Birthday Party Picture Taking

[clouddancer]

Figured this place of the forums would be the best place to ask.

In a month, my first born, Atrus, is turning 5 and we’re having a birthday party. This one is bigger than the last few because he’s made friends at Day Care and we’re planning on inviting them. Since it’s blatantly obvious to anyone who knows me, it goes without saying that I’ll be photographing the goings on of the party. It’ll probably entirely entail playing on the park’s playground, but I’ve an idea for water balloons (if the other parents give the okay), and I’ll come up with a few other ideas of stuff to do.

1. Would any of the parents object to my taking pictures of their kids during this, and if so, how do I handle it since it’d be nigh impossible to single that kid out of all the pictures to comply? Should I try to photoshop them out?

2. Knowing me, I’ll want to post the pictures on Facebook, and I’ll probably want to post a blog of the best pictures. As parents, I’m sure some would have reservations about this (rightly so). Its not like my blog gets any major traffic anyway, but once they are out there I recognize they are impossible to stop from floating around. Do I ask their permission for this as well? Should I have a form for them to sign about it? I figured I’d at the very least upload to a private album for the party which would allow it to be acceptable by only direct link and password, so if they want to see them that way and have copies, I could always e-mail them the link if they leave their e-mail address.

It’s way too early to be fretting about this, I know, and I’m probably making a mountain out of a molehill, but I don’t want to be seen as some perv because I’m taking pictures of my kids birthday party and other kids happen to be there.

If you didn’t wade through all the tl;dr part, short question is: What is the proper etiquette for taking pictures during a birthday party when its my kid’s party, and what is okay to do with the pictures I’ve taken if I want to post about the party or something like that?

Blah, even that was long. Sorry.

[Farktographer]

It’s your kid’s birthday, take all the pictures you want. Parents have been doing this since cameras became convenient – I don’t think people had to sign consent waivers when I was growing up to let my dad take pictures of everyone at the birthday party. The thing that has changed since then is the convenience with which the pictures get distributed online – before posting pictures of the kiddos, I’d ask permission. If one of them has an issue with it, then simple cropping or photo-editing them out would probably suffice if you want to share pictures of the group. I don’t think many parents will have a problem with this, though.

I was the default photographer for my niece’s birthday party. I took hundreds of photos, and sent them directly to family only. I left it to my brother and sis-in-law to distribute those photos to their friends as they saw fit, and if I were to post them later for a contest, I’d ask the parents first.

[CauseISaidSo]

Pretty much what Farktographer said. Don’t worry at all about taking pictures, everyone’s going to expect it and it’s your son’s party. I shot pictures of all of my son’s football games last year and posted them on my website. I never asked anyone’s permission (other than the coach to be on the field) and I never got any complaints. Quite the opposite – lots of parents expressed appreciation for making the shots available for them to send links to their friends & relatives.

As long as you’re not using them for profit or otherwise exploiting them, I think you’re entirely in the clear. And if anyone has a problem with you photographing their child, I suspect they’d be the kind of person to let you know about it right away, if you know what I mean.

[orionid]

I say fark ’em. I take photos of freinds kids (and stranger’s kids at public venues) all the time. Usually the worst I get is an email address and a request for copies.

[soosh]

I have always taken photos of my kids parties and posted them online. If you wanted, you could let people know about it beforehand and offer to not publicly post pictures of their kids if they don’t agree. Or have a sheet at the party where people can put their email address, and you can let them know where the pictures are.

If you offend somebody by posting their kid online, well, frankly, I wouldn’t consider that kind of a person that much of a loss. But by being upfront about it, you can’t be accused of not giving them fair warning as to if they wanted to participate.

I’ll never forget the look of worry and concern on a mom & dad when their son opened the gift my son had been really happy about picking out for him. It was an army jeep and a couple of GI Joes in fatigues. My kid was going through a big stage where he thought army men were cool. The parents recoiled like we’d given the kid bourbon and lucky strikes.

[sleeping]

I usually use Flickr’s privacy controls for stuff like that – I post ’em as private and then create a set with a link that allows anyone with the URL to see the private photos in that set. That way causal browsers can’t find them but they can easily be shared. It also means causal visitors to my photos don’t have to wade through bunches of random family stuff that they don’t care about….

[zincprincess]

I wouldn’t worry about the fretting parents. It’s your party and you can shoot if you want to. If the parents don’t want their kid photographed, the onus is on them to speak up or keep their kid at home. I’ve been to tons of birthday parties for my daughter’s friends, and I’ve never seen this be an issue. It seems like every parent there has a camera and is snapping away.

Although I did have to sign a waiver at my daughter’s day care that allows them to photograph her during day care parties and events. Something about kids with modeling contracts or similar can’t be photographed.

[CauseISaidSo]

I’ll never forget the look of worry and concern on a mom & dad when their son opened the gift my son had been really happy about picking out for him. It was an army jeep and a couple of GI Joes in fatigues. My kid was going through a big stage where he thought army men were cool. The parents recoiled like we’d given the kid bourbon and lucky strikes.

Funny, and I know exactly the kind of parents you’re talking about. I taught a church scouting program with a guy that tried to talk the boys out of making faux guns from Legos during playtime. He was not successful and eventually gave up.

[Author]

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