MomShots

Summer is in full swing. Bike riding, playing in our wading pool, parades, carnivals and lots of beautiful sunshine and of course fireworks. We even managed to sneak out and take a trip up to Bear Lake (on the Utah/Idaho/Montana boarder) and have a mini vacation. We have been busy, busy, busy. It has been fun.

And busy. Did I mention that?

I have been trying to grab my camera bag every time we leave the house or venture out to do some kind of activity. My goal for this summer is to try to take more action and bright sun photos. But the catch is to try to make them look professional and not snapshottish.

Snapshottish. That’s not a real word but I’m using it anyway.

One of my goals in starting MomShots was to discuss how I am learning to take more professional photos of my kids. To me, that doesn’t always mean in a studio setting. In fact, not in a studio setting is my favorite way to view my children and other children. I enjoy photos of children that are more natural and free flowing. Don’t get me wrong, I feel that there is a place for studio photos and I do enjoy looking at them and trying to figure out how the light was set up and such. It’s just not my thing right now, but one day I am sure I’ll venture into that area of photography. I do want to. Just not today.

Anyway, summer is busy. Take lots of photos. That’s my shpeal today. My MomShots Tip of the Day, if you will.

I haven’t been very active on here recently. That’s not likely to change for a while. We’re too busy having summertime fun. I love my MomShots readers, but I’m sure you will understand if I say that I love my kids a tad bit more… So I am soaking up every moment I can with them. That may be why it’s 3am and I am writing this… If anyone has any post ideas that they would like to contribute to MomShots, I would love to put them up.

What have you been photographing this summer?
Has your photography moved outside in this nice weather?
Do you have any specific photography related goals that you are currently working on?
Are you working on any fun projects?

I would love to hear from you and find out how you are doing.

Here are a few MomShots from the last few weeks:

I just got this blog post in my RSS feed and thought it was pretty cool. Maybe some of you would be interested in joining this free photo editing class. I am!

Click here to find out all the deets.

Have you missed me? I’ve missed you but have been having a great time playing with my kids. Here are a few MomShots from the past month.

Oh! I forgot to tell you my lens news…

I splurged and went out and bought the 35mm f/1.8 AF-S. It’s great because I don’t hate my camera anymore! I have this love hate relationship with it because of the auto focus/lens capatability issues that the Nikon D40x has. It will only auto focus with lenses that have an internal auto focus motor. There aren’t as many of those lenses available and the ones that are available are more pricey then their counterparts. I have been struggling with this issue for a while and finally decided that it would be a better choice to buy a lens then to buy a new camera, for the time being.

So I have been playing with that lens and having a great time.

This is a little spontaneous afternoon drive that I took my boys and their cousin on. We drove up to Cascade Springs and then got out and ran around. We saw some fish, a whole bunch of cool birds, beautiful wild flowers and even a snake. We had a blast. By the time we got back to the Provo area we were FAMISHED! We stopped and got corn dogs and chocolate milk and everyone’s spirits were lifted and tummies were full. It was a beautiful afternoon.

These were all shot with the 35mm and the f/stop was probably around 1.8. I like to open it all the way up.

Ulysses is such a sweet boy. He tells about 400 times a day that he loves me and he loves to bring me flowers. He is going to make some nice girl very happy one day in the very far off future.

Shot with 60mm f/3.3 with a shutter speed of 1/2000.

I think this was the night before I broke down and bought the 35mm. I took the boys to a park to run off some energy before bedtime. The sun was setting behind these trees and mag was perfect in the light. It’s a miracle I got any shots from this evening that weren’t blurry as I had my old lens on. There were a few.

Shot with 42mm f/5.3 with a shutter speed of 1/20.

We have been going to the pool whenever we can. There are a lot of really great kid pools in the Utah Valley area. I’m really surprise by that for some reason. I guess it is because I grew up in an area where people went to the beach instead of the pool and so pools were pretty rare. Here they are very plentiful. And very cool too!

Shot with 34mm f/4.5 with a shutter speed of 1/100.

Well that’s about it for now. I hope you are still snapping away and playing with your camera. I have been experimenting with depth of field and with different aperture settings. I love to get some areas in focus and others not. I have also been playing with sun flares and their relation to my aperture settings. I’ll try to post again in a week or so.

Cioa, my friends!

This photo was entered in the 5 MInutes for Mom Summer Fun photo contest.

It’s familiar, I know.  It’s the same photo I used for the Sepia posts.  I tried to find one that was a bit more “summery” but I think I’m going to stick with this one for now.

Officially it’s Summer! June 21st brought warm weather in my neighborhood. My oldest son walks outside and proclaims, “It’s just a beautiful day, Mom!” With that proclamation I am reminded of all the possibilities that Summer brings and those possibilities mean many opportunities for great Momshots.

Summer has barely begun and we have already been to two parades and two carnivals. Daily we have been playing in the sprinkler and little wading pool, we have been to the park numerous times and spent much time riding bikes and practicing riding the scooter. We have had a few picnics, campfires, s’mores and even an attempted camping trip. I feel like this Summer is a good one and it has just barely started! Bring on more fun!

These adventures have brought on many Momshot opportunities. They have given me many chances to think about composition, lighting, focal points, capturing action and trying to photograph these fun moments in a way that I find visually interesting.

My Momshot Tip is to take these fun Summer adventures and try to visualize photographs that capture the atmosphere and emotions of the subjects.  Try to think about the whole picture and not just your kids’ cute smiling faces.  Most importantly, take your camera with you everywhere.  Then be sure to take it out of the camera bag and use it.

My philosophy is that if I take enough shots, I’m bound to have one or two good ones!