MomShots

Seriously, what is my problem?!?

I’ve got all these ideas for posts but I can’t seem to get my act together and actually write them! I want to discuss learning to shoot in Manual Mode, Distracting Backgrounds, and a nifty little tip I just learned about how to make your portraits have a blurred background when you shoot with a point and shoot camera.

Good stuff, huh?

So why can’t I get it together?!?

Well in the mean time, I want to leave you with some Senior portrait shots I took of my niece. The thing I really enjoyed was that she just started posing and having a fun time. I didn’t have to do a lot of directing and telling her what to do. She had some great ideas and we just wandered all over my grandma’s property, in North Idaho, taking shots. It was really fun.

As I was editing them I really noticed that I wasn’t entirely aware of the shadows that would fall on her face. There were a handful of shots where she had dark shadows under her eyes. I think it ruined a few shots that could have been pretty good.

MomShot Tip: Watch where the sun is putting shadows on your subject.

Besides the granular “noise” in this shot, I think the shadows really ruined a nice smiling picture.

These I think are better. We changed direction and just had fun.

I like the crop on this one and think it looks good in Black and White. It is kind of a “Here I Come World” pose. It makes me happy.

I really like the off-kilter angle of this shot. It adds a fun element to her portrait. I wish I had done more at an angle. It’s funny, I used to shoot a ton of angled shots but have kind of gotten out of the habit of that. I need to do that more often!

This one has some shadows but I don’t mind them. I guess if I were more of a perfectionist/professional there is no way this would have made the cut, but I’m not and I like it!

How could you not love this one? You can almost hear her laughing. I love the shy, downward glance. I also like it in Black and White. It just adds something nice.

I think I’m really into these shots where her face is on the side of the frame. I think it’s a phase I’m going through. The shadows aren’t too dark here either and I like that it gives her a sun kissed kind of look.

This one is one of my favorites. It’s not a typical portrait because you can’t really see her face but I love it. She’s sitting in this beautiful green hammock and looking back over her shoulder. It kind of captures the weekend at my grandma’s house. Maybe that’s why I love it.

Well, there were many more but these few are some of my top favorites. I didn’t do a whole lot of intense editing to them so they might have that unfinished look that professional photographers usually have. I’m not sure, but I’m kind of against a lot of editing right now. I think it is part of my quest to be a better photographer. I am not saying No to all editing, I just wanted a more real look.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy these. I sure had fun taking them and wish I could have had more time to take a bunch more. Hopefully this week I can get it together and put together one of these posts I have been mulling around in my brain.

Thanks for the great photos for the messed up background post. I’m really excited to write that one!

One of my personal goals for taking photos of my children is to capture their personality. I want to be able to look at my MomShots and see the joy and love of life that my children exude through every poor in their bodies. I want to look at those shots and be forced to smile because my children’s vibrant delight and love has been captured by my camera.

How do we do this? How do we take photos that help us see through the mud pie smudges and peanut butter smears and into the soul of our children? Or how do we take those great shots that actually capture the mud pie smudges and peanut butter smears? Sometimes we want to remember those grubby little mugs for who they really are and sometimes we want shots that make us feel like fantastic parents who actually can keep our children clean for longer then 2.5 seconds.

One of my favorite ways to do this is very simple. It is quite simple but has made a huge difference in how much I enjoy looking at my own MomShots. This particular trick is to get really, really close. I have found that by filling your camera’s viewfinder with your child’s face makes for great photos.

Variations on this tip can be really fun. You can focus on your child’s eyes and fill the frame with his entire face or you can choose to only have part of their face in the frame. You can experiment with your child looking directly at you or looking away. You can also play with capturing their emotions up close and personal; alligator tears have never looked so pitiful as when they fill an entire photograph.

As the photographer, you have as much or as little creative control as you choose to give yourself. You can experiment to your heart’s delight and if you are focusing on getting close to your subject your shots will often amaze and delight you.

So after talking about how I was going to write this post, the actual post is going to be like those stories your friends start to tell you and then end up stopping in the middle. You are anticipating the ending for a few days and you ask about it and they say they’ll tell you later. Then when they finally do tell you, the story is not even as funny or as exciting as you had it built up in your mind. Anyway, here you go…

The subject is Catchlights.
The message is to look for them and photograph them.

So backing up, some of you may be asking what a catchlight is.

“Jessica, please tell me what exactly a catchlight is. I keep reading this word but I’m not sure I know what it is.” There, I asked the question for you.

Well, a catchlight is simply the reflection of your light source on your subject’s eyeballs. As fun a word as eyeballs are, catchlights are even more fun. I say that because catchlights can come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors. They can be the blue screen of a computer monitor, the yellow light of the sun shining through a window, the reflection of your flash or the glint of a birthday candle or like in one of Luann’s example the reflection of a hot air balloon. Sometimes, when looking closely, you can see the your own self portrait.

