If we’ve learned anything from Hollywood’s recent penchant for pairing muscle-bound leading lads with toddlers, it’s that taking care of tykes ain’t easy.

But if you think changing diapers is the hard part, just try getting one to smile on demand.

We’ve already shown you how to get adults to smile, so here’s a quick tip for the little humans in your life.

1) Acquire PEZ dispenser. 2) Carefully cut away at the bottom with an exacto until it’ll slide into your camera’s hot shoe. 3) Train camera at unsuspecting child. 4) Capture a rare moment of unexpected joy.

Mix and match dispensers for variety, and take a gander at the how-to pics by Federico Sartorio for the details. [via reader sarah lee]

Tell us your favorite way to get kids to smile!

In the Forum… Share your best photo of something green, tell us what music gets you snapping, talk about the NYC photo ban, and more…

What could be better than gazing longingly into a glass of white wine?

How about gazing into that same glass and seeing someone gazing right back at you? :)

That might sound a tad creepy now, but take a closer look at our awesome photo wine glass photo frames and pretty soon you’ll be scowling, growling, and grinning… whatever it takes to make the perfect cup-bottom portrait.

Wine glass photo frames are a cinch to make, but the amusement is endless. Read our tutorial to find out how!

p.s. Help spread the word: Digg this tutorial!

So we were walking around Toys R Us the other day, something we do pretty frequently, and we discovered Crayola Color Wonder. It’s this new coloring book-like thing with markers that only work on special Crayola paper… paper that doesn’t let you color outside the lines.

That made us a little sad, especially coming from Crayola.

Coloring books are one of the great joys of childhood, and we think every child should have the opportunity to scribble outside the lines, on the lines, or even on the walls (just once.)

Luckily, you can still buy regular old-fashioned coloring books. Heck, you can even make your own! In fact, Photojojo friend Karina Benson has a great tutorial that shows you how to do just that in three simple steps!

Coloring Pages from Your Photos [via Lifehacker & Parenthacks]

p.s. Check more by Karina on Photojojo: Photo Toys and Photo Gifts for Dad.

In the world of flashy big-budget blockbuster viral marketing ploys, there are winners and there are losers. (We had high hopes for the Conan O’Brien-style “If they made it” babymaker game for Knocked Up. Alas, it disappointed.)

The new site promoting next week’s silver-screen Simpsons debut? A winner.

Upload a frontal portrait, push some buttons and pull some levers, and facial-recognition software goes to work. Soon enough, your fleshy visage is converted into a flat, yellow, cartoon version of yourself!

Note: The site’s quite busy. We needed to visit several times to get it to work.

Still, it’s the easiest way to find your way to Springfield. Unless you already live there.

The Simpsonizer

p.s. Visit the forums today for a fun secret giveaway. (We’re not gonna give you any hints… Ok, maybe just one… Mooooooooooo…)

So you’ve got one o’ dem shiny new iPhones and you’ve been pinching and flicking and browsing and occasionally even making phone calls all week.

What next?

How about some killer custom contact photos? We adore these trapped-inside-the-iPhone style contact pics we found via our pal Brad Smith.

If you’ve got a Jesus phone, grab a friend, gently prod them face-first into the nearest scanner (or glass door) and get going! (And if you have a friend with an iPhone, be sure to forward this along.)

The technique yields amazing smooshed contact photos (”smooshtacts!”) for an iPhone, but it also makes a great background pic for any other mobile phone.

Astronauts have it tough. Sure, they get to float in Zero-G and wear cool spacesuits and drink all the Tang they want. But we all know it can be lonely out in space. We feel for you, space men. (And women.) So we’ve thought of something that would help: giant binoculars. You know, so you can see us down here waving at you.

Fortunately for those astronauts, we’re not the only ones down here trying to make the world a little less lonely. Flickrvision swoops around the Google globe Superman-style, pausing every few seconds to show a photo that somebody, somewhere in the world, uploaded to Flickr just minutes ago.

People all over the world take photos, and Flickrvision tracks the worldwide photographic zeitgeist.

Our recent world tour showed us an adorable couple at the Great Wall, mermaids on parade at Coney Island, an Italian castle, and a hummingbird in Ohio. Wouldn’t that make the cold, vast, emptiness of space feel a little bit more warm and cozy?

Flickrvision

p.s. Turn Flickrvision to 11: try the new 3D version and hit the full-screen button.
p.p.s. From the makers of Flickrvision, comes Twittervision!
p.p.p.s Make Flickrvision your screensaver!

Nothing will ruin a shot quicker than on-camera flash.

Unless you’ve got an SLR, though, indoors you usually have no choice — it’s either shiny and straight-on with flash, or dark and blurry without.

No longer! Meet our newest friend: The German-engineered Metz 28 CS-2 Digital Slave Flash. (What will the naming geniuses at Metz think of next?)

Here’s how it works: The tiny Metz is an external flash that runs on AAAs. As soon as your camera’s own flash fires, the Metz fires, too. Automatically. Without wires. Within milliseconds. (Speed of light and all that.)

Since it’s far, far more powerful than your on-camera flash, your room fills light, and photos look, well, normal. Since it’s wireless, you can detach it and put it away from your camera, hold it in one hand while you take a photo with another, point it back, up, down, whatever. It’s even got a handy fold-up sliding rail that screws into your tripod socket.

We’ve been playing with the little guy for a couple weeks, and we adore him. (See sample shots.) If you want better indoor shots and don’t have a hot shoe on your camera, you’ve just found your solution!

Metz 28 CS-2 Digital Slave Flash
Thanks to Ben for tipping us off in the forum.