You might have seen that Kensington Palace have released the first pictures of Prince George with his baby sister Princess Charlotte. Pretty much most people’s initial reaction to the snaps will have been the same – “awww, wook at the wikkle baby” etc. – which will then have immediately been followed by a very different thought, namely “how on earth did they get two tiny children to pose so nicely?”
Of course, it’s easy for a baby to lie still for a while – it’s kind of what they do – but anyone who has ever tried to frame the perfect shot of a toddler will understand the frustrations that undoubtedly befell their mum as she took the pictures. Whether it’s shifting around like they have ants in their pants, being distracted by…well…pretty much everything, demanding food/a book/CBeebies be turned on or producing a tidal wave of snot from their nose on demand, small children do not make the easiest photographic subjects to work with.
My 18 month-old Elsa will only pose for photos if they are taken using the ‘selfie’ function on the iPhone, where you can see yourself as you take the picture. However, for some reason, her favoured pose is with her mouth wide open, seemingly hugely intrigued by what is in her mouth. My phone photo library is stuffed with pictures like this:
I notice the royals decided against that particular style of portrait.
William and Kate are clearly coping with a second child perfectly well if they have time to spend waiting around for a toddler to pose nicely, even if he does look a little like he’s saying to her “you’re alright sis, but make sure you don’t annoy me because I will literally be able to send you to the tower in the future.”
On a side point, Elsa appears to have worked out that the video baby monitor means that we can see her downstairs, quite often sitting up in her cot and looking directly at the camera at the end of a nap and informing us that she would like our attention. In fact, this morning I noticed that she had woken and, as I entered the nursery, she stared at the camera, babbled incoherently and gestured in my direction, as if she was a chat show host introducing her next guest. Of course I’ve never seen the episode of Parkinson when a celeb makes his way onto the stage, blows a raspberry on Parky’s tummy and then changes his pants, but it may be on YouTube somewhere.
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