Wikipedia says this:

…Catchlight is a photography term used to describe either the specular highlight in a subject’s eye from a light source, or the light source itself. They are also referred to as eye lights or Obies, the latter a reference to Merle Oberon, who was frequently lit using this technique. A catch light may be an artifact of the lighting method, or have been purposely engineered to add a glint or “spark” to a subject’s eye during photography. This technique is useful in both still and motion picture photography. Adding a catch light can help draw attention to the subject’s eyes, which may otherwise get lost among other elements in the scene.

One of the results of a photo that has catchlights is that it gives your shot more dimension and depth. Catchlights help the photo not look so flat. They help to bring your photo to life. They sometimes appear to be the embodiment of that “sparkle” or “twinkle” in the eyes that is so often mentioned.

Since I have become aware of catchlights I notice them all the time. I will be watching my kids while they watch a DVD and I’ll notice the reflection of the TV in their eyes or I’ll notice the reflection of the blue sky while we are going for a walk. I see catchlights in their eyes all the time and have really enjoyed thinking about how those moments would turn out in a photo.

My challenge for you is to start noticing catchlights. See how varied they are. Look for different colors and shapes. Notice how much dimension they give to the eyes.

The following are your photos that have catchlights. I was so excited by the response of people sending in pictures for me to use. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!

Click on the images below to see them a bit larger. You can see some of the detail a bit better that way.

Edit: I really wanted to do a better job of giving credit to each of these contributors. The following list is their names and a link to their blog if I have it. Thanks again for your help in putting this post together!

Luann Hawker
Jennifer Cavanaugh
Clint Long
Julie Taggart
Kerry
Rachelle Kolb
Jen Iverson
Gayle Vehar
Lindsey
Celeste Grover
Melinda Brookshire
Jenna Nelson
Bethany Balsis
Rachel Land

I have been tossing around a post about the Rule of Thirds, but maybe you’ve noticed, I really haven’t written much lately. Actually, that’s not true. I do have a post about catchlights that is written, I was just having some trouble getting your awesome images all put together. Long story; scratch disk full, took care of that one night, next night installed Aperture and now today I’m busy trying to get my house ready for a trip to visit my parents next week. One of these days…

However, there is this awesome photographer named Rich Legg. He makes his living by selling his images, usually in stock photography. So yeah, he’s good. He’s also a really cool and a totally funny guy. He’s a member of the Photowalking Utah group and I got talk with him a few times. He just started writing for a photography site called Photography Bay and the first article he wrote is about the Rule of Thirds.

So don’t wait for my never coming posts, go read his and see if you learn something new. Click here to go to Rich’s article.

Wouldn’t it be fun if we had a forum and we could go read Rich’s article and then we could all come back here and discuss? Yeah, that would be fun. But we don’t. Not today, anyway. So if you have any thoughts about what he said, I hope you will post a comment and share. Maybe we can get a comment discussion going instead.

We’re versatile. We can make do.

Obligatory MomShot. Taken for Father’s Day 2008. It’s nice to look back and see how we’ve grown. I like the composition but my exposure was off. Notice the Rule of Thirds is being followed here. At least it is in my mind…

Over at my newest favorite site, I heart faces, there is a really great article about reading your camera manual and understanding what it means. It is focused toward beginner level photographers and is a wonderful resource. So if you have heard me shout over and over again, “Read your manual” and you are always thinking, “I tried that and it didn’t make any sense!!!” then read this little post and you will be suddenly shot up into a whole new world of camera understanding.

This post uses a DSLR as an example but it all applies to any camera. A point and shoot works on the same principals as the DSLR.

So the MomShots tip of the day is to go here to read the article written by Rachel Durik.

Have you heard about #GNO? If not you might want to check it out.

Especially tonight, if you are into photography like me. Tonight’s discussion is about photography and how it can help to build meaningful relationships. It should be a really fun discussion.

#GNO is held every Tuesday starting at 6pm PST. I jumped on for a few minutes last week for the first time and was really excited to meet so many cool new ladies. This week the topic is something near and dear to my heart so I’m going to be sure to be there as long as I can.

Check out this link to learn more. And if you don’t have a Twitter account, it is free and super duper easy to set up. Set it up and join in the fun. You can go to TweetChat and enter #gno as the room and you’ll be in a chat type environment that will be easy to follow.

Obligatory photo:

Ok, well maybe not gold, but for something so inexpensive it can be an invaluable purchase. Check out Luann’s story and you’ll see what I mean. You should spend some time checking out her blog and Flickr photostream. She’s a super talented photographer who I follow regularly.

