MomShots

Summer is zooming along! How is your summer progressing? We came back from a trip to SoCal last night. It was really a business trip with a little vacation thrown in. My husband had a bunch of meetings and the kids and I tagged along for the ride. We enjoyed spending time with family, going to multiple pools and spending a little time at the beach. Never enough time at the beach, in my book but I will take what I can get!

Photographically speaking, I have been trying to work a little more on my composition and focus. I have also been trying to think a little bit more creatively in my shots and using composition and focus to help them turn out better has been fun.

One of the things that I have been reminding myself about is to check the background. Is there something in the background that is distracting or unsightly? If the answer is yes, then I need to get up and move to a different angle. If that doesn’t help, then I may need to move the subject to a different spot.

Here is one where I wish I would have paid more attention to the background.

I like a lot of things about this picture, but there’s a pesky car in the background. Even though it is blurred, it is still really obvious that it is a car. I don’t know what I was thinking!! I cropped it and the car is mostly gone, but it is still there.

This shot, below, was taken in the same yard. I was just facing slightly more to my left. No pesky car in the background, just a nice bokeh tree.

Backgrounds. Pay more attention!!!!!!!

Action shots have been fun to play around with. Using a fast shutter speed, I am able to freeze the ocean, water droplets or kids in mid stride. The trick with a fast shutter speed is to use an aperture that is wide enough so that enough light gets in. Here is a sequence of Gar sliding down the slide into the pool:

Another trick is to set your camera to take multiple shots. I hold down my shutter release button and it takes a whole bunch - click, click, click, click, click, click, click. Until I let go. Most point and shoot cameras have that option too. It is a great option for active kids.

So next time you are out with the kids, think about action and backgrounds. See what you can do to avoid ruining great pictures by putting cars in the backgrounds and think about what you can do to capture the daily action that these rambunctious kids are overflowing with.