Photography Tip: Get in the shot!

If you're anything like me, you absolutely LOVE taking pictures of your family. You're the mom (or dad) lugging the camera to the ball games, the birthday parties, the family get-togethers, and everything in between. You see the value in memory keeping, in capturing your family's best and worst moments, and preserving them for years to come.

The only problem with this scenario, is that you are often the one behind the camera, and therefore rarely featured in your family's day to day photographs. Maybe you hand the camera over to a stranger for a couple shots at the beach, or maybe you take one family shot for the Christmas card each year, but how often do you make it a priority to include yourself in the "ordinary" everyday shots: trips to the park, reading bed time stories, baking cookies, playing board games, etc....

I am personally not a huge fan of my camera's self timer. I've tried it before, and the results were less than stellar. I'm also not very good at the whole "self-portrait" thing.......I never could quite master the mysterious/sultry look or a carefree/uncontrived smile. So instead, I've come up with a couple creative ideas to get myself in front of the camera. After all, when my children are older and looking back on our family photo albums, I want them to remember what I looked like, I want them to remember that I laughed and played and got dirty and chased them and pushed them on the swings and cheered them on, I want them to remember that my smile was always the biggest while being with them.

TIP #1: Find a reflective surface and get the whole family in the shot.

Look for pools, lakes, ponds, mirrors, etc...
A few weeks ago, we were playing at the park, and I noticed this giant-reflective-fish-eye-mirror-thing. I immediately made everyone stop playing and pose with me for several (ok, like 25) shots. I'm thinking Christmas card photo in the making :-)

TIP #2: Hand your camera over to one of your children. 

OK, so this one is not always easy for me (my kids are only 3 & 5), and I have a pretty nice camera (and I would like to keep it that way). BUT, I took the time to give a little lesson on camera safety, and I make sure the camera is always within my grasp should it become necessary...........

Exhibit A

After a couple hundred frames, you just might get a few keepers:

Taken by Grant (age 3)

Taken by Sienna (age 5)

I could not love that photo any more!!

So go get in the shot....your family will thank you for it!

Watercolor iMovie

I played around a bit this weekend with iMovie and a few of our pictures from our recent vacation to Watercolor, Florida. I've made a few of these videos before, but never tried sharing them on my blog or on YouTube, so hopefully this works........ Enjoy!!

life through my lens

I have been in a bit of a "big camera" rut lately. I just haven't felt like lugging the big one around, and as a result, I have taken a LOT less photos than I normally would. BUT.....lucky for me, my iphone is almost always within arm's reach, so with the help of a few apps, I have managed to get a few shots I might not otherwise have gotten.

my sweet boy & I at his school's Mother's Day breakfast

(horrible photo of me, but it's the only one I have)

making pizzas with the cousins

3 trips to the dentist & still no cavities!!

date night to watch the Mavs win!

bringing gifts to his teachers on the last day of MDO

"School's Out for Summer!!"

Teacher Appreciation gift for an amazing teacher!!

field trip to the gentle zoo

an impromptu run through the water park

our first visit from the tooth fairy

donuts in the park on a Saturday morning

and a little swingin' to round out the weekend

Obviously I could have gotten much better "quality" photos with my DSLR, but the important thing is that I captured the memory......forever, and because of that, these moments will never be forgotten.

clean color

I have been following Erin Cobb's blog "The Pig Bear" for quite some time now (still not quite sure why that's the name of her blog??). She is a talented photographer, an amazing mom, and a witty, inspiring blogger....my kind of girl!! So when she finally released her Clean Color workflow video, letting us in on all of her secrets for photo editing, I knew I had to grab it fast. I started watching the video today (it's over 2 hours long, so I still have a ways to go), and then I grabbed a photo from last week's snow day and tried out a few of her tricks.
I still have so much to learn, and I literally did this edit in less than 5 minutes, but I am already so excited about the possibilities!!

BEFORE

AFTER

Not a huge, huge, change....just a little brightening up (and snow photos are notoriously difficult), but for a five minute edit, I am pretty happy with the results. Here's to more learning!!

the delete button

So after reading this post over the weekend about editing/deleting photos off of our computers, I decided I needed to get busy!! This is a topic I actually think about quite a lot...........the vast amount of photos I take, the amount that I still need to have printed, the number of photo albums I have filled, etc... And the question I keep coming back to is, "How many photos do I really need in order to tell the stories I want to tell?" There may be instances when I need to keep 30 photos of the exact same pose, but most of the time, when I keep that many photos on my hard drive, or worse yet, put that many in an album, I am actually decreasing the value of that story.

There will never be enough time in the day to scrapbook all of our stories, and that is exactly as it should be. I want to spend most of my time being in the moment and only some of my time recording them. But, even when I simply put photos straight into a photo album, I want those albums to tell a story as well. I want there to be just enough photos to capture the memory, but not so many that it becomes boring or redundant. And for me, that means I need to get a little more comfortable with the delete button on my computer.

That means that starting today:
1. When I upload new photos to my computer, I am going to be ruthless in deciding which photos to keep and which to send to the trash bin.
2. Once I have decided on the "keepers," I will give those photos an Event name.
3. I am going to upload new photos at least once a month to Costco, have them printed, and immediately place them in a photo album (I will keep out the "best of the best" if there is a story I want to scrapbook........not necessarily the best quality photos, but the ones that will best tell the story)
4. As for the older photos, I am taking a little time each day to start at the beginning, and delete at least 40 photos.

I feel lighter already..........

save-the-date

A few weeks ago, our good friend and favorite babysitter asked me to take photos for her Save-the-Date cards. I happily agreed, and we were able to venture out last weekend and get some really great shots. These are not the ones she chose for her cards (I will let her reveal those), but I thought I would share a few of my personal favorites from the day.

I had so much fun at this shoot....it reminded me how much easier it is to take pictures when the subjects are not toddlers :)

photo shoot round 1

So I mentioned before, that I am taking an online photography class. It is actually an advanced course, and I am quickly realizing that I am WAY out of my league!!! However, I have decided not to let myself get intimidated or overwhelmed, and instead just try to really learn from the instructor and from the other amazingly talented women in the class.

What I have realized over the past couple years is that photography is hard....like really hard!! I have studied and read and taken courses and practiced and practiced, and still I feel like I just can't quite get the hang of it. It has actually been a great life lesson for me, to keep plugging away, to try not to get discouraged, to keep learning, to enjoy the process even when I feel like throwing my camera across the room :)

Our first assignment in the class, was to push ourselves to find interesting locations or to use fun, new props....to get out of our comfort zone and to try some new things. So yesterday, I staged a little photo shoot with Sienna, and let's just say things didn't go exactly as planned :) I haven't posted my photos for Assignment 1 yet, because I am hoping to try again this afternoon, but thought I would post a few of my favs from yesterday's shoot here on the old blog. (In case you were wondering, the "fabulous location" is just outside our front door and the props are the lollipop, blue bench and colorful play suitcases)

I couldn't resist posting that last one.......that was how about 99% of them turned out :)