playdates

My little one has a little friend (with an awesome mom who is my friend too :) ) and when they have playdates they are just the cutest.  I decided to do a post with photos from their most recent get-together. and give you a couple of tips on photographing kids playing together.  I edited most of these in black and white because I really felt like they were crying out to be B&W but I left a few in color if it fit the mood of the picture.

The most important thing when taking pictures of kids playing is to be as unobtrusive as possible and to pick your lens and settings with that goal in mind.  You want the kids to just do what they're doing and not get distracted by you.  When you're with older kids they might even start performing for the camera and being super silly if they're too aware of you which really defeats what you're trying to accomplish--candid pictures of them interacting.

If you're outside I suggest picking a spot where you don't have a lot of things in your field of vision and using a zoom lens--your kit lens is fine!  Don't feel like you need anything fancy.  Use your zoom to capture the whole scene and then to get in close on the details of what they're doing--playing in sand, kicking a ball, gripping the chains of the swing.  You'll also want to set your shutter speed nice and high--800 or higher if there's enough light--so you freeze the action of little legs running and soccer balls in mid-air.

If you're inside, pick a wide angle lens if you have one--I used my 35mm--or just keep your zoom lens zoomed all the way out.  This way when you're in a small room like I was in my daughter's rooom, you can get back against a wall and capture the scene.  You'll still want enough shutter speed to prevent motion blur but since you'll probably need to let more light into your camera it won't be able to be as high as it was when you were outside.  A good rule of thumb is to keep your shutter speed at around 250 to achieve sharpness but still let in enough light.  You might also have to bump up your ISO to 800 or even 1600 depending on the light in the room.  I always try to open blinds and curtains to give myself as much light as possible before increasing ISO.

When it comes to composition and capturing interesting shots try to think about what you want to capture about what your kids are doing.  If it's the way their little hands are vroom vrooming their cars back and forth, get down on the floor with them and get in close to those little hands.  If you come accross them quietly reading books in their room, stay outside the door and shoot so that you catch the doorframe on the outsides of your image so you convey the sense of intimacy and peeking in on them.  Just take a moment before you click your picture and think about how best to get your camera to capture the moment you're seeing with your eyes.

Next time your kids are playing together or with their friends, grab your camera and give it a try.  Here are some images from our playdate to give you some ideas!

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