MomShots

Beyond Megapixels is a great site.  Have you seen it?  I have it in my RSS feed and love to read all their great posts.  Today they have a great post that covers the basics of printing your photos.  I enjoyed it, I hope you will too.

This photo has nothing to do with anything…  I just took it in my backyard.  This is Ulysses tight rope walking on the garden hose.  I kind of like the perspective.  My kids don’t know that it really is too cold to go barefoot.  I don’t have enough sense to put shoes on my own feet so I can’t very well tell them to…  At least it isn’t snowing yet.

Oh wait!  I just thought of a Momshots tip.  Woo-hooo!!!  

Momshots tip of the day:  Try out a new perspective.  

You don’t always have to photograph happy smiling perfect little faces to have a memorable photograph.  Try something new and see how you like it.  Let us know what you tried.  We’d all love to hear about it.

I woke up Saturday morning and decided I couldn’t live another day with out the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens.  It just would not be possible.  My very existence depended on it.  I had to have it right now. 

Me, dramatic?  Never.

So I (of course cleared it with my husband first) jumped in the car and headed out to the local camera shop.  I will spare you the all the details but I happily walked out with that shiny new lens.  I even got to drool over play with a Nikon D90 for a few minutes.  

It was a really fun morning!  

So I L-O-V-E this lens.  Seriously.  I am having so much fun with it.  

The kit lens that came with my camera is an 18-55 mm f/3.5.  So I already had the 50mm range available to me.  The reason I wanted this lens is because the aperture is so much larger than f/3.5.  Plus, for reasons I don’t fully understand yet (but will in the future!), I could rarely get it to actually go that large.  It was usually around f/4 or f/5.  

This caused some emotional discomfort for me.  I was getting frustrated with how dark my photos were.  I couldn’t get enough light into the camera.  It was driving me nuts.

Also, with the higher aperture, now I can have a narrower Depth of Field.

Have we talked about Depth of Field?  I don’t think we have.  You know when a photo has something in the foreground that is blurred, the subject is in focus and then the background is blurred?  Here’s an example:

Ok, I know it isn’t the best example.  It’s the only one I could find in my recent photos.  Plus, it was taken with my new lens (so that makes it extra cool).  You can kind of tell that the car in the foreground is blurry, Gar is in focus and the background is blurry.  

Here is another example of a photo with great depth of field or DOF as it is referred to in the biz…  I did not take this photo.  I’m not that awesome.  Yet…

So there are a few different ways to get that shallow DOF, one of them is to use a lens that has a large aperture (remember the smaller the number means the larger the aperture or lens opening).  The smaller the aperture number, the shallower the DOF.  

If you are taking a picture of a group of people - like a family portrait, you will notice that everyone is standing in different planes and so you will want to remember to widen your DOF so that you can get everyone in focus.  So that mean raise the aperture number to a 7 or 8 and see if they are all clear.  You might need to go higher than that in some situations.

I know this doesn’t mean anything to point and shoot users.  It’s really a SLR feature.  I don’t know of any point and shoots that offer that kind of aperture control.  If you know of one, please let me know.  I’d love to learn more.

**Edit - Thanks Luann for reminding me that there are higher end point and shoots that have manual modes in which you can control the aperture and shutter speed.  I know that both Canon and Nikon make some really good ones.  This was totally a slip of my brain as I spent about 5 minutes talking to the guy at the camera shop about the new Nikon ones.  Ding-Dong!!  Now back to your regularly scheduled program...***

So anyway…  I feel like I’m kind of rambling here.  The point of what I want to say is that I am having a blast with this new lens.  It is so much fun to be able to shoot in lower light than I could before (without having to raise my ISO or use my flash as often).  It is so much fun to experiment with a great DOF.  It is also fun to use a lens in manual focus.

What?  Did you just read that correctly?  Yes.  Manual Focus.  I have to focus old school style because my D40x only supports auto focus on lenses that have an internal motor.  One of my least favorite things about this fun little camera, but ya’ deal.  It’s no biggie.  I have heard that this feature is the reason that the D40-D60’s are so small; they don’t have to have that autofocus motor inside.

I read online that an autofocus lens with an internal motor will be coming out in December.  However it is rumored to cost about $430.  This lens that I bought was nowhere near that price.  It works on autofocus on our D100 and when I can one day upgrade to my D90 it will work with that too.

So here’s to new lenses!  It is also really fun to have more options.  When I need a zoom feature, I can use my old lens and when I want that shallow DOF, I can use my new lens.  Honestly, I will probably keep this lens on my camera for a long time.  It’s my new favorite possession.

Here are a few shots of Uly that I took at the park last night.  I shot them all with the 50mm at f1.8 with the ISO at 400.

