MomShots

We went fishing the other day at a near by lake. Maybe it’s more like a pond. It is pretty small but in its defense it does have the word “Lake” in its name. I spent all my time chasing my kids around with my camera.

As usual.

I came away with a few photos and thoughts that I wanted to share with you. The two following photos are straight out of the camera.

To set up the scene, my son, is sitting in the crotch of a tree. His face is in the shade. The sun is quite bright but shining behind him. I was standing a few feet away and snapped a picture using the light meter in my camera. The camera gathered lighting information from the bright snowy mountains behind and the from the dark tree trunk and shade covered boy in the foreground. It had to balance things out. I was shooting in manual mode and had my aperture closed all the way down to f/25. The light meter told me at what shutter speed to shoot. I blindly followed its instructions and put my shutter speed at 1/500 of a second.

The results are pretty well balanced tree trunk but my son is quite dark. I don’t like those results.

So to correct it, I scooted up close to his face and took a reading there. My light meter was not taking into account the bright mountains in the background or the dark tree trunk, just his face. I left my aperture was alone at f/25 and the light meter told me to slow down my shutter speed to 1/200 of a second. That little bit of slowing of the shutter was just enough to lighten up his face.

However, you might notice that the mountains in the background are kind of blown out or in other words, very white and bright. That is the trade off. As the photographer you have to choose what is more important. Is it more important for your background to look perfect or is it more important for your subject to be visible.

I chose the subject.

There are a couple of other ways that I could have lightened this up.

I could have used my flash. I didn’t do this but I wish I had so I would have an example to show you of how it would have looked. Maybe I’ll try to reproduce this for another post.

I could have used a reflector. I also didn’t do this. I don’t have a reflector but have been thinking about making one out of cardboard and tinfoil. Again for another post…

I could leave it as is and bring it into PhotoShop and try to lighten it up a bit.

My personal preference and goal is to know how to fix problems like this while I am shooting. I don’t want to be a photographer who relies on PhotoShop to fix the problems I couldn’t figure out how to take care of in my camera.

That being said, I do think it is handy to know how to fix problems in PhotoShop. So on my next post, I will show you how I took the darker of the two photos and lightened just my son’s face in PhotoShop.

Until then… Keep those cameras clicking!

I was thinking it would be fun to have a catch phrase at the end of every post. Any ideas what it should be?

You wake up at 2am and since you can’t fall asleep again until 7am you lay in bed composing photographs in your head.

So I may be a zombie today but at least I have some good ideas for my upcoming photo shoots.

Have I told you that I have some coming up? I don’t think I mentioned it. I’m scheduled to do an engagement session and two senior portraits this next month. I’m kind of super excited about April. It’s going to be a busy and fun month!

Maybe at some point I’ll have a baby too. Who knows?

Maybe I’ll get back on track with my 52 Week Project too. I did take some shots yesterday that I think will be useful for this week’s collage. We took our boys fishing. They loved every minute of it.

Instead of the obligatory MomShot, I will leave you with a quote that I read at Photo Camp. Which was unbelievably awesome, by the way!!! I promise I’ll tell you more about it later.

Making photographs…
is a way of shouting, or freeing oneself,
not of proving or asserting one’s own originality.
It is a way of life.

~Henry Cartier-Bresson

Tomorrow is Photo Camp Utah 2010 and I could not be more excited. It’s going to be so much fun. I know I am going to leave so inspired and excited. I am going to learn some really great things and hopefully make some new friends.

The tickets sold out fast and so there were a lot of people that didn’t get a chance to get one. They only had 300 spaces and those were gone in one day. Who knew that year #2 would be such a hit?!? Pretty exciting, if you ask me!

So if you were one of the people who were not able to get a ticket, put away your sadness! You will be able to watch live streams of some of the classes on the internet. Ustream.com will be broadcasting the event, thanks to photographer Shane Dansie (follow him on Twitter @NikonRookie).

You can either click on this Ustream.com link or go to Ustream.com and search for #PCU2010. Both ways should work.

Obligatory MomShot:

Taken in the shade on a bright sunny day. Shutter Speed: 1/500 sec, Aperture: f/3.2, Focal Length: 50mm, ISO: 200

We went to the park yesterday. I took my camera but didn’t end up with very many “good” shots. I do like this one though. I am thinking I may have over processed this one but I’m not sure. I have a hard time telling. Oh well. I’ll figure it out one of these days and when I do, I’ll write up a post about it.

