Some pictures just take your breath away... Weston-super-Mare Children's Portrait Photographer

A few dear friends came to visit a few weeks ago, and whilst they were with us I took the opportunity to take a few pictures of their children. Have you ever seen such beautiful eyes?

I edited the pictures in colour and then wondered whether they would work well in black and white.

Well, just look - stunning! Simply stunning are the only words I have to describe these beautiful children. And of course, spending the weekend with them I know that they have the most incredible little personalities to match.

Creative Live

A few months ago a good friend linked me to the creative live programme in the US. I was able to join a worldwide classroom learning amazing tips from the great wedding photographer Jasmine Star. In a few weeks time I'll be entering the classroom again to be schooled by Tamara Lackey in Children's Portrait Photography. The last course was really amazing I am so looking forward to being apart of this one. To join in too, register here.

Moo minicards

I am a big fan of moo, they are just one of the companies I use for printing. One of their signature pieces are these unique little business cards. The card used to make them is sourced from sustainable forests, and the print quality and finish is wonderful. A box of 100 costs just over £10 - Bargain! For no extra cost I'm also able to print different styles to suit my clients - each card advertises my various areas of photography - babies, young children, teens and families. I just love them - can't wait to hand them out to potential clients - but which one do I choose?

Backgrounds & Perspective

Last night I taught my photography class at church. It went really well and we all had so much fun snapping pictures of each other. I hope the information I shared, and the way I shared it was interesting and will help improve the way we photograph our families. I'm just so passionate about what I do it was so great to share that with others.

Continuing with my tutorials today is about backgrounds & perspective. Here's what I taught last night.

1. Keep your background simple
2. Creative with colour - Leafy green, autumn browns, creamy walls etc
3. Consider the context of your picture
4. Look around the four corners of your viewfinder
5. Adjust your position to hide distractions in the background
6. Try making a simple backdrop
7. Use the rule of thirds
8. Perspective - more flattering to shoot from above
9. Perspective - little ones get down on their level
10. Tilt your camera slightly

Today's tutorial - Light!

Light Baby!

It's everything when it comes to photography. These photographs are for next weeks demonstration - my boy : early October evening, lovely light, but not much of it!

I used my reflector to show the effect of changing light on a portrait picture. Each of these pictures are straight out of the camera - so not my best work, but they do illustrate my points.

1. Light has a colour - compare the gold and silver pictures. Look at how much warmer the gold reflector picture is. And
2. If you don't have enough light, give it a boost - don't be afraid to used something to reflect light. Jarom's eyes look wonderful in the silver reflector picture

So today's lesson - search out good light. Good photographers light is often called indirect light - light that is diffused (by clouds or a shady tree), blocked (by a wall, fence or just inside the doorway of your home) or reflected. If there isn't enough light try giving it a little boost by using a reflector (water, a white sheet of card or even silver foil from the kitchen make good reflectors).

Give it a try, see what a difference good light makes!

Photographing Your Family part 1

Getting to Know Your Camera

How do digital cameras work?

Rather than using film a digital camera uses a sensor to record the image and then saves it onto the memory card. Pictures can easily be transferred to a PC for you to edit or share with family and friends.

Compact or DSLR (Digital Single-Lens Reflex)?

Price, size & weight, movie mode, electronic v’s manual zoom, zoom range, quality in low light situations are all differences between compact and DSLR cameras.

Resolution

A digital photo is made up of millions of tiny dots or megapixels (MP). The higher the number of megapixels, the more detail the camera can capture in an image. If you want to print larger than a standard 6”x4” (15cm x 10cm) photo, then a high number of pixels will give you better results. A high megapixel camera will also give you more flexibility to crop images and maintain detail when printing at full size. The more megapixels the camera uses, the more space the pictures will take up on the memory card. As a guide 3 mega pixels - 6”x4”, 5 mega pixels - 6”x8”, 10 mega pixels A3 size, the quality of your prints may vary between different camera models and different printers.

Digital Memory

Images are recorded onto a memory card, which can be removed from the camera and inserted into a PC, laptop or printer. Many printers now have memory card slots, which allow you to print your pictures directly from the card without the need for a PC.

High megapixel cameras record a lot of detail and use up the memory quickly. It’s worth considering buying large capacity or additional memory cards to save the disappointment of running out of space.

Shoot and review with ease

The LCD screen on the back of a digital camera is your way of framing and reviewing your photos. Use the screen to compose your pictures and then look back at the results. The beauty of this is that you can re-take the picture if you don’t like your first attempt. It’s a good idea to find a camera with a large LCD screen that you can see easily. Some digital cameras now have basic built-in editing functions making it more important to have a good size screen to work with. Touch screen functions also make control of the camera functions quick and simple.

Getting up close

All digital cameras come with a built in zoom allowing you to get closer to your subject. There are two types of zoom - digital and optical.

Digital zoom electronically enlarges the centre of the image, making the subject appear closer. A digital zoom can result in some loss of definition, as the camera is not actually seeing the detail close up.

Optical zoom uses the lens optics to zoom into the scene. With an optical zoom the image captured by the camera is exactly what the lens is seeing. An optical zoom generally gives better results.

Battery

Digital cameras can be very power hungry. Many lower priced cameras take standard AA or AAA batteries, which are easily replaced when they run down. If your camera takes these batteries, it might be more economical to invest in rechargeable ones.

The best digital cameras often have built-in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LI-ION) and come with a charger. There would be no need to buy replacement batteries, unless you wanted a back-up battery for times when recharging may be difficult or not possible.

Scene modes

To give you the best results, many digital cameras have pre-programmed scene modes, which set the camera for various pre-determined scenarios, such as: portraits, landscape, night time, sports, etc. Some more advanced digital cameras now set the mode automatically, adjusting settings based on the scene it is viewing. This takes all the fuss out of changing the settings yourself.

And because I need to get to know my new camera too, here's a picture I took today of Nathaniel in the park.

Teaching...

I am so excited to be teaching a photography class next week at church. I have just an hour to cover the basics - getting to know your camera, light, background & perspective & some tips on taking the perfect portrait. I hope I can cram it all in. I'm also hoping to include some practical tutorials too, I know I learn by doing, I'm sure others do too.

I am passionate about photography, so sharing that passion is a big deal for me. I'm a little nervous about it all really. Will anyone come? What if I can't find the words to convey the ideas I have? Will they be kind with their comments and questions? I hope it will all go ok. My experience has shown that if I am prepared I don't need to worry, so I'll be spending some time over the next few days getting my thoughts together. It might be fun to post them here.

Finally posting more pictures

These pictures are from my own family shoot we did last weekend and also a small collection of pictures as a follow-up to the session I did for my friends a few weeks ago.

It feels good to be all caught up now, and ready to move on to the next project.

A family of boys - Weston-super-Mare Family Portrait Photographer

I have just finished edited my last family session, and I'm so pleased with how these pictures turned out. We had so much fun together, and I can't wait to show them all the amazing jumping shots we got from jumping off of the dunes. So it's time to book the viewing session, how about next week at your house?