Yeah, but they’re very careful to stop spiking the lens. Most people’s desire to be in the newspaper overrides their desire to keep looking at me once I tell them not to.
And besides, I usually try to take the picture before they notice me and then introduce myself with “Hi, I’m with the News, can I get your name?”
When we were taking a group photo of our NROTC drill team, young men aged 18-22, the photographer told us to say “pussy”. Naturally, natural laughter.
Personally, I use a squeaky yellow duck. For hard cases I have also a baby one. It’s too stupid and cliché not to smile.
Its hard to get a good, natural smile out of people. For kids what I do is stand behind the photographer and whack my head going “ouch, ouch, ouch”. Always gets a good smile.
For adults sometimes you have to tell them to lose their smile and try again because tensing and relaxing the face muscles sometimes gives a better result.
I’m one of those people who has a very difficult time producing a smile on command.
I’m also an amateur photographer who sometimes does family portraits. I virtually never tell people to smile. Often, I don’t even tell them when I’m taking the picture. My opinion is that natural-looking portraits are more likely to occur when people aren’t trying to smile. Now if smiling comes naturally to them, that’s fine–but it doesn’t come naturally to a lot of people.