This is what she said:

I teach a little community photo class, which reminds me, it’s time to set a date for another meeting. Anyway, a few months ago I advised the other photographers in the group to get a UV filter for their lenses and keep it on at all times. The only exception would be to temporarily remove it if they needed to use a different kind of filter.

A UV filter helps a little with image quality by absorbing ultraviolet rays and cutting through some haze in outdoor photos, but the main reason I gave them this advice was to protect their lenses. A cheap $10 filter can be your first line of defense against scratches, curious babies with slimy fingers, dust, dirt and any number of other every day hazards that may threaten an expensive SLR lens.

Occasionally a more dramatic accident will occur, like what happened to me last Saturday. The short version is that my camera fell from a height of about 3 feet and landed face first on the concrete, jamming the lens cap down into the front of my favorite lens. When I picked it up I could hear the sickening sound of rattling shards of glass under the cap. With the help of my auto mechanic father-in-law, we eventually got the UV filter unstuck from the lens and this is what we found underneath.

The lens cap and filter, laying to the right, are still jammed together and all the broken glass you see on top of the lens is from the filter. I used dry canned air to very gently remove all the pulverized glass from the lens before I tested it. It looks like my little filter did its job and absorbed most of the impact from the fall because thankfully, I haven’t been able to find any problems with my $500 camera or my $200 lens. First chance I got, I was happy to shell out another $10 at my local camera shop for a new UV filter. It’s my little hero.

Seriously, after reading that story how could you not rush out and buy yourself a filter if you don’t already have one?!? All my lenses have filters on them and I highly recommend you doing the same thing if you haven’t already.

There are many different types of filters that you can buy. Some filters filter out the UV light and some filters are polarized making your colors a bit more vibrant. You can also find filters in colors like blue, red, green, etc. that can add a fun tint to your photos if you are feeling a bit bold. There are lots of different options. You can find them at any camera store and also at my favorite online haunt, B&H Photo and Video.

Fitting a filter to your lens is really simple. Look at the end of your lens and there is a number like 52mm (the size of my 18-55mm kit lens and my 50mm lens), or 62mm (the size of my 60mm macro lens), and many other sizes. You just screw the filter on and you are set. You never have to take it off again.

Hopefully you will never have to test out the protecting power of your filter like Luann did, but if that day comes you will be so thankful that you spent the few extra bucks and got a filter!

That kind of sounds like a Dick and Jane title.  See Jane focus.  See Jane snap a MomShot of their children.

Anyway what I wanted to share with you was a couple of photos I took the other day.  I took the boys out for a walk and we found a fun hill to climb and play on.  I had a lot of fun playing with my camera while they enjoyed the snow.

This first shot is one I find interesting.  I love that Uly and Gar are in the background and are in focus.  Mag is in the foreground and is out of focus.  I like that my eye is drawn to Mag because he is in bright colors and in the foreground.  Then the older boys are more subtle in their dark colors but yet they are in focus.  So my eye stays with them trying to figure out what they are doing.  Personally, I think it’s a pretty cool shot.  

I used my 50mm lens with a wide aperture of f/2.0 to achieve this effect.  The wide aperture is the reason I was able to get the out of focus section in the photo.  

When you have a narrow aperture it kind of works like squinting your eyes to get things to appear more clearly.  So the opposite is what occurs when you have a wide aperture (Remember low number = wide aperture).  When you use a wide aperture you can focus on areas of your photo and have the rest be out of focus.  It’s a fun benefit of using a lens with a wide aperture.

This photo is fun too.  I caught Uly jumping off the top of the hill into the snow.  I love that if you look closely you can see the snow coming off of his boots and his is clearly caught in mid jump.  

This action was caught by using a very fast shutter.  My shutter was at 1/500 second.  Fast enough to catch snow falling off his boots and freeze his hands and body in mid air.  My aperture was quite a bit more narrow than the above photo at f/7.1 so you can see that there isn’t any blurred areas.

I think the composition is kind of fun.  It would probably be a bit better without the tree or the stuff in the bottom left hand corner but it’s not a snowboard magazine cover or anything like that.  I could crop it to just include that small section with Uly jumping but I personally like the top of the hill in the shot.  It’s a great shot showing Uly having a blast in the snow.

So all my boys had a blast in the snow and I had a blast playing with my camera settings.  It was a fun time followed up by delicious hot chocolate!

Sounds like Martha Stewart, huh?  :)  I do like Martha.  She has a lot of great information.

Enough about Martha.  This is not a Martha post…

This is a post about cropping your photos to enhance or create a focal point.

I know most people know what a focal point is, but in case you are not sure, my definition of it is the area where your eye is directed to look.

As a photographer we are like the director of a movie.  In a sense we are like Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Ang Lee or Nora Ephron in our own right.  We get to decide where we want the viewer’s eye to go.  

There can be multiple focal points as well.  You can say look here and now move your eye over here. 