Over the past few weeks, through my kitchen window, I have been watching my neighbor’s little maple tree turn from lush green to vibrant yellow and then slowly turn crimson.  It was been really a magnificent journey.  Each day the beautiful colors would make me catch my breath.  They were so vivid and were a true testament that Autumn is here.   One day I noticed that a few leaves were falling off of it.  As the day progressed, I noticed that it wasn’t just a few leaves, it was as if the tree had decided to just let go of its leaves and they were falling in bunches; hordes even.  I am now looking at a naked tree.  From Friday to Monday, all the leaves have fallen and November has begun.  A new season is truly here.

I am a bit disappointed with myself.  I thought over and over again that I should take some photos.  Not once did I do that.  I always had an excuse.  My main excuse was that it wasn’t a very good composition with the fence in the way.  Now I have missed my chance.  Yeah, sure I might be able to try again next year, but in reality it won’t be the same tree.  Even if we weren’t moving in a month, the tree would be different, more grown and older.  

I have these same thoughts about my kids.  Oh, I don’t want to get the camera out right now, I’m (insert lame excuse here).  We have to just get out the camera and shoot away or we will miss these precious moments forever.  

Each turning season reminds me that my children are getting older.  This Halloween I was reminded of that by thinking about what they had dressed as in past years.  This year we had an Indiana Jones and a Wall-e.  I am remiss to report that I didn’t dress Magnus up.  He was going to be a sailor but I didn’t do it.  How’s that for letting time pass?  I didn’t even give him the chance to be something.  In the end, I really don’t think it mattered because he had a really good time helping dad hand out candy to Trick-or-Treaters.  

Our neighborhood was a mad house.  My husband would sit down for literally 30 seconds and the doorbell would ring.  This went on all night - for a solid three hours.  We totally ran out of candy.  I think it was about the same time that our neighbors also ran out of candy too so it worked out.  

All in all, we had a wonderful Halloween.  My boys loved their costumes.  Gar was wearing Wall-e for the next two days and talking in a Wall-e voice.  Uly has been wearing his Indy hat and playing with his whip every chance he can.  He even asked to sleep with his whip the other night.  Good times!

They have been stuffing themselves with candy.  Ben and I just let them eat their candy until they couldn’t eat anymore.  I love how they will randomly appear with a sucker in their mouth after I think that all the candy is gone.  I may be finding little stashes through the next year!  That’s part of the fun of Halloween!

I hope your Halloween was a good one and your kids had fun and their bellies are full of sugar.  I also hope you drug out that camera and managed to get some great shots of your kids.  But more importantly, I hope you managed to get some shots of your kids.  The most important thing is to document their fun and memories.  We don’t need to be discouraged if our photos don’t turn out exactly as we had hoped.  We just need to take some.  Along the way we will end up with some great ones.  Hopefully!

I was introduced to a new photographer today.  OK, not actually introduced.  She has no idea who I am, but I’m her new stalker.  Just kidding, of course!  She is a mom and a professional photographer, plus she has the good sense to also be named Jessica!  Again with the bad jokes…

Her name is Jessica Kettle and she is located in the Salt Lake City area.  She has one little boy name Max and has been working as a professional photographer for just over a year.  She has graciously answered a whole bunch of photography related questions on her blog that her readers have asked.  She has also recently been featured on a local news station where she spoke about the backgrounds she chooses to use when taking interesting portrait photographs.  Watch the video below and hear what she has to say about backgrounds.

 She talks about how we have to be on the lookout for cool back grounds as we go through our day.  When we start thinking about backgrounds, we might be surprised by the types of places we find.  She suggests to look for places that have color and textural elements that our eyes are drawn to.  She has some great examples in her interview.

I know that since I have started this love affair with photography, I have really noticed all kinds of strange places that would make for interesting backgrounds.  Every time we drive around, I notice places that would make a great background.  I need to start writing them down so I don’t forget! 

There is a warehouse on my way to Kristina’s house that has old, rusty teal painted exterior walls.  Many local photographers, including Kristina, who took the adorable photo below at this location, have used that site for some amazing photos.  I have only driven by it, but each time I do, I can’t help but imagine a little photo shoot.  I have also noticed people’s stairs, old brick walls, antique trucks, empty fields, big solid trees; the list goes on and on.  I find that locations kind of pop out at me now.  I think it is part of this obsession!

I have posted this photo before, but I will again since it fits so nicely with this post.  This is a photo I took of Uly in front of a covered baseball bleachers wall.  I love the rich red color and the vertical slats that add texture.  I also love that Uly’s shirt has some of that same shades of red in the horizontal stripes.

