I realized yesterday that for the past few months, my motivation for taking pictures had been either guilt or urgency.  I would all of a sudden remember that I hadn’t taken photos in a while and feel obligated OR I knew that this particular moment was quickly passing by and I felt a sense of urgency to document it before it slipped into the past.  Neither gave me a chance to actually enjoy photography or experiment and practice.  So yesterday afternoon, I decided to take Kade to the park for a mini photo shoot.

Now, to be completely honest, this shoot was also motivated by a little guilt and urgency.  When we found out Fritz was coming, we announced it to the grandparents by having Kade wear this shirt telling the world he was going to be a big brother.  I didn’t want child #2 thinking that I hadn’t put the same effort into her baby book as for child #1, so I wanted to get a picture of Kade in the shirt.  That was the guilt part.  The urgency was that Kade was quickly growing out of the shirt!  So with three motivations we headed to the park and found a grassy spot where Kade could run barefoot.

We bought a DSLR camera shortly after Kade was born, a Canon 40D.  For a looong time, Kyle was the only one who used it.  I was way too intimidated.  But I took an online photography class this last winter which really made me feel more comfortable and taught me the basics of photography.  I am very much an amateur but with this incredible of a subject, I felt I would have a lot of fun practicing.  All these pictures were taken with our 50mm f/1.4 lens.

Sometimes all the stars align and you get a great photo, but I did try to remember a few tips from class while we were out yesterday.

1. Start with a happy subject – we went right after Kade’s afternoon nap and snack which meant he was fully rested with lots of energy.

2. For lighting, it’s best to have the sun low in the sky.  Since early morning would not make any of us happy, late afternoon sun was our best option.

3. Remember to change your angles.  I took some photos standing, some with me laying on the ground, some with him laying on the ground, some vertical, some horizontal, some close up, some far away.

4. Use depth of field to your advantage.  This is one of the reasons I LOVE our lens.  The park had a lot of distractions in the background and I wanted the viewer to focus on Kade, not the fence behind him.

5. Work with your subject.  Now for some scenarios, telling your subject to smile or hold their head this way or that would work great.  But for a 2 year old, let’s face it…that is completely unrealistic.  Besides, I’ve learned that telling Kade to smile results in a strangely contorted face with closed eyes.  I wanted to capture his personality, his energy, his natural expressions that I see every day – the flirty eyes, the mischievous smile, his imagination at work.  To do that I needed to let him just do what he does and be ready.

6. And finally, what I think is the most important thing to remember, TAKE LOTS OF PHOTOS! I have no idea how many photos I took yesterday, but I’m going to guess that it was getting close to 200.  One thing the photography class made me realize was that even the pros take some bad photos.  Granted their percentage of good to bad is significantly  higher than mine, but if taking lots of photos is something they do, surely my odds of getting a great photo would improve if I followed their lead.  And with digitals there is really no reason not to (I just have to remind myself to delete the crappy ones).

So, I think yesterday was a success.  We both had a great time giggling, wrestling, laying in the grass, drawing in the dirt and watching clouds float by and in between all that we captured about 20 great photos that I’ll treasure forever.  I hope you’re inspired to try your own photo shoot,  I know that after seeing the results of less than an hour’s investment, I want to keep up these amateur outings.  And seriously, there is some urgency involved.  After all, look how quickly he is growing up – he could be 12 in that last photo!!