When is the best time to shoot? I always tell my clients that the best time to shoot is early in the morning or in the afternoon about an hour before sunset. The worst time to shoot is when the sun is directly over head creating harsh light and deep dark shadows and squinty eyes.

But, sometimes you just don't have the option of shooting in the perfect light. Sometimes you have to go with the flow and know how to find the good light. Both of these images were taken at about 11:00am. Read: the worst possible time to shoot. But what are you supposed to do when trying to schedule around nap times and all the other things that life throws in the way? One great option: find shade. That is what we did with the image on the right (also note the drool on the chin. This is way too cute for photoshop). There was a tree just behind this bench providing nice shade while the pavement around the bench bounced the light up to fill in the shadows resulting in a beautifully lit image. The image on the left is another way to get a good shot in difficult  light. Granted, I was a bit lucky with this one, our kiddo stood right where I wanted without any direction and I just happened to grab the shot in the 1 second that he stood still with that awesome expression on his face. We basically said go play and I shot when the opportunity presented itself. But this does demonstrate what to look for. The sun is behind him and camera right, and I am below him creating longer shadows. Now shooting from below isn't the most flattering angle, but when you step back it isn't a problem . I LOVE both of these shots.

Amanda thank you for a great session! I can't wait to show you the rest of the images!

One Year Ago: Charlie
Two Years Ago: Meet Phin



This is a question that I get a lot. The way I think of it, photographing children is a lot like photographing monkeys. They are super cute, so most anything you get is going to be great. They are also super fast. Kids just want to go go go. There are a few things that you can do to make your shots of your kids even better.

1. Kids are fast

Unless they are not crawling yet, kiddos are on the move. Trying to keep up with them is hard enough; trying to do so with camera in hand is quite a feat. How many times have you taken a photograph and ended up with a blurry photo? Well, the reason is that your munchkin probably moved while the film was being exposed causing the blur. Sometimes this is ok, sometimes the blur is a good way to show motion, but it is all about control. You want to be able to control the end product. So, I am sorry to say it folks: you are going to have to take that camera out of auto mode. If you want to make sure to stop motion you are going to need a shutter speed that is faster than your kiddo. Fast shutter-speed = stop motion. 

2. Minimize distractions

With kids comes stuff. Diapers, bottles, toys and the list goes on. While it might be cute to have a favorite toy, having all of the other stuff in the background can be distracting. If the subject of your photo is your cute kiddo, get rid of all the other stuff that might be a distraction. If you can't get rid of the background stuff, try to throw it out of focus. How do you do that? Once again, you are going to leave that safety zone and take your camera off of that auto setting. You are going to put the aperture (size of the opening of the shutter) to the smallest possible number. Think: small number = blurry background
  

3. Focus on the eyes

The eyes are the windows to the soul right? Don't let your camera decide what to focus on for you, take control! Most cameras have a way to lock the focus. Lear how to do this on your camera. When you are taking a picture, focus on your subjects eyes, lock the focus and recompose as you would like.  

4. Change your perspective

Way too often I see photos of children taken from above. After all, kids are short. While this can be a fun perspective from time to time, I would recommend getting down on their level whenever possible.  

5. Let them guide you

Get photos of them doing things that they like to do. Capture what is unique about them. If they love the outdoors, take them out exploring. If they love to read, capture them with books, take them to the library or figure out a fun way to use books as a prop. The possibilities are endless to make their personalities shine.

Let me know if this was helpful to you and if you have any other questions. Happy Friday!

Erin: 'what photo shop or photo software do you recommend for regular people like me?'

Before I get to Erin's question I thought I would go over a before and after of her munchkin, Brody. When I was taking this image I knew exactly what I wanted. I knew I wanted the image to be focused on Brody and I wanted to get him blowing the 'wishes'. I wanted to capture them flying through the air. When I opened this image I was thrilled because not only was the depth of field and light quality exactly what I wanted, but I managed to capture two dandelion seeds floating through the air. I took the following steps to create the final image: First, I cropped the image, I really wanted the image to focus on Brody and those lips and the dandelion so I cropped out the distracting red stripes on his shirt. Then I adjusted the white balance, the original image was taken in the shadows and as a result it looks a little blue, so I warmed it up a bit. I then bumped up the contrast and adjusted the curves and levels. I really wanted his red lips and freckles to show and so I made those pop a little. I then cloned the dandelion seeds to create the trail. The whole image was sharpened and voila. I considered cleaning up his fingers, but then decided I wanted to keep them a bit dirty, it shows the kid in him.  

Now, to answer Erin's question... I really am not sure. The problem is that I jumped right into professional photography and had to learn the beast of a program that is Photoshop (I just got CS5 by the way and it is A-mazing). If you are looking for something free, I would recommend just using the tools available in flickr or picassa. I am sure they have gotten better, but they let you do things like crop, rotate, and maybe even enhance the images a bit. If you are a little more serious I would consider Adobe Lightroom. Not only is lightroom a great indexing tool, but it also allows you to do probably everything that you would want to do to your images.

I hope that helps!