That is what we are looking for here, texture and color.  You can find that in so many ways.  It doesn’t have to be a wall.  It doesn’t have to be brightly colored or highly textured - just enough that it adds visual interest.  You don’t want to over power your subject.  You want to use the background as a compositional element that adds interest and complements your subject.  

I would love to see some photos that you have taken with surprising backgrounds.  Do you have any favorite spots to shoot?  Any good places in your neighborhood?  Any good suggestions or ideas?

If your kids are anything like mine, they are always going full speed.  There is no chance that I can gather them together, pose them in a sweet angelic way and then be able to snap some beautiful photos that show how cute and adorable they are.  Not gonna happen until they are maybe 20…

Does that sound familiar?  Well if it does, you may think this Momshots Tip is pure genius.  I do!  

Contain them.  Put them in a box.  Put them in a basket.  Put them in something that makes it difficult for them to run away.  They enjoy the novelty of being inside a container and you get to snap some shots while they are immobilized.

I took a series of photos with my three boys in this wooden planter bucket.  We use it as a laundry basket and so the boys thought it was really fun to climb in and play around it.  

Try this tip yourself and let me know what you think.  I would love to see some of your results.

******

The next item of business is the new Tip of the Week.  We are focusing on the letter B this week.  For B we are discussing Backgrounds.  Check it out and the next time you start snapping your Momshots, think about what is behind your subject.  Are your darling kids going to end up with a tree or telephone pole growing out of their head?  In some situations that would be really funny.  However if that is not your intended purpose you might be disappointed.

I love your feedback.  Don’t forget to leave a comment.  Do you have any funny shots where shovels are growing out of your kids’ ears?  Do you have any great ideas of containers you can stick your kids in to get some good shots?  Let me know.  I love to hear it.

Do you know what DPI stands for?

In the photographic and printing world it stands for Dots Per Inch.  

You may have heard that term before - especially when you tried to print out an image using any online printing company like Snapfish, Costco, Shutterfly, Walmart, etc.

When you are working with photos and other types of images, you are dealing with dots per inch.  This is a way to measure how many little bits of color can be squeezed into one inch.  This is not to be confused with pixels per inch because each pixel holds three dots of color - red, blue and green.  There are actually three times more dots per inch than pixels per inch according to this Wikipedia article.  

When you are printing a photo you usually want it to have a high DPI of around 300.  That’s kind of the standard.  This will make your photo look better.  It will have more depth, richer colors and usually have smoother skin tones.  You can have a higher DPI than that but it usually isn’t necessary and it also depends on what kind of printer will be used.  Different printers have different DPI capabilities.  

When you are posting photos online, it doesn’t need to be very high.  A DPI of 72 works just fine.  The reason for this is that the standard for monitors is 72 DPI.  Basically, most monitors won’t show you any detail higher than 72 DPI.

So for you bloggers out there,  uploading your photos at 72 DPI is a really good idea.  This will make it possible for you to upload more photos and take up more space with all the good stuff you want to share because you aren’t filling up all your space with giant photos.

This is actually something that I was not doing before.  I just realized that I wasn’t paying any attention to that kind of thing and so I have been wasting my hosting space because of that.  Now I am going to upload every photo at 72 DPI and save myself some room.  Yay me!  :)  

Can you see a difference in these photos and any photos in previous posts?  I venture to say that you can’t.  In fact, check out the two versions of the Chicken photo below.  One is 72 DPI and the other is 300 DPI.  The only difference is that the 72 DPI version is only 228 kb and the 300 DPI is 1.2 mb.  That’s a big size difference.  I could put nearly 5 times the photos in the same space as the 1.2 mb photo.  

 Gar & the Rooster at 72dpiGar & the Rooster at 300dpi  

So the Momshot Tip for today is to lower your resolution to 72 DPI before uploading your photos online.  This will save you space and not compromise the integrity of your photos to those viewing them on a computer monitor.                               

So how are you?  

Autumn is in the air here in Utah.  I went away for two weeks and came back to dramatically colder weather.  When we left the temperature was in the high 90’s and now it is about 15 degrees cooler.  I am a bit shocked by that sudden change!  I also noticed that at the very top of the mountains some of the trees are starting to put on their fall colors.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s not freezing here or anything; far from it.  I guess after living in San Diego for 11 years I am still surprised by the changing seasons of Utah.  Strange since I didn’t grow up in a seasonless climate.  I guess we learn to acclimate to where ever we are.

The kids in my neighborhood have all gone back to school and the street is so much quieter in the day.  We are the noisy house on the street now.  We’re a noisy family anyway so that’s no surprise!  We have also started homeschooling preschool this year.  We are having a blast.  My son, Ulysses is always asking me if we can have school at random times in the day.  It’s so cute.  He is such a sponge; he just wants to learn and learn and learn.

