MomShots

Camera: Nikon D90, Exposure: 0.025 sec (1/40), Aperture: f/3.2, Focal Length: 50 mm, ISO: 200. The White Balance was the auto setting for shade.

Halloween came and went in a whirlwind of costumes, sewing and candy. We had a blast. Do you want to see the photos I took?

So do I.

I didn’t take any. Not one. Not a single photo.

What my excuse? You can’t be Mrs. MomShots and not get any Halloween photos, right? OK, I’ll resign my title temporarily. My husband was out of town for the week and when he got home he was pretty much useless due to jet lag so I was busy getting everyone fed with real food prior to candy extravaganza, costumed with enough layers to stay warm for a little while in the pouring down rain, finding loot bags, etc. Thank goodness my husband got out the Flip and recorded the kids right before they left. I didn’t get a chance to breath, let alone take any photos. In past years I have brought my camera with me and shot them as we trick or treated but this year we were dealing with a major rain storm so there was no way I was going to take my camera outside.

They were cute. Trust me.

So I wanted to share a little video I took while trying to take a shot of my youngest two kids. This is a typical scene at our house. Sometimes there is more yelling on my part, often more tears from one of the kids. You get the picture. You are not alone.

This is on my bed with a grey fleece blanket under my kids. I am standing up, above them. We have natural light coming in through the large window on my left. Just an impromptu photo shoot. I got out my camera to snap a few photos of the baby because she was doing something cute but then everyone else came over to join in the fun. It quickly became a family affair.

This chaos is minimal compared to what frequently happens. I’ll try to take some video next time I’m shooting all four of my kids and you’ll get the picture. Craziness is a daily occurrence when trying to photograph children. It is part of the fun!

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.

So I totally bombed week 5. I took some photos on Saturday but I don’t like how any of them turned out. I think I’m going to just skip week 5. Maybe not. We’ve been looking at houses in hopes of moving soon and so I took a bunch of photos but I was focusing more on the houses instead of my kids. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll be able to pull something together for week 5 but I’m not going to worry too much about it now. It’s onto week 6!

Today my boys were all hanging out on my bed (I’m sick today). We were playing with Legos, building spaceships. I built one for my youngest son but then lost interest in building and pulled out my camera and started shooting photos of them. A few turned out OK and so I put them together for my week 6 page. It was fun to do because I did a different action on each one. I guess it’s a bit incoherent design-wise but then I’m not a designer, that’s my husband.

EDIT:
I got off my butt and made a week 5 collage. On our house hunting adventures I did end up taking a few shots of my kids. I thought maybe I could use those. So here it is…

If anyone wants to share their 52 week projects, we would LOVE to see them!

If you want to use the little 52 week graphic, feel free. The html for posting it into your post is:

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.

I love the early mornings.  Mornings always make me feel like the day is full of wonder and anything can happen.  I start thinking about fun stuff to do with my kids, photos to take,  things to make, where to go…  the list goes on.  We have been making Halloween decorations and today we are going to make a ghost garland.  Autumn is in the air!

This really isn’t a Fall photo shoot, it is just one I did last week. Ben, my husband, needed some photos for a website he’s working on.  So he gave me an assignment - to put Gar shirtless and in overalls and take some photos of him doing things that could be done in the 1920’s - things that aren’t dated.  I got some pretty good shots, but I need to reshoot because now I have more information.  I shot most of my photos in portrait orientation and he needs them to be in landscape orientation.  It was really fun to just take photos of Gar.  He did so well at following my instructions.  It was really hard to get him to look at me and smile but he still did fantastic.  It was kind of a special time for us.  Just mom and Gar time.  He ended up being my special little buddy all day.  It was really fun!

I think this week, I am going to focus on getting some Autumn photos of my kids.  Bundle them up and take them for a walk up one of the stunning Wasatch Mountain canyons.  We’ll see what we can create.

What does this week have in store for you?  Any photo ops coming up?  Any fun things coming your way?  Have you taken any Autumn photos yet?  How did they turn out?  Where did you take them?  I want to know the whole scoop!