life inspired

This is my first month participating in the "Life Inspired" photo project with Beyond the Wanderlust!  I love documenting our daily life and I did a lot of it this month since we did quite a bit of traveling to see all of the grandparents.  I don't have a lot of rules for myself about when to take pictures of my family but I pretty much go by the rule that if I think to myself "I should get my camera." I do.  I always try to capture firsts of any kind and in this month's worth of images there are a couple--my daughter's first ice cream sundae and eating marshmallows out of a mug of hot chocolate for the first time.  I also try to take pictures of anything that is especially "her" at this age.  The crazy outfits she picks out, the giant block towers she spends for ever working on, and the way she devours a breakfast sandwich at Subway--all examples of things I don't want to forget about my daughter at 2.5 years old.  I hope you enjoy these and make sure you head over to all of the April posts to check out some amazing photographers and how they document their family's life!

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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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January 2013 Photo Project

If you follow me on facebook you know I did a photo project during the month of January.  The idea is to take a photo each day during a month of your choosing.  The images should be of your family doing regular, everyday things.  To give the project cohesiveness and to challenge you a little bit more the only parameters are to keep all of the images in the same orientation (landscape or portrait--I chose landscape) and to edit them the same way.  I chose to do black and white since I find that when I shoot with the intention of creating black and white images I tend to be more mindful of really capturing moments and I pay more attention to what my subject is doing.  I also find that black and white is great for showing off little details--like the image of my daughters hair in braids for the first time which is one of my favorites from this project.  

I truly enjoyed this project--the proccess and the end result.  I felt like I really got back to my favorite kind of photography--lifestyle--and I started noticing the sweet little moments each day.  I kept true to staying away from any set-up shots.  I didn't make my daughter do anything just so I could take a picture of it.  I did keep a list in my head of certain things I wanted to capture during the month because they are so "her" at this age, like her helping my husband with his boots like she does every morning, how she likes to wear dress-ups to the grocery store, and enjoying a piece of chocolate.  The 31 images that I ended up with, especially when I look at them in book form, create such a perfect snapshot of exactly what life with our girl is like right now.  This project is meant to be repeated each year during the same month so that you can compare from year to year and I am really excited to make this a part of the beginning of each year from now on.  Here's a sampling of some of my favorites from the month:

Below is the final product.  I was freaking out when I got it (A day early!  Yay for efficient shipping!).  I have made photo books before but this was my first time using Mpix since I switched to then for all of my prints.  The process was so easy and I found that I could actually make it the way I wanted to using the 'create your own' template instead of getting overwhelmed and settling for a pre-made template that I didn't really like.  

I kept it super simple, using the photo from day 1 (with a closer crop) as the cover image with just the title in an casual, handwriting-esque font.  The photos then followed in chronological order.  Some photos got the full page and I chose to use two photos per page for other images.  Some photos were given a whole page but I left some white around the perimeter of the picture if I felt it highlighted the image better.  I opened and closed the book with a few lines of lyrics from Loudon Wainwright III's "Daughter."  If you have a daughter, watch the video here and weep a little bit--go ahead, it's good for you!  My husband put it on a mixed tape for me when I was pregnant and it has always been a really special song for us.  On the last page I put a small heart and an inscription telling her that the pictures were taken by her mama.  On the back cover I chose to include the only color image--one of my favorite images from the month but one that didn't make the cut for the daily photo.  

I absolutely cannot wait to do this project each year and have a big old fat stack of them in 20 years to see how our family changes and grows.  I hope you consider doing a photo project like this too.  There are so many neat ideas online for projects with varying degrees of dedication so I know you can find one that works for your schedule.  It is so worth it and you will end up with meaningful photographs and a better understanding of photography whether you're a pro or a hobbyist.   

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