MomShots

Note from Jessica: Today I am very excited to announce that our guest DadShots post is by Brett Birdsong, of Birdsong Photography. Brett is an extremely talented photographer from Pensacola, Florida but travels all over the US shooting amazing photos. If you want some inspiration, spend a few minutes looking through Brett’s galleries on his site!
I hope you enjoy this post as much as I did!

I have two little monkeys.

Jacob, who is 5, and Kylie, who is 4.

They are bundles of personality, independence, and insanity. Basically, small versions of me. This round of photos came about during a summer’s day about a year or so ago, in an honest attempt to get some “normal” portraits of the kids. I fall into that odd category of taking thousands of photos during a weekend in wedding season, but have virtually jack squat when it comes to photos of my own kids. I’m horrible I know, but I’m working on it.

So the scene before me was a big, fenced backyard, two freshly bathed kids under the age of 5 in clean clothes. Daddy, the professional photographer, with his fancy cameras and lenses, and the two perfect children to photograph. I could handle this right? I’ve dealt with crying mothers-of-the-bride, intoxicated wedding guests, and fainting officiants…I think I can handle normal photos of my own kids. Right?

In the time it took me to look down, adjust my camera settings, and fire off a few test shots of Jake, Kylie had found dirt, which had made it’s way on to her shirt and face. Jake found this worthy of a belly laugh, which encouraged Kylie, and within 5 minutes of walking outside with calm, clean kids, I had Goofballs 1 and 2 belly laughing at each other while I sat there watching, capturing the scene unfolding before me.

Lesson #1 learned - When I photograph kids, I now have no preconceived notions or ideas of what I’m walking away from that particular session with. There are no backdrops, no lights, no ” sit here and let’s give Sears some competition” photo sessions at all. To me, photographing kids, especially my own, is completely about working with the moment. Sit back, relax, let them be kids. You’ll end up with some really fun shots.

During the the course of the next 15 minutes or so, betwixt belly laughs and smudging dirt on each other, I had each of the kids stand in front of me and make a silly face. Anything silly, I said. I’d make a face at them, they’d make a face back. And out of the silly faces that were made, this collage of photos was born. Now granted, I didn’t get exactly what I had intended to that day. But what I did get was a few photographs of a brief moment in time where my two kids and I sat in the sunshine on a warm summer’s day and made silly faces at each other, and laughed together.

It simply brings back a really great memory of spending time with my kids. And I honestly couldn’t ask more than that from a photograph.

There is a really great online community called Digital Photography School.  They have a blog that I subscribe to and have read some really good tips and been inspired by other members posts and photos.  Today, I received a note about their weekly challenge.  They choose a topic and then people post their photos that are taken within a given time frame and meet the the challenges requirements.  This week the challenge is a Sunny Day.  You post a photo that fits your idea of what a sunny day is.

I have never participated in their contest before.  I have thought about how I would compose a photo for a few of their topics, but I have never submitted.  That is until today.  

Last week my family and I went up to Washington State for the 4th of July holiday.  On that trip, I was a serious camera nut.  Capital N-U-T!  I took so many photos is was a little ridiculous; but oh so fun!  I decided that I would submit an entry into their Sunny Day challenge because I knew I had a few that would meet the criteria.  My problem was that I had so many Sunny Day photos that I had a really hard time picking.

I ended up submitting this photo.  I chose it because it showed my son, Garland, playing in the sun.  I think it captured his action really well and I liked how the sun looked on the water and on his back.

These are the runner ups of my choice.  They are more like still life’s.  That’s really the reason I chose the one with Gar over these two.  I just liked that it had him in it.
 

Anyway, what I wanted to throw out to you, is to challenge yourself.  Whether it is to break out of your comfort zone and submit a photo to a contest or to plan, in your head, a photo you would like to take and then attempt to take it.  We grow and learn by challenging ourselves.  Give yourself a challenge.  Whether large or small, it matters not.  

This little cutie pie is Thyssen, Katie’s son.  He’s just so dang cute you just want to munch him!  I love this momshot.  Katie did a great job of capturing this fun moment while his face is covered in cupcake frosting.  She used the natural light very well, framed her subject so he fills the frame and got down on his level.  Great momshot, Katie!!!

I have a very artistic and creative sister in law who has two beautiful children.  Her name is Katie.  She recently made a post on her family blog about how she is practicing her momshots and learning how to use her camera.  This is what Katie said:

I have been trying to use some of the features on my camera like shutter speed and zooming and whatnot. I also have been working with filling the frame with my subjects (kids) and lighting, as I just read about on Jessica’s blog. I took Jessica’s momshots advice and started to read the manual for my camera. I had a few realizations: One, that I have no clue how to operate my camera, two, that my camera is pretty rad and it does a lot of stuff. I think that if I learn one new thing a week, I will know how to successfully operate it in about a year.

I love her realization that her camera is actually pretty cool.  I think this is generally the case of most digital camera owners.  These new fangled digital point and shoot cameras have so many more features than the old school point and shoot film cameras.  I think that often we are stuck in a film point and shoot mindset and don’t take the time to really learn all the spiffy things our cameras can do.  

I LOVE, love, love her weekly goal to learn a new feature each week.  Not only will she be practicing her momshot skills but she will be able remember the new features she learns because of all that practice.  I really look forward to watching your progress, Katie!  I know you are on your way to some incredible momshots!

(This picture is of the adorable Luke - a friend, Mandy’s son.  Katie did such a great job of getting down on his level, framing the shot and using the natural lighting available.  Awesome momshot, Katie!)

