Mom and Baby Mentoring Session

I have a new passion--mentoring! These are photos from an in-person mentoring session last fall with my very good friend and her sweet daughter. In our session, we both shot and then reviewed our work before moving on to another set of shots. It was a fun way to work, and I could give immediate feedback on how to shoot that particular scene better. Then, we tried again to get better shots. In the process, we covered photo-taking tips such as . . .

Getting close and filling the frame . . .

Using the flash when your background is brighter than your foreground . . .

Shooting from different angles to avoid mergers and busy backgrounds . . .

Framing using available elements in the setting . . .

Working with different levels of exposure . . .

Using uh, props . . .

and taking photos from unexpected perspectives . . .

It was an awesome session! I love how I captured mom taking a photo of baby . . . and the resulting photo from her camera! (Fun color work on her part, don't you think?) And then the feet are just precious. I love feet pics!



For more of this mom's work, visit her blog, Schaer Talents.

Getting the Smiles: Child Headshots and a Couple Family Portraits

Getting a natural-looking smile in a photo isn't always the easiest task. Just ask any parent! For this shoot, my client was specifically interested in getting nice portraits of each of the kids and wasn't worried about getting a family shot (even though we snagged a couple) or other group shots. That made my job a little less complicated, so we worked on the portraits first.

I have a couple tricks when I do portraits of kids. First of all, I like to let them help out as "photographer assistants" during the shoot: holding an umbrella or monopod, helping position people in a group shot, etc. When it's their turn to have their photo taken, I let the kids pick a spot where they want their picture taken. Then, I try to interact with them in an easy-going, no-pressue manner. For younger kids, I talk to them about school and favorite hobbies. For older kids, explaining how the camera functions really helps. I often show kids the back of the camera as I am taking pictures, especially if I need them to smile or look a certain way (or in the case of the little sister here--get back into the family shot!) There is nothing like immediate feedback to help a child understand what they are supposed to do.

I often have to educate my clients how to smile for the camera in a way that doesn't look fake. The easiest way I have found is to create real situations to get a real smile. For adults, conversation seems to work the best. We naturally smile as we talk, so I shoot and gab, two of my favorite things! For kids, saying words like "spaghetti" or "macaroni" or even "okay" work really well. Those words have an "ee" sound at the end and end in a smile anyway. If the child is having a good time, smiles aren't too hard to get! Finally, have someone else behind the camera (these kids' mom was fabulous!) talking to the kid and reminding them of their friends at school, favorite people, and other smiley thoughts. Enjoy!

Fall Photo Tips

Everyone loves autumn photos. And now--especially if you live in the Atlanta area--is the time to take them! It's been a very rainy fall, so picture-taking opportunities have been limited. But those bright colors will be gone before you know it! (I'm not sure they'll last much longer than a week.) Seize the opportunity, grab your camera and capture some fall photography.

Marchet's tips:

Act soon. That gorgeous red- or orange-colored tree will drop all of its leaves in a few days. Take that photo now, not just when you get around to it. During the fall, I often take my camera with me on errands, to the park, or out running for spur-of-the-moment shots.

Use fall leaves as props. But try to use leaves with some color. For some reason, kids always want to grab the ugly dead ones.

Up your shutter speed/ISO. If you want to shoot kids throwing leaves, you're going to have to go for a faster shutter speed or higher ISO to freeze the action of those leaves falling.

Get pleasing bokeh. The farther away you are from the fall foilage in the background, the more out-of-focus the background will appear. I love autumn bokeh!

Get close up on leaves. Photos of whole trees generally don't capture the color or essence of that amazing fall color. Instead, zoom in (and get closer) to a single branch (or a single leaf) and take several shots. (This same principle applies for most photography, especially portraits: get close! Fill the frame.)

Shoot in the morning or late afternoon. With daylight savings ending, I'm seeing the best light for photos around 8:00 - 9:00 in the morning and from 4:00 - 5:30 in the evening, with golden light peaking around 5:15.

If you can't shoot at those times, bring an umbrella and shoot in the sun. Just make sure your model is in shade or umbrella-shadow. That's the technique my friend and I used to shoot this little one at Lake Winward last week. (More photos from this shoot to come . . . ) Good luck!