull the stopper out!
I have a boy and girl twin and they bath together in the tub. They love going face down and pretend swimming….. So cute to watch…
My son loves to “swim” in the tub and just float. It seems to relax him. He also loves to pretend play and act out scenarios with his toys. His imagination works overtime during bath time, it’s amazing to watch 🙂
Our 6 week old is still getting used to the bath, but she is already starting to love splashing around with her hands. Getting her all snuggly in her cute towels afterwards is personally my favorite part!
My three boys love bubbles and making themselves beards like their daddy! Then they “shave” their beards like daddy!
My boys love to stand up and dump water on themselves. And the splashing each other is hilarious. They giggle so much in the bath!
My sweet ladylike little 17 month old princess goes bananas if she happens to fart in the tub and sees or feels the bubbles from it. Then I can see her straining really hard to try and do it again. Classy little munchkin.
My son lines his police cars up along the tub and uses boats to create an “emergency”, then wouldn’t you know, the cops come splashing in to save the day!
My 3 year old loves the bubbles! She likes to make “bubble soup” or puts them on her face and pretends she is Santa.
My 9 month old boy, Sam, just simply loves splashing in the water during bath!
My little man loves having the water poured on his body. He makes it a game with daddy and points to different locations to have water poured on. So cute!
My girls love to pretend they’re making milkshakes in the tub! They make up the craziest flavors and add some bubbles to the top for whipped cream. The first time they pretended they were smoothies and I loved it when my youngest responded with “disgusting!” because how could you use fruit instead of ice cream… that’s no special treat in her book.
My 10-month-old is confused by loud noises, so as the water fills up the tub, he stands (naked) and “growls” at it!
The tea party is my 3 year olds favorite part of bath time! My 3 month old LOVES a massage while in the bath!
My 2-year-old loves to pretend he’s about to let all the water out. Every time he does this though, he’s reminded that fun bath time will be over and quickly returns to his second favorite bath time hobby: getting me and the floor as wet as possible.
With my 8-month old, he loves it when I shampoo his hair cos that’s when I massage his scalp. He relaxes so much he nods off to sleep! A cooperating, non-splashing baby in a bath! Imagine that!
With my 3.3yo, it’s when she “floats” and splish-splashes like a mermaid. 🙂
When we get the bath crayons out and make the bathtub look crazy. It’s been so cold this year so we have been coloring flowers around the tub. (:
My son’s favorite thing to do is splash water out of the tub!
My favorite part of bath time is when my two year old “gives his 4 month old sister a bath”. He likes to rub her belly and clean her hair like a responsible big brother! It’s all fun and games until he washes out the bath soap off her body and she swallows water! Oops!
My 2 year old daughter LOVES to play with a submersible bilge pump my dad got her to play with in the tub. It’s also my favorite ‘mommy hack’ as it makes rinsing hair so easy! It’s like a mini garden hose in the house! We also attach a few different nozzles to the tubing and she plays with the different patterns of water that come out. She’ll scrub the walls with her washcloth & rinse the “dirt” away with her hose, knock her toys off teh ledge with the stream of water that comes out and filsl up bottles to dump them out!
My favorite part is when my 3 year old “swims like a mermaid”. She used to hate to take baths until I convinced her that she could be a mermaid in the tubby! Now, she LOVES bath time!
When my 17 month old wants to splish splash. The whole bathroom gets wet but she has a blast!
Sam (21 wks) LOVES his inflatable book of under the sea animals. He “reads” it, eats it, and splashes it around!
My girls love making bubble and playing with the crayons so that they can color all over the walls and tub!
Warren has taken to “swimming” in the tub. We have a super deep Jacuzzi tub so he’s pretty spot on with his diving technique. Elie likes to turn the cold water on right about the time Liam gets close to the spigot… it’s actually quite funny because I’m pretty sure she does it on purpose to see him squeal!
I bath my one and two year old together and their favorite things to do in the tub is to kick their feet back and forth while sitting to splash me. Also they have a little toy octopus and my two year old loves to pretend it’s a spider and toss it at me to make his sister laugh. We love bath time!!
Best part of bath time for me is when they’re all clean and they smell just right! They’re favourite time is the bubbles….of course!
My children love bath time! They’d spend hours in there if I let them. Our favorite part is at the end, before I wrap them up in their towels we check to see who is the “most
pruny” while they compare fingertips. They also love when I carry them both out of the tub simultaneously…all 60 pounds of them. Thanks for the opportunity!
My 15 month old grandson loves doing the backstroke in the tub!
My 1.5 year old son loves baths, although he will NOT sit down!!! He likes playing with the water as it comes out of the faucet, and fills up cups of water that he tries to dump outside the tub!! He also likes to hit the water with a plastic baseball bat!
My toddler loves to get naked before bathtime. He can do it all by himself now and that’s the only time I will let him!
I love the post-bath, wrapped in a towel, still warm cuddles!
Both of mine love playing with washcloths.
OUR 3YR OLD DYLAN HAS A BEW RITUAL. HE LOVES TO BATHE AND HELP CLEAN HOS NEW BABY SSTER. SHE IS ONLY 4MONTHS OLD BUT IM EXCITED FOR BATHTIME FUN. NO DISTRACTIONS JUST THE TWO OF THEM. SHE SMILES AND WIGGLES HER FEET AND HE CRACKS UP ABOUT HER “SWIMMING”
My 3 yr olds favorite part of the bath time ritual is probably at the end when she fills up some of her buckets and sits in the empty tub for a few last minutes, and blows bubbles in the buckets, pours water from one to the other, and finally pours them on her belly.
My little ones love the bubbles. My son will scoop up a handful of bubbles and hold it out to me; I’m supposed to blow on them and make them scatter around the tub. Then my daughter has to try the trick. They also both like putting various bath animals on the toy speedboat like they’re driving it.
Our little cowboy is 8 months old and gets his baths in our farmhouse sink…his favorite thing to do is pee as soon as his little feet hit the water! Then he just laughs while I hold him and drain and re-draw his bath water. he is ALL boy 🙂
My son’s favorite bath time ritual is for him to toss all his bath toys into the water, and then have me “toss” him in!
My 5 year old son has learned that he can take Legos into the bath and will play in there for ever till I force him to get out.
My 5 week old daughter just loves to lay in the warm water and look around…she is a very fussy baby and bath time is her happy place.
Pretending we’re at swim lessons and going under for diving rings. Oh, and peeing down the drain as the water is emptying :/
My son loves to play in the bubbles and write on the wall with his bath crayons. He also loves to watch the water go down the drain!
Both my kids love the bath. Currently their favorite thing is splashing each other with water.
Setting out all their toys on the rim and playing princesses and ponies!
Hands down my kids love the bubbles the most! Bubble beards, bubble bellies, taking piles of them and blowing them into each other. It’s hard to get them clean while any bubbles are left!