Use A Digital Photo To Give The Light Of Your Life The Ultimate In Personalized Gifts.
July 15, 2009
A light in the dark represents so much. To a child it is protection from the monsters under the bed. To a sailor it is a safe guide through the night. Through new technology it can now be a glowing tribute to a memory that you hold dear. If you are looking for top of the line personalized gifts, send your digital photo to be carved into a beautiful light.
Being a proud mother with more pictures of my adorable son than I know what to do with I am constantly searching for unique photo gifts. When I ran across the process of illuminating photos I was instantly intrigued.
They take your photo and carve it into a translucent material. It has all the simple elegance of a black and white photo, the variance in thickness of the material creating the gradient of the photo’s tones. When you light it from behind it makes your precious memory glow with an ethereal beauty. They even give you an option of frames to compliment the light or just make it match your home.
Even if I didn’t have a child, my home would have a variety of nightlights for safety and solace. Add a baby and guaranteed late night wakeups and they are an absolute necessity. These beautiful works of art shame the glowing frog in my bathroom outlet. While their uncomplicated beauty would compliment any home, they could easily reside in a church.
I am a fan of cathedrals like Norte Dame with their spires and stained glass and that is not an endorsement I give lightly. It need not even be night to view these lovely displays, although they do shine through the darkness like a beacon of hope promising sweet dreams and happy memories.
These delightful pieces belong on a mantel; don’t let their function hide them in a dark hallway. For such elegance the prices are unbelievably reasonable. You can easily afford to both display the artwork with your other precious photos and light your bathroom.
Whether it is your wedding day, your child’s first smile, or the first time your mother held you, the memory will be illuminated fantastically. If you have a photo that shows the light of your life, that makes you glow every time you glance at it, then that picture has a higher calling. Let the light shine through and illuminate your happy memories.
Firsts
July 14, 2009
Aiden's First Oreo
I am an absolute fanatic when it comes to capturing memories of my son’s firsts, probably because he is my first. Some things are easy to catch, the ones you know are coming, like his first haircut, others really require you to stay on your toes. If you don’t have a camera on you, or at least know exactly where it is, you are bound to miss something. For me each moment is important whether it is his very first laugh or just his first Oreo. It is more than filling his baby book it is celebrating his life.
Aiden, my son, is my little miracle. Every day is filled with surprises as he discovers and grows into the world around him. For me, photographing him is not just to capture the moment, but to be a part of it. I was taking pictures of my life long before Aiden was born, however, photos of his life capture so much more than mountains and waterfalls. I love to catch those moments that change who he is forever, those first moments.
I keep a camera handy just about all the time, and I am proud to say that I have captured most of my son’s elusive firsts. In fact, I nearly fell down the stairs running for the video camera, but I got his first laugh on tape while my husband continued to entertain him. To be able to look back at his first smile, his first step, and to remember that I was witness to such wonders is one of the many perks of motherhood.
Even the photos that you can foresee are not as easy to get as you would think. It took hundreds of tries to get Aiden to open his mouth so that I could get a photo of my son’s first tooth. I finally captured it after teaching him how to click his tongue. Sometimes you have to be crafty and sometimes you have to be quick to catch those first moments. And sometimes, like my husband said as Aiden grinned over his first French fry with me camera-less, you will have catch it the next time.
Mom & Aiden
Baby Shoes
July 13, 2009
In the last year my son, Aiden, has received and outgrown whole catalogs full of baby gear. Tons of it he barely used once before it was stored or made its way to another home. While I am far more sentimental regarding items that Aiden treats as special, I still can’t help but want to hang on to all these adorable things. Of course without renting storage space, keeping everything is just not a possibility.
When I have time, I absolutely love to scrapbook. Before Aiden I would go to the craft store just to peruse the beautiful paper and accessories. My sentimentality became mother of invention as I realized what a fitting tribute I could give these baby items before their send off. I photographed them and used them as background paper for photographs of my son.
I started with the baby shoes. I love baby shoes, but since babies don’t really need shoes until they are ready to walk, they get very little use. In fact, Aiden just this week got the very first pair for walking outside. At a very tall eleven months old, he is now a size five shoe, which leaves a dozen pairs of adorable footwear in his closet that he has outgrown without even setting a toe in them.
