Toddler Photography Ideas. . .Take A Closer Look At “Bad” Pictures

April 25, 2012

What If I Make Mistakes?. . .Can I Do Anything With These Pictures?

In my last blog post, I discussed photographing toddlers and some toddler photography ideas.  Every time I photograph a toddler, it renews my respect for the energy level they display on a continuous basis right up until the second they are “out like a light” in sleep!

When I was photographing Piper, our little two year old toddler grand daughter, believe it or not, I made some mistakes. Of course, we all want to take all perfect pictures every time. Right?  I know that I want to, but it never happens, because there is just too much going on all at once.

In the picture on the left, I could not get a full side view of Piper, because she kept her back to me while she was playing with her mommy. Here, I did capture her with one of her eyes showing, but in my attempt to be quick enough on the focus to her eye, I did not get the exposure right for this picture.  Some times the exposure is just too far off for me to call the photo worth while, and I delete it.  Here, however, I could work with it in Photoshop, because I took the picture in the RAW. Photoshop allows me to modify the exposure to some degree in the computer, and the picture to the above left is the result of this modification in my computer.  Did you notice that this is one of the really important toddler photography ideas: Take your pictures in the RAW format if you want more flexibility with them.
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Toddler Photography Can Be An Adventure!

April 19, 2012

Photographing Toddlers is almost always a challenge!

Toddler photography is one of the most challenging kinds of kids photography. The best toddler photography ideas that I can give you for “How To Photograph Toddlers” is just this: Have your camera ready to go and use it to photograph them.

This past weekend, our daughter brought our little two year old grand daughter over to visit for a while; she was coming to pick up a Little Tykes car and a plastic combination picnic table and rocker (like a teeter totter with seats) for her to play with a friend, from us.

Since we hadn’t seen Piper much since my husband’s knee replacement surgery, I thought that I would try to get some new pictures of her.  Well, as I expected, she had changed again from the last time that we saw her; now she was moving faster than lightening does!

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Do You Need A Photobox To Store Your Pictures?

April 13, 2012

Many families from the past had a favorite place to store their precious pictures. It was a shoebox that was designated as the photobox where they saved their photos. This was the place pictures were put before they were included in an album. Even today, putting together a nice album takes work, and I will be discussing albums in my next post.  However, before we do that we need to work with human nature as it really is.

Precious Pictures Deserve to be Organized and Preserved

Do you have old photos stuck in drawers and completely unorganized? Are some of these pictures important to you? Well, if they are, maybe just a little organization would help a lot. I suggest putting your pictures into a special photobox that is archival safe and non destructive to your pictures, and it is even called a “shoebox” photobox. I have used these photo storage boxes for years to organize and store my own picture collection, and I recommend them for safe and attractive storage of all of your printed pictures (except the very largest, of course) before you can arrange them in an album.

For Smaller Photos, Use the Archival Safe Photo Storage Boxes Also Called “Shoeboxes”

The photo storage “shoeboxes” come with 24 archival safe paper storage envelopes each, where you can record dates, names, and places on the outside of each storage envelope. On the outside of the shoebox there is a brass placard that allows you to name the box. They come in a variety of designs and colors. I have chosen, for my use, the ones which are called the “presidential”  shoeboxes and are made of sturdy book board wrapped in bonded leather. All of the different designs of these shoeboxes, made by the Exposures company, are guaranteed to fit into their custom storage towers. Read more

How To Store Pictures Of Your Children

April 4, 2012

Don’t Be One Of Those Parents Without A Plan

How to store pictures of your children safely and without driving yourself nuts!  That’s the question, and that’s the goal, right?  Not very many parents or grandparents have any kind of plan at all for storing their pictures.  Most take their pictures with a cell phone or a point and shoot camera and maybe transfer some to Face Book, or down load a few to their computer to share via E-mail.  Then what happens? Usually, nothing is put in place to store pictures.  And well, sad to say most photos are lost when people change cell phones, or get a different computer.  And trusting your images to someone else’s’ server, without utilizing another kind of back-up too, is not completely wise either; at least not for the images that may be very precious to you.

Download Your Pictures When Your Card Is Nearly Full

First, regularly, download your pictures to your computer.  A good time to do this is when a flash card is full of images or just after a special occasion or trip.  If you do it directly from your camera, you will usually get the dates they were taken. This is good place to start to have a simple filing system for the pictures of your children. Read more

Part III Introduction To The Use Of A 35mm Digital SLR Camera

March 14, 2012

To Obtain The Dates Of The Pictures, Download Images Directly From Your Camera . . .

When Laurie Beth is downloading her pictures to the computer, I recommend using the camera because that way you get the dates the pictures were taken, and I find this a convenient way to file them. You can always remember that you took that camping trip in 2011 and easily come close to finding the images that you are looking for. My card reader just downloads the pictures, but does not give me the dates that they were taken. I also recommended that she might want to get a Canon AC Adapter Kit ACK-E2 to replace the camera battery during downloading. This is a plug in the wall DC coupler and nearly eliminates the chance that there will be a power interruption during downloading which can possibly cause you to lose your images. At the very least, she should use a completely charged camera BP-511 during the interim when downloading the JPEGS from this small card.

While Laurie Beth was practicing using the Canon D60, we discussed some basics for picture taking including early morning, late afternoon, and cloudy bright days as being the best picture taking times outdoors. Of course, this means that the worst picture taking time is during the middle of the day especially hours in front and following high noon. This is because of the very bright highlights and the dark shadows caused by sunlight are ranges that the camera is unable, at the present level of technology, to capture both ends of simultaneously. And remember to take the picture of the subject with your camera in the same light as the subject. So, if your subject is in the shade, have the camera in shade also. This will help the camera to meter properly. Equally, important is composure and you should strive to fill your frame with your image in such a way that it leaves no question in the minds of your viewer as to the reason that you took this picture. The second important component of composure is the use of the very visually pleasing 3:1 ratio whenever you can. This is called the rule of thirds, or the golden triangle, which can be researched on the internet for a deeper understanding. Read more

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