One of the many blogs I follow is Jessica Sprague. She’s a digital scrapbook extraordinaire and entrepreneur who has many resources on her site. I haven’t really taken advantage of all her site has to offer but I have enjoyed glimpsing the really creative scrapbook pages I have seen on her site. I especially love the mixed medium projects that she highlights on Thursdays. For some reason I am a sucker for mixed mediums.

On Wednesdays she offers one of the products in her store for $1. Today I really thought it was cute and wanted to share it with you. It is a vintage camera kit by designer Danielle Thompson. Adorable, huh?

So for a $1 I decided to purchase that kit. This is actually the very first kit I have ever purchased. All the other kits I have were ones that I found for free. I couldn’t pass up this vintage camera cuteness and wanted to pass on the info in case anyone else has a penchant for this same thing.

I have a question for you and I actually need your response. Can you help me with this? It will just take a second.

Salt Lake City based photographer, Sara Boulter and I have been discussing putting together a workshop for moms (and other photography non-professional types) to teach how to take better pictures. Better pictures of your children, friends, the entire world…

Sara taught one of these seminars a couple years back and I went to it. It was great! I learned a lot and had a really fun and yummy time. She is hilarious and also had great prizes for everyone who came, including a new camera.

I should also mention that the cost was really affordable. It will be so this time as well.

So here’s the question:
If you live in the Mid to Northern Utah areas would you be interested in taking this one evening seminar?

What do you think?

n

Would you be interested in a seminar to learn better photography skills?

• Yes! Where do I sign up?
• Maybe, but tell me more.
• No.

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There must be something in the air because I have been asked about photo collages and storyboards quite recently by a small handful of people, including my mother. So I thought I’d try to answer your questions all at once and show you how I have been doing it and some options.

First off, I use the two terms, storyboard and photo collage interchangeably. I may be incorrect in this and if I am, please let me know. I think they are the same thing. What do you think?

The way I have been doing it is what I wrote about in this post, using the triptych, diptych and various storyboard actions from the Coffeeshop. I use PhotoShop CS3 and her actions work great and are super easy. If you have PhotoShop or Elements and are not familiar with how to install actions, Rita has a great tutorial here. You can also do a Google search and find many resources for this.

I also have been known to build my own collages in PhotoShop. I often use a grid view and use ruler guides to help me place and size my photos similar to what you see below.

I also do scrapbook style page collages that you have seen in my 52 Week Project posts. Similar to this one:

For these, I just use my digital scrapbook papers and elements to put them all together; sometimes helter skelter, sometimes with a plan.

Another option for photo collages is one that can be done without the aid of PhotoShop. Did you read that right? Photo collages without PhotoShop!!! Free!!!

Have you seen Picnik yet? If you use Flickr you might be familiar with their site. They offer tons of free photo editing options. You can upload your images directly to Picnik or you can pull your images off of your Flickr photostream. You can edit photos, make basic collages, make fancy scrapbook style collages, make a slide show and even put your images on various novelty items like grandma’s new favorite coffee cup!

If you like what you see on Picnik you can sign up for their premium service for a pretty reasonable price of $24.95 a year. Then you have access to lots of even greater editing and collage options.

Here’s an example of a collage I just created using Picnik.

So there are a few options of making photo collages. Are you super confused or are you excited to get out your photos and start making collages and storyboards? They can be so much fun. I am sure you will agree.

Let me know if you have any questions. I’m here for you!

May I introduce a two new words to your vocabulary?

Triptych - pronounced Trip-tick. Originated from the Greek words, tri- “three” + ptychē “fold”
Diptych - pronounced Dip-tick. Originated from the Greek words, di- “two” + ptychē “fold”

These words were introduced to me about a year ago from the Digital Photography School. They had an assignment that centered around Triptychs. I can’t remember what I submitted or even if I did submit anything. Prior to that I don’t recall ever hearing those words. Since then, I have really enjoyed putting together both triptychs and diptychs. They seem to speak to my indecisive mind. I don’t have to choose just one photo, I can go with all three.

Lately I have been making a lot of triptychs. I have been using this free action a lot instead of making them from scratch in PhotoShop. It’s pretty fast and I like the result. They also have a great diptych action as well; also free. I love the CoffeeShop site. Rita makes wonderful actions that are really fun to play with for storyboards and photo editing. However, you don’t need an action to make these. They aren’t hard to make and you may really enjoy the results.

