Kidding Around part 3

Alaina with Doe-doe.

I know, I have cute nieces and nephews. It's a curse, but someone has to photograph them.

We were all six years old once - time is short and there's only so much time to play in a given day. So, really, Mom and Dad, who has time for the camera? I have a slight bit of an advantage, because I'm "Uncle Pete" (or in Lily-Bug's case "Uh-oh Pete") and I seem to be a magnet for their attention.

Here's some tips for you while you take pictures of your little minions.

1: Know your camera. I've played with each of the cameras I own enough so that when I grab one, its settings and controls are second nature to me. If you're a beginner here's a few things to get you started.
       - Use "auto" mode, the camera will change the settings for you.
       - Make sure you know how to turn your camera on at quick notice.
       - Be sure you always know how much battery power you have.
       - Also know how much space you have available, nothing is worse than seeing that "card full" icon when you are in the middle of taking pictures.
       - Clear your card frequently, and keep your pictures organized in your computer. (I'll have to do a blog on that.)  
 
2: Take pictures while your kids are playing, reading or not paying attention to the camera. This works great if you have a shy child, or even for adults. So often when we realize that there's a camera on us we put on fake smiles or try to hide away from the lens. The main goal when I'm taking pictures is to disappear, let your subject forget you're even there. Much to the annoyance to my family, the best way I have found to do this is take a ton of pictures when we're together, like these pictures from vacation. After the first day, they get use to the snap of the camera and learn to ignore me.

3: But there's a trade off; what do you do when you take a good picture but it's too dark? - This is a great question, each of the pictures in today's blog where either under exposed or the lighting was bad. This is where Photoshop or some picture editing software comes in handy.

Not everyone wants to invest the money or the time to learn Photoshop, which if understandable. However if you are looking for a free, user friendly, option I would recommend a program called "Photoscape" if you click on the link it will take you to a page for a free download.

Below is one example of a picture, before and after, that was taken as the sun was setting. I felt the picture was too blue, and was loosing the kids faces in the shadows. With a few adjustments I was able to take the cool tones of sunset and make it feel more like the warm summer afternoon that it really was. In the end, I was able to salvage a picture that would have otherwise just been nice to look at, but not really useable. So don't despair if you have taken a picture that you like, but just isn't fully what you want, there are ways of changing it.

In a future blog I will break down the steps I took to correct this picture.  

Before

After

Kidding Around part 2

Precocious 2 year old + breakfast = frustrated mommy. 

Here we have our next subjects. (Much to my sister’s chagrin.)

My niece Alaina is a very busy young lady who has way too much in her schedule to sit and eat breakfast. But for some reason her mommy felt it necessary for her to finish her cereal before she could go play. – A perfect opportunity for a photo shoot. A few tricks to keep in mind in a moment like this.


1: Don’t be a distraction. Try to be a part of the scenery and let them forget you are there.

2: Don’t be afraid to take “too many pictures” Alaina was all over the place, she has a tough time sitting still. So the more you shoot the better luck you’re going to have in getting a good picture.

3: Try not to have a window behind your subject. I would have liked to have them move, but sometimes you have to take what you can get. Work with the situation and make the best of it.

4: Watch your focus. – I love this last picture of Alania with a little drop of milk on her chin. But the main problem is I missed my focus. Admittedly it’s tough to hit a moving target, especially when the moving target is a two year old. – I could have said that this was the “artsy look I was going for” but that would be dishonest. – It is a fun picture though, I’ll keep it.

Have fun snapping and enjoy the simple moments in life; they sometimes make the best pictures.

Kidding Around part 1

This is Lily Campbell, AKA Lily-bug - just a little over two feet high and about 25 lbs of pure cute. Last year on vacation I took a ton of pictures of my nieces and nephews who are more than willing to show off for the camera.

Lily-bug is the daughter of my brother Scott and his wife Margaret, who have three great kids, and one on the way. Over the next couple of days I thought I would do a few blogs on how to take cute pictures of those leg biters in your life who never seem to sit still long enough for you to get a shot.

Tip 1: Take pictures while they are distracted by something else, in this case watching T.V. (Or in Lily's case trying to watch T.V. - Uncle Pete wouldn't get out of the way.)

Tip 2: Good lighting in a house is hard to find, so make sure that they are by a window, to give that nice soft glow. (Ideally it would be to the right or to the left of them, not directly behind.)

Tip 3: If you have an digital SLR, it's really helpful to hold the shutter down and snap off a few consecutive pictures at a time, most often when you are trying to pose pictures with kids you get eye blinks or a funny face (and not the kind you're going for.) By taking plenty of pictures it gives you the option to take out the ones that don't work. - For this shoot I took close the 30 pictures.

Tip 4: Get as close to your subject as possible, most of the time when I'm not happy with my pictures I realize if I only would have gotten a little closer, the picture would have worked.

Happy picture taking!