Here’s a little assignment for you:

Part A:  Open up a few of your favorite photos and figure out how your eye moves in each one.  Can you pin point a specific focal point?  Are there a few that direct your eye in a sequence? 

 On this photo my eye moves from Gar’s face to their hands and out with the ball.  In kind of a story telling fashion.

I believe that Magnus is the focal point in this photo.  My eye is drawn through the trail of snow directly to his little body and that’s where I stop.  I can take my eye off this trail and look around and the other elements in the photo, but I always go back to Magnus.

Part B:  Open up a few of your not so favorite photos and see if you can find a focal point.

This one has no clearly defined focal point. Is it the point of the shadow? Is it the two boys? Is it the horizon? 

Where is the focal point.  Where is my eye directed?  Is it Ulysses sitting in the snow? It it my sister standing close to where the curb is pointing? Is it the power box in the background?

I think this is one of the major things that makes a snapshot.  I think that in most snapshots you don’t have a clear visual path.  When I look at a photo like this, my eye is darting all over the image trying to decide where to land.  What is the most important thing that I want to stop and hang out on for a while?  That’s what my eye is thinking (or would be if it could think).

Onto Cropping:

My Sister in Law, Thorey took this beautiful picture of her husband holding their new baby.  I love her sweet little face peeking out.  I also really like the light that is coming from above and shining on his hair and her face.

I love this photo but I find the walls and Brian’s shirt a little bit distracting.  I know the focal point is Charlotte’s sweet little face but my eyes get a tiny bit distracted.  This is by no means a bad photo, it just has a little bit of extra stuff in it that could easily be trimmed out.

So I asked Thorey for a copy of it and then I cropped it a little bit.  Ok, I cropped it a lot a bit.  I really wanted Charlotte and Brian’s heads to fill the whole frame.  I tried to balance the black or negative space between Charlotte’s ear and the edge of the frame with the negative space between Brian’s shoulder and the edge of the frame - so they were kind of centered.  

I also added a very, very slight black vignette around the edges.  I think it tones down Brian’s shirt a tiny bit and puts the focus on Charlie and Brian.

So… the moral of the story is, sometimes a photo that has a vague or confusing focal point or has distracting elements can be enhanced by cropping it to only include the items you want the viewer to see.  As directors we need to think about where we want our viewers’ eyes to be focused.

It is OK to not have the focal point right in the center of the photo.  It is OK to have multiple focal points, in a story telling fashion.  It’s OK to do pretty much whatever you want.  

You are the director, after all!

Cut!

That’s a wrap!

This holiday season brings out so many much loved traditions.  Most families have unique activities, foods, decorations and music that makes this season so special and individualized to our families.  (Obviously, right?)

I have been thinking about this a lot lately.  This is the first Christmas in my entire married life - that’s 11 years, folks- where we will be home for that day.  I want to make it special for my family and to be honest, I’m a little bit intimidated.  I am just not sure where to start.  It might partly be that I am still feeling overwhelmed from moving but I also have big shoes to fill and big expectations (my own) to meet.

We have the tree; which in itself is a wonderful tradition.  In November we got a permit so that we could go up into the National Forest and cut down our tree.  That was a really fun time.  A great tradition.  One we will absolutely be doing year after year.

We also put together a gingerbread house the other night.  We had so much fun building it and decorating it.  We decided to eat it right there instead of keep it around as a decoration.  Much better that way, I think!

Other traditions that we are starting this year is a beautiful advent calendar (Thanks, Noni!!!) and a feast on Christmas Eve.  We will read the story of Christ’s birth and we will sing carols and discuss what Christmas is all about.  I am looking forward to this special night.  I know my children are going to be filled with excitement and wonder.  

But first I have to solve the stocking predicament.  It’s a predicament because Ben and I have conflicting traditions.  His family had beautiful handmade stockings that they brought out each year and left hung up as a decoration to be filled by Santa on Christmas Eve night.  

My family didn’t have stockings - not in the same sense as Ben’s family.  Our tradition was to run up to our sock drawer and find the biggest, best sock to use.  I had a red and white striped sock that I like to use year after year.  After we found our socks we would race down to our living room and everyone would find perfect place to position our sock.  Santa would always fill them with wonderful things, candy, toys, nuts, a mandarine orange (note to self:  buy mandarine oranges today), a toothbrush and always a silver dollar (additional note to self: also find silver dollars).

I love that tradition but I think I am going to make stockings this year.  But we will see.  I am quickly running out of time…

So… The MomShots Tip for this post is to remember to photograph your traditions.  It is nice to have a visual reminder and to re-affirm what your traditions are and why they are special.  When our children are grown they will love to see those photographs.  They will remember the things that made this holiday season so magical and exciting for them.  We will also be reminded.