True to my nature I shot dozens of photos of him exploring the world in his new shoes, and exploring the shoes themselves. Catching his excitement at the sound of Velcro was priceless. Then I tossed the rest of his shoes on the floor, Aiden helped me artfully rearrange them as I photographed both him and his pile of shoes. Needless to say we both had a lot of fun with the project.
The resulting display was just as adorable; I washed out the background with software so it wouldn’t overpower the pictures, and I used photo cutouts of the shoes to cover the corner tabs. Even better, I did it all on my computer, saving me a trip to the store. If there is something adorable that you want to remember for years to come, photos take up a lot less space, and are a lot more fun than a closet full of baby shoes.
Its Later Than You Think
July 12, 2009
Three months ago, I lost my father. Since I am the oldest of five children who were all raised on a working family dairy farm in Williamston, Michigan, I can’t remember a time that he was not there for me; until now. For the last few years my dad has been in poor health, and would not let me take his picture. Needless to say, as I look through my digital pictures, there just aren’t many at all.
I did have one dream, and that was to photograph him with his great grand children, Josiah and Jennifer, while he was sitting in his lazy boy chair and holding a model of a John Deere tractor. It would have required a minimum of set-up because I would need to use two flashes on two tripods, one to bounce the light off the ceiling, and the other to fill in any shadows, but I could have set that up ahead of time. I was looking to capture that quiet affection between my dad and his young great grand children. It never happened. The real sadness that comes to me is because I have been able to do this scene for other people. I do hope that someday they understand some of the real value of those portraits.
So I started to dig deeper looking for pictures of my father, and turned to the 8 mm movies that had no sound. Keep in mind that the roll of film for each segment was only 3 minutes long so you had to really think about what you wanted to put on that roll. I came across my own children playing in the large above ground oval pool at my parent’s home. And wouldn’t you know it, I had concentrated on getting the picture of my boys, and missed including my father who had come over to help one of them out. All you can see is dad’s arm with his watch and wedding ring on. Foolish me, I thought! I sure wasn’t thinking of framing the whole picture.
Today we have so much more to work with in the way of getting our pictures, and being able to share and treasure them, all at a fraction of the cost that it used to be. But I fear that for many of us we are going to end up with little more than most people did fifty years ago! Why? Mostly because we are lazy, and take a lot for granted; we don’t want to do that extra little bit of work that makes all the difference!
However, I do want to share something of the past with my father with you. It is a picture that I took of him and my little brother when I was just a teenager with my first little camera purchased with babysitting money that I had carefully saved.
My Father on his John Deere 730 Diesel
So the next time you are with your parents think about the fact they will not always be there for you, and seize the moment to capture photographs that will last for generations.
Betty Muscott, Child Photographer
Why I Took Photographs Of My Children
July 11, 2009
When I was a young girl growing up on a dairy farm I experienced an awful lot of life. I was the oldest of five with two sisters and two brothers, and living on a working farm meant that we were always working. Whether that meant milking cows, running a tractor or doing our school homework, our lives were full.
And the time went by so quickly. My father taught each of us how to run farm machinery as soon as we were big enough to reach the controls, and safety was always an issue. Until we could prove to him we understood the dangers of the equipment we were not allowed to operate that equipment.
I suppose that is why I have always been interested in mechanical things, and why a number of my siblings grew up to be engineers, captain large ships in the U.S. Navy and why I fly airplanes.
But early on I became fascinated with cameras. My first camera, purchased with baby sitting money, was a Kodak Starmite and I had plenty of things to photograph. My favorite subjects were my younger siblings and the farm, and so I collected a ton of photographs over the years.
Today as a grandmother I look back and realize how lucky I was to have taken an interest in photography early on. It is amazing to me how quickly time has gone by, and my own children are having children of their own and are now all in their 30s!
When we are young we think we are going to live forever, and that we have all kinds of time to accomplish the myriad of things we have planned for our lives. When you reach my age you realize that you ran out of time, and much of what you planned to do simply went by the wayside.
Which is what I would like to talk about today.
Modern cameras come in all shapes and sizes, and have capabilities I never even dreamed of when I got that first Kodak Starmite. As I look through my aging and fading prints from years ago I realize how lucky we are to have all of the technology available today.
But technology is only useful if we use it. Young families today need to slow down and take time to realize that those “firsts” that your children do will only happen once. That’s why they are called “firsts”. And if you don’t prepare yourself to photograph them when they happen you will never have a record of those “firsts”.