I haven’t been using a DSLR camera for very long. I am learning everyday how to take better momshots, but from the ones I have taken, both on my Canon and on my Kodak point and shoot camera, I have noticed that the more simpler the background, the better the photograph. Its easier to get a simple background if you can throw the background out of focus by using an aperture like f/2.8 or f/4 with a portrait focal length you like best. But if you cannot or you are using a point and shoot camera, its best to keep the backgrounds plain or simple. this way you are focused completely on the subject. 

I have taken the more “artsy” approach on this one. When I was at a local carnival and noticed this angel wing detail in the side on one of the rides. I thought it would be kind of fun to put my daughter next to them and take a momshot. It wasn’t good lighting at the time, and is very busy, but to me it is kind of interesting to look at.

I am looking through my tons of Momshots and see that most of my photos have less than desirable backgrounds.  I mean garbage cans, car tyres, the list goes on…

Does anyone else have this problem?

Obviously the problem has to do with how I compose my photos.  However, 98% of my photos are of the snapshot variety.  The kind where you grab the camera and capture that silly smile or the goofy look.  This one is when my husband Ben was working on his car.  Gar wanted to help.  He grabbed his toy wrench and the longest screw driver in the tool box.

There are tons of things not technically correct about this photo.  Awful trash can background, strange framing, Ben’s leg in the shot, I should have crouched down a bit, etc…  I’m sure the list can go on.  I do like the lighting.  It was around the “Magic Hour” of the evening - that hour or so before the sun sets and the shadows are more muted, less harsh.  Plus the subject matter is just adorable.  Gar and tools are always a good mix.

So the question I pose is this:  How do you take snapshots or Momshots and capture the spontaneity of the situation but still have an appealing background?  

This is one of the BIG questions that Momshots aims to answer as we develop our photographic skills.  But since we are just learning, does anyone who reads this, have any tips?  Or alternatively; What is your favorite background to shoot in front of?  Are there backgrounds that you enjoy shooting in front of more than others?

I would love to hear any thoughts on this.  Please feel free to share.

Today was day 3 of my personal 7 day challenge. My challenge is to get out the camera and take at least one photo every day for 7 days.

I have had some good Momshot opportunities lately. We’ve had some really summer-like weather lately and the neighborhood has seen an epidemic of kids running through sprinklers. Warm weather means lots of bright sunshine, but that also means heavy shadows. Sometimes that is OK, I think. I think shadows can sometimes add interest - but maybe I’m saying that because I’m not a professional… I don’t know, I just say it like I see it and I sometimes like shadows.

Day 1:  My oldest son drinking water from the hose.  I love how the water is frozen.

Day 2:  My oldest son eating birthday cake at my uncle’s birthday party.  I like how intent and focused he is on this bite.  I love that he has frosting on his nose.

Day 3:  The day was very hot and two of my sons were playing in the sprinkler.  Can you see my son trying to catch droplets on his tongue?  I love his facial expression and how ridged his whole body is in anticipation.

So I had a little mishap with my camera. Well, not actually a mishap, more of an unknown problem. I looked through my view finder this evening and everything looked fuzzy. I didn’t have my glasses on and I was a bit tired so I rubbed my eyes, blinked really hard and looked again. Still fuzzy. Fuzzy is not good.

My next step was to get a second opinion. Were my eyes freaking out or was something really wrong with my camera? I couldn’t tell. So I brought the camera to my husband and asked him to look through the view finder and tell me what he saw. He also saw fuzziness. I felt a tiny bit of relief in knowing that it wasn’t my eyes but I was also getting concerned that my camera might be broken. We tried cleaning a few places here and there on the camera, to no avail; it was still fuzzy.

Then I remembered where the camera manual was and decided to look at that, just in case there might be something in it that would relate to the situation at hand. While perusing through the Quick Start guide, I spotted what I was looking for; a section called “How to Focus the View Finder.”

I was ecstatic! I found the answer to my little problem. And of course, it was an extremely simple answer. There is a little focusing lever just to the right of the view finder. All I needed to do was move it up or down until the image became crisp. So I ran downstairs and grabbed the camera to test out my little nugget of knowledge. Low and behold it worked! My camera is not broken. I just need to learn how to use it!!!

So the moral of this story is short and simple… Keep your user manual in a safe and accessible place so that you can refer back to it as needed. Take some time to read through it and you might be surprised by what new information you learn about your camera.

So while you’re busy chasing kids, cleaning up spilled apple juice, folding laundry and finding time to get to the gym, try to pick up your camera’s user manual and read through it with an eye for details you may not be aware of. Tonight I will be chopping potatoes for Potatoes au gratin while I will be reading my manual. I’m excited to learn more interesting facts about my camera!

Hello and Welcome to Momshots.com!

I’m super excited that you are here. This is a site dedicated to the photographing of our wonderful children. Here we will explore ways to take better pictures of the most precious things we have – our kids.

My kids move so quickly and won’t sit still that after an afternoon of taking pictures of them, there are no photos in focus. Not to mention that they get dirty in an instant! They walk out of the house in clean clothes and combed hair; I blink and suddenly they are covered head to toe in mud and somehow got some sticky substance smeared across their cheeks. I’m sure these problems are not isolated to my little corner of the world.

Do you have the same problems?

Let’s learn how to solve these problems!

Let’s learn how to take better pictures. Let’s explore ways to take great photographs of our children!

Together, let’s learn some techniques to better capture the magic of childhood and be able to show our children what a wonderful and beautiful time of life they are experiencing. Let’s discuss ways to save some of those not perfect, but not so bad shots. Let’s learn some new ways of looking at our subjects and let’s share some of our favorite pictures and discuss why they are our favorites.

I welcome your comments. I welcome your knowledge and your questions. I am excited to take this journey and learn ways to enhance my Momshots. I hope you join me on this adventure!

Let’s get started!