Let’s see.  What else?  Oh, I got such a great complement from Tanya today.  Thanks.  You made my afternoon!  She left a comment and said that she was looking at older photos of her son and thought to herself that they weren’t very good “Momshots”.  She wished that she had gotten down to his level to take the photo.  Yaya, Tanya!!!  I love that you were thinking that.  I think if I had to pick one Momshot Tip it would be to get down on their level.  Over and Over and Over and Over I have to remind myself of that.

This week we have a cool Tip of the Week.  Tye tells us how to add SPOT COLOR to a photograph.  It is a great technique to draw the eye of the viewer into your focal point.  It is also just a really fun thing to do!  You an show off your babies big brown/blue/green, etc. eyes or that fiery red hair or a beautiful pink bow.  Thy sky is the limit!  It’s a lot of fun.  Try it out and see what you come up with.  Post it on Flickr and let us know where it is.  We would all LOVE to see it.

Here’s my attempt at Spot Color.  In Palm Springs we took the boys to play at a water fountain one afternoon.  It was a blast.  I love going to new places to photograph my kids.  Seriously, I get pretty bored of photographing them in my backyard…  :)

Oh man!  That’s a bad title isn’t it?  hehehe…   Someone help me, please?  :)

Title aside, my bright, hot sunny sky has taken a small reprieve and given us rain and grey clouds the last few days.  I love days like that, not only because I grew up in Washington State and so overcast skies pull at my heart strings, but because the lighting is much, much softer.  I can take my kids outside and get some Momshots without those pesky harsh shadows that the afternoon sun brings.

Trying to find good lighting is a challenge every photographer (I’m including every person who picks up a camera in this category so don’t feel intimidated) faces.  But as a mother, my photographing schedule is often dictated by nap times and the moods of my three boys.  I often find myself trying to capture Momshots in harsh sunny light.  Overcast days offer many more natural light situations.

My big plan for the day was to take my kids up to a nearby waterfall and take some photos, utilizing the overcast light.  That plan was scrubbed because of the whole nap time thing.  I guess my guys didn’t sleep last night because my two older boys are grumpier than a jack rabbit with a burr in its fur.  My youngest is still sleeping off his nap.  It looks like we’re not going to the waterfall.  Well, at least the intent was there.  I get a couple points for that, right?

Maybe I can get a few photos from the back yard…  I’m kind of sick of photos from the back yard.  I need to try harder, I guess.

The photo here is of my youngest son.  He is sitting in the stroller (Phil & Ted’s - the best stroller in the world, in my opinion) with a blanket pulled up around him.  This was taken over our 4th of July vacation up to my parent’s house in beautiful Bellingham, Washington.  We had many an overcast day.  I kind of went nuts taking photos.  I surprised myself by how many I took.  That reminds me… I still need to burn copies of all the photos for my siblings.

Have you heard that term before?

There is a special window of time that is about an hour before sunset where the natural light is so perfect for taking photographs that photographers the world over have coined the term, “The Magic Hour”.  There is also another window of time that is bright and early and first thing in the morning.  Both of these times are ideal for taking awesome Momshots.  

This time is also called “The Golden Hour”.  Can you guess why?  The light is soft, even and warm - sometimes it has almost golden hue to it.

My suggestion for your photographing children adventures or your Momshots experience is to try a little photo shoot with your kids during The Magic Hour.  You can play with the light and deep shadows or you can get some great diffused and even lighting on your subjects.  Play around and see what fun results you can get.

I’ve mentioned it before and I will mention it again. And again. And again. It’s that pivotal to taking good momshots that I won’t let it become a subject that we read about once and then forget. What is it you ask? It is the concept that when we photograph children we need to experiment with bringing the camera down to their eye level. We can try different angles besides directly in front of them, but as a general rule we should avoid taking photos while towering above them.

One of the concepts of taking portraits is to bring the viewer and the subject together in a conversation. A conversation where the two parties are generally on equal terms. When we shoot children looking down on them, it separates them dramatically from the adults. It impresses our adult superiority on them. That’s not really the goal (unless that is your goal…).

These two momshots are taken from different angles. One is taken at Ulysses’s eye level and the other is taken from below. Neither of these impose our adultness onto him, they bring us into his world because we can see as he sees.  I really like the camera angle for these two momshots, I like the lighting as well.  I am also a little bit enamoured of the “noise” in these photos.  I need to work on using the correct ISO setting a little better, but I kind of like the result.  

The Momshot tip of the day is to experiment with the angle from which you are photographing your little cherubs.  Try something new and see how it turns out.  You may be pleasantly surprised!