This is one of my recent favorites. I couldn’t decide on these so I put them all together in one triptych. It makes making up my mind so much easier!

If triptychs and diptychs are new to you, I hope you give it a try and see how you like them.

I live in a house with six giant windows in the living room. Not your average home at all. It has many crazy features, one of which is that it is round. That causes all sorts of decorating dilemmas. I’m not even going to mention that the moron person that built it had no idea what a straight line was. I digress. My house has many, many faults but the large windows in the living room is not one of them. I love them. I want every house I ever live in to have such wonderful windows. Always.

One of the wonderful things about these windows is that on overcast days I have the most wonderful light that comes in. I can set children pretty much anywhere and they are bathed in beautiful, soft and multi-directional light. I don’t get harsh shadows and can get bright skin tones with ease.

One sunny days, it proves to be a challenge because I can get too much bright light but it is a challenge I gladly accept. If I weren’t so lazy about decorating I could probably solve that bright light problem with a few translucent or hazy curtains. But I am. Our living room has no furniture in it. Why? Because I’m lazy. Also because I really love the large open space that is always being used by my sons and husband as a wrestling ring, Jedi sword fighting arena or Nerf gun battle zone. Who needs furniture when you have great light and children with imaginations? Not me!

I took these photos yesterday of my adorable niece. She was over for a few hours and when she’s here I can’t help but get out my camera. I need to start thinking of more creative ways to photograph her but for now, this will do.

Thank you wonderful overcast day for your beautiful light filling my living room. You are welcome to come back often.

So I recently discovered a fantastic photographer out of Southern California named Liz Kuball. She’s really got an interesting style and I found many pieces very inspiring. It also makes me a little bit homesick for my dear early married days in sweet San Diego.

Liz has a great idea on her site that I decided to carry onto mine. She is very much in favor of sharing photography information. This, as you probably know, is a passion of mine as well. So in the spirit of sharing information and answering questions to the best of my ability, I have added this button and link to the right sidebar of my page. If you click on it, it should generate an email to me and you can ask away. You can also leave comments, click on the Contact page or email me directly at momshots@yahoo.com.

If you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask. I love questions! While I will freely admit I don’t know everything, I am a dang good researcher and have many fantastic photographers to reach out to in the event of a question that totally stumps me.

Obligatory MomShot:

Magnus, my 2 1/2 year old. Photos taken yesterday (2/16/10). He was playing with his robot in the perfect light. I couldn’t pass up taking a bunch of shots. Then when I was playing with the photos in Photoshop, he saw this compilation of photos and he started squealing in delight. I think I’m going to print them out and put them up on the wall.

In the course of living with two daughters  I’ve learned a great number of things, not least of which is that taking a good picture with two kids in it is hard.

Taking a picture of one kid, you’ve got two main factors - you, and the kid. (At least I do. My photography style lies solidly in the “aim and hope” school of photography.  I don’t really change settings or anything, so the camera isn’t really a factor.)  The kid is going to do what they’re going to do, and you’re going to try and capture it.  Using the tips Jess provides, you make sure they’re not in front of a distracting background, you focus on their eyes, get close, and take a bunch of shots.  You run after them if you have to, and make it fun. Take enough shots and you’re likely to get something good. After all, they’re cute, right?

But two kids- two kids is more difficult. Now you have 3 factors. Two sets of eyes to focus on, two temperaments, two sometimes conflicting agendas.

Most of my pictures with both of my girls look something like this:

Not horrible, but not compelling in any way.  Booooooring.

The rest look something like this:

Amusing, but not as representative of both of their lovely selves as I’d like.

Then one day I stumbled into taking this photo, and something clicked.

Getting these girls on two different planes made all the difference. It adds visual interest and depth, and allows the eye to move around the picture. Plus, there’s a practical side: they’re both looking at the camera, but they’re not right next to each other, so they’re not distracting each other.

After taking that picture I decided to try experimenting with this- looking for opportunities to place myself in the right location as the girls did their thing.

I love the depth of the planes in this one, and the fact that while only Audrey is looking at the camera, it also perfectly captures a facet of Zoe’s personality.

The planes in this shot are much closer, but the vertical difference shakes things up a bit.

The natural height difference in the girls means that most of the time Audrey ends up in the front of the picture, which is something I’m trying to work with.  But I love the candid feel of these shots; they capture the personality of each girl and highlight their similarities and differences. SO much better than that picture at the top of the post!

How do you get good shots of multiple kids? Please share!