And all of those activities that fill our young lives as our children’s lives accelerate from birth to college graduation provide opportunities for us to record each special event as they happen. But why would we care if we photograph our children at each of these events? Who will ever care enough to take the time and look at those old photographs of our kids?
Well, one of the reasons why it is important to photograph our children is that they change so much over the years. The little toe headed boy turns into a strong dark haired man working on DC 8s and flying all over the world. That petite little girl has grown up and is having her own children now.
And then the grandchildren start coming around, and they are filled with curiosity just like we were at that age, and like our children were at that age, and they want to “know” about their parents, their grand parents and their history.
I am sure all of us have seen those ads on tv about family tree history; I think the website is www.ancestry.com. We have friends who are researching their family history, even traveling to foreign lands to research where their ancestors came from and what records of those ancestors remain.
So the answers to why photograph your children are all around you. They are your children, your parents, your grandparents and your extended family. Don’t put it off, take the time to learn how to photograph your children and take lots and lots of photographs of your children as often as you can.
Believe me when I tell you that you will be glad you did. One of the advantages of becoming a grandmother is the perspective on life you have. It is only after time has passed that you realize how much you wish you had recorded those special events in our children’s lives.
Betty Muscott, Child Photographer
Breaking In The New Camera
July 10, 2009
My husband, Josh, finally decided what he wanted to get with his birthday money; a new camera. Unlike me, a huge fan of the wish list feature on my favorite websites, Josh likes to browse and research while his gift money burns a hole in his pocket. After hitting countless consumer rating websites and conferring with friends he came away with a Canon SD1100 IS which is a very nice digital point and shoot.
He was so excited when he finally got it that I had to drive home so that he could get into the box as soon as we left the store. In minutes he had the battery and memory card in and was browsing the menu and the manual at the same time. All the while he was pegging me with questions that usually ended with “Does your camera do this?”
We are both enamored of the face detection feature. My fridge is covered with baby pictures and when you point the camera in that direction at least ten little boxes pop up over all the faces and secure their clarity. We all migrated up to my son’s room to give the camera a proper trial run. As photo after photo of our little boy popped up on the screen he oohed and ahhed over everything from the vivid color display to the clarity of Aiden’s smile as we raced past on a push toy.
It is really adorable when my husband gets a new toy, his excitement just bubbles up like a child. He even stayed up late take pictures of the neighbor’s fireworks. The next day we set out for Longwood Gardens so he could test out the other features, like the macro setting. But by the end of the day, just like me, he had more pictures of our son than anything else.
Whether you are trying out a camera for the first time or you just remembered that you have one, take a day and experiment with it and your favorite subject. With a child in front of you every shot can be special and amazing and it’s a fun way to bond. You even have the photos as souvenirs.
Include Mom Too!
Favorites
July 10, 2009
Thowing Rocks Into Lake Ontario
This weekend my husband and I took our son, Aiden, to his first Renaissance faire. This is one of our favorite events of the summer and we were both very excited to introduce Aiden to it. I think there might have been a little bit of sensory overload as he watched all the costumed people and odd shops because at first, as I photographed him discovering this new world, he showed little more than indifference. Not even the camel by the gate could peak his interest. After a while, though, our excitement caught on and within an hour his exuberance was radiated to the people around him.
Flipping back through the photos I can see the absorption in his eyes as he took in the new experience. I try to remember my amazement the first time that I had stepped through the gate at a Renaissance faire and the memory is hazy, but through Aiden’s experience I stop taking the wonders around me for granted. I got a great shot of Aiden looking up at the court jester and instead of the adult in me dismissing the stilts, I see an impossibly tall man with a wonderfully jingling hat.
Watching Aiden throw rocks into Lake Ontario at Rudy’s, my husband’s favorite hometown restaurant, inspires him to tell stories of his first family meals there. Crawling with my son around the yard I grew up in, brings childhood memories flooding back. Revisiting our favorite haunts to introduce our son to them is our new pastime. It inspires a kind of satisfaction in us to share our life with our child and see if he likes our interests as much as we do. Pictures of these wonderful moments reflect not only our current happiness but rekindle fond memories of good times past.
There is so much around me that being an adult doesn’t even register on my radar. From the confusion of traffic to the simplicity of toes, taking a moment to see things as my child does infuses every day life with wonder. Looking through my son’s eyes at his favorites and mine builds a great relationship and great photos.
- Sign up for our FREE eBook and discover how to take wonderful and interesting photographs of your children:
