Mar 21, 2017
I was sitting in my sister-in-law’s kitchen watching Briggs inch his way closer to the doorway. I kept watching his shadow. The closer he got to the door, the longer his shadow grew. And then he got up on all fours and started bear crawling preparing to cross the door threshold. His shadow took on new dimension – and his legs looked just as skinny in his shadow! Not too many crawling bum shots left in this guy’s future.
Childhood is too short.
Nikon D750 | 24-120 lens | ISO 100 | Shutter 1/800 | f4.0
Mar 19, 2017
Windows are valuable assets when shooting photos indoors. Often rooms are poorly lit – but shooting against a window gives more than enough light for a proper exposure. You can use the light to partially light your subject – or you can use that light to shoot part of your subject and capture their reflection. I don’t do this often enough, but I love the result. Especially when they’re really concentrating on something (like watching someone make chocolate at the chocolate factory tour – or a throwback to when Hallie was a little one watching the mailman come and go!)
Reflections are another way to creatively tell the story of your kid’s childhood. Try it. Practice it. You’ll end up loving it.
Feb 12, 2017
I set him in the grass so I could grab my plate of food and when I turned around this perfect ray of light escaped over the fence to illuminate the back yard. The sun dropped quickly, but for just a moment, it highlighted his body so warmly as he sat there enjoying a warm bottle. I like that his little wispy hairs on the top of his head are accentuated and that his little hands carefully hold his bottle and his favorite blanket. His little legs are relaxed, yet his toes are curled. And he was perfectly content – until he realized I wasn’t right next to him!
Nikon D750 | Lens 24-120 | F 4.0 | Shutter 1/800 | ISO 1000
Feb 6, 2017
Photography is a very personal journey and everyone tends to have their own style. I have always liked photographing eyes, because the eyes always tell a story. A story of happiness, or exhaustion or even worry. Some eyes are dark and others have an amazing ability to catch and reflect light. To me, there is something captivating and inviting about a close up photo of someone where you see their eyes. Because of this, I’m usually trying to get my subject to look at the camera. But as I continue to study it out, I’m realizing all that I’m missing out on by only photographing eyes. I’m missing some of the details.
An article I read suggested pushing the picture outside the frame of the camera and not showing the whole subject. I believe I’ve done this in the past, but I always make sure the head is in the picture. I’m working on turning that upside down. Sometimes it’s okay to not capture the eyes or the smile. (Although it took everything in me to not pull back and get the smile he was flashing across the yard at Bennett as he prepared to run the football at him!)
This picture shows the details of Hunter as he was playing one afternoon after school. The Puma shoes he wears that were passed down from a cousin. The graphic nike socks that he wears every single day since he got them in his stocking. His black watch that he got last year for Christmas and I’m still surprised he hasn’t lost it. And the football in his hand. I’m starting to wonder if I’d recognize him without him carrying a football. These details tell a story about Hunter, without showing all of him.
I think this way of photography works – obviously it might get old if you consistently don’t show any faces. But there is something about not having a face in the photo to automatically draw attention to. The details might always be there but they’re not always noticed when there’s a handsome face smiling back at you. It’s something to think about as you frame the shot.
Jan 30, 2017
On the lengthy list of things I want to work on and improve on this year, photography is one of them.
I know my camera well and I’ve been shooting in manual mode since my first DSLR 12 years ago. I know my studio lights well and I’ve got a plethora of backdrops.
And even with all that knowledge I feel as though I’m missing something, perhaps the emotion of the photograph. You can’t hear that my child is giggling like crazy, so how can I convey that more fully in a picture. How do I frame it differently? How do I compose it differently? How do I see it differently? I go in and out of photography ruts. Sometimes I love it, I feel it and I see “it”. And other times its a chore. I see a great moment and I pick up the camera and I can’t seem to capture it. It’s flat. It’s boring. I’m just documenting time.
I’m not much of a post-processing (editing) person. I know you can take any photo and manipulate it to pop or to add drama. But I want the emotion to pop. I don’t need 500 close up pictures of my kids where their eyes sparkle (although I hate to pass up the opportunity) but I want my pictures to tell stories. Stories that my kids will love to see years from now. I’ve done it a little bit in my “Childhood moments” pictures, but I want more pictures like those. Less staged beauty, more real life. More moments.
So I’m on a mission. I am going to attempt to capture life differently with my camera. I’m reading blogs and photo websites to find the inspiration. I have the technical side down but I need to focus in a new way. You may never see a difference, but I hope to see it and more importantly I hope to feel it.
