Taking Better Snapshots:  Part 1:  Learn to Shoot in Manual

Part 1: Take the camera off auto, put it in manual and learn to read the in-camera meter (or buy a separate meter or get very very good at eyeballing it).   Otherwise, you have a very expensive point and shoot.

When you look in the view finder you’ll see a grid thus:

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The one in the middle is “correct” exposure, but for close ups of pale skin you actually want the slider a bit towards overexposure because some people are just whiter than the percentage of grey that the camera uses to determine “right”.

Part 2: Once you are in Manual get a stuffed animal or an apple or anything less mobile and more patient than a child and start taking lots of pictures, changing the ISO, f-stop and shutter speed settings for each one to see how the triangle of exposure changes the final picture.

ISO is how fast the film will record the picture. The higher the number, the faster the film. The lower the number, the crisper the picture will look.

F-stop is how wide your aperture is.  The wider the aperture, the smaller the number.  f/1.8 is a wider aperture than f/5.6.  The wider the aperture the more light will be let in, the shallower the in focus area will be, and the more the background will be out of focus.  It’s hard to nail your focus with anything smaller than 4.0 until you practice rather a lot.

Shutter speed is how long the camera lets in light. My hand is too shaky to handle anything below 1/125 th of a second.  The loose rule of thumb is take the size of your lens (say, 50mm), double it (to 100) and make sure your shutter speed has that number as the lowest denominator (1/100).

Part 3: Practice with your kids on an easy lighting day.  What’s easy?  Overcast.  When the sun is behind the clouds you won’t have to worry about shadows in their faces, bright sun patches behind them or backlighting.

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I am scheduling two days of mini-sessions for the holidays. These are 20-30 minute short sessions geared directly to getting you one or two shots for holiday gifting and cards (and though printed cards are not part of the package I do have a selection of templates you can use to order cards should you so desire. The templates can be viewed HERE.)

Your mini-session includes:

• Electronic pre-consultation. This is, I admit, impersonal but it helps to make sure that those 5-10 shots are the ones you are looking for and I’m not shooting blind, which is awkward in photography.
• 20-30 minute session. This is significantly shorter than a regular session but kids are often pretty fabulous within the first 10 minutes and quite done by 40. Obviously, there won’t be sleeping newborn “Simply Babies” shots in this mix.
• 5-10 proofs from which to choose. Regular sessions start at 20 and are usually 30ish. Mini sessions, being mini, obviously have fewer pictures.
• Online ordering. I have done away with online ordering for all but mini-sessions because it was known to make people want to throw their computers across the room, preferably at my head. However, keeping mini-sessions as streamlined as possible helps me to keep the costs down. If, however, the software makes you want to scream and throw things at me we can do a phone ordering session instead.
• 11×14 (or smaller) portrait.
• 10 desk prints (8X10 or smaller). All prints must be the same size and same image. 8X10 prints are $65 a-la-carte so this *poof* is a $650 value in one line item.
• 50 4X6 prints (same image) OR 1 digital negative (cropped to 4X6 at 300dpi). Whether you have me print them or opt to print them yourself, photos are the piece de resistance of holiday cards and gains you 5 points in the Swistle Thistle holiday card scoring game. Order an extra set of bulk 4X6 prints for 2 more points

*Yes, it’s cheaper in August. No, you don’t get less stuff. I start to get very busy in late September and go flat out through the end of November so if you go early and aren’t tucked into my busiest time, you get a discount.

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Of course, my kids never actually cooperate like this. Mine aim more for the “running away from the camera as fast as my legs with shoes on the wrong feet will go” look. Since if they consistently gave me portraits like THESE my house would be wall-papered with photos perhaps I should be grateful.

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Your album should be ready in a few more weeks!

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Now and again things happen at photography sessions that make one laugh, though usually not until a bit later after a glass of wine or two. A small sampling…

1. I was doing a very casual portfolio building shoot of a friend’s 3-month old son at my house on my back deck. She took her glasses off to get some pictures holding her child without the specs and my own child grabbed her glasses, broke them, and dropped them under the deck. We had to fish them out (or rather, I did, as she really is basically blind without her glasses) using a hook AFTER we located where they were by peering through the wooden boards at the assorted dead leaves below. Finding patterned brown glasses in dead leaves with almost no light is, well, interesting. I told her to let me pay for new ones. Did she? No. They are STILL taped together and that boy is 18 months old now. Every time I see them I feel glasses-guilt. Lesson learned: don’t ever try to do even the most casual shoot with your kids around. This just doesn’t end well.
2. I did a maternity session for one woman and was doing a set of rapid fire pictures, one after another, of the same pose. When I went back to proof the pictures, as I flipped from one to the next, I realized I could see the baby shifting around inside her womb and causing her abdomen to change shape. I’ve also had a woman have contractions during the shoot; she was a trooper and hiked all over West Hartford Center – in high heeled boots – pausing only briefly during contractions. She admitted she hoped the walking would bring on full labor. No such luck. I did, however, once have a mother go into full labor about 5 hours after our session.
3. Babies pee on my ALL THE TIME. It’s just part of the job and one reason I wear very casual clothes to shoots. Only once, however, did I manage to actually catch an arc of pee in the air when I pushed the shutter RIGHT as the baby peed. If this happens to you I will add a complimentary 4X6 of that shot for you to tuck away until your child’s wedding rehearsal dinner when you can add it to the slideshow of cute childhood pictures. This will be payback for the sleep deprivation.
4. At a wedding I once, camera gear hanging from my neck, jumped down a river bank to grab a blow-away ketubah that the wind had snatched and was attempting to introduce to the water, not 15 minutes after every single person in the family had signed it. This was not in the fine print of “How to be a wedding photographer.” I’ve also helped a bride into her dress, which eliminated any sweet “the bride getting dressed” shots but ensured that she actually DID get zipped into her dress.

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This one was shot in the Farmington River. Little Miss wanted to wear the “mermaid dress” and get in the water. Dressing up AND getting wet – does life get more fun? I waded out, carrying the 3 million pound camera and the child and placed her on the rock and asked her to just hang out for a few minutes. I stood in the right place, on very painful rocks, and we got this.

This was shot in a diner. I tried to put his hair into a ducktail (hair style FAIL – I can’t style my own hair, why would I think I could style his?) and dressed him up in jeans, a white t-shirt and a faux leather jacket and took him to a 50’s style diner at an off time so it would be basically empty, bought him his first milkshake ever and started snapping.

If you are thinking “I want something like THAT” let me know. There is nothing wrong with parks, wildflowers or your back yard and you’ll get shots you’ll adore taken in your spare room but I am always happy to head out someplace odd to get that one special shot. Like where? How about a carnival? Or an amusement park (though, yes, you’ll have to pay my entrance fee). The candy store. Who IS your child? What does she beg to do, where does he shine? Is your child an avid baseball player? Maybe his Little League game is the best place for a portrait. Does she live to swim? Maybe the pond is where to go. Don’t be afraid to push the boundaries of what a “location” is – that’s the best way to get something that is emblematic of your family and your child!

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My display:

Some other exhibitors. Click on their snapshots to go visit their web sites. All are fabulous women who had some great things out for sale. I must have one of Herrickfield Designs felted bags and if I ever have another baby (hah) I will be getting Bean Tree Baby to set me up with a wardrobe of carriers to get me through.

Sarah Herrick of Herrickfield Designs Needle Felting

Bean Tree Baby at the La Leche League Conference

Erica and Keith Grossman, Bradley Childbirth Educators in Manchester, CT

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