• Want to get great photographs of your kids?

    Believe it or not, you don’t have to have a fancy camera with a big lens. This is coming from the college educated photographer here. Most point and shoot cameras on the market are going to work just fine if you remember a few basic rules. First, photography is art, the medium is light. For the most part, the more light, the better your photo will be. I’m not saying to shoot directly into the sun or anything but most cameras can accommodate an excess of light much better than they can a lack of light. So, open your windows, go outside, or turn on all the lights.

    Second, (and this is vital) open your eyes. I can’t tell you how many people come to me saying, “I can’t take good pictures, I always cut off heads.” The thing is, if don’t see it in your viewfinder, you won’t see it in your photograph. That goes the same for what you can see. When taking your picture, if you can see Uncle John scratching his rear, it will be in your finished product. Uncle John scratching anything doesn’t make a good photo. Don’t be afraid to zoom in on your subject. That means cropping out some of the background, or foreground sometimes. It’s perfectly okay to move closer to your subject.

    The hardest part about using your average camera and taking pictures of kids is getting that smile captured. This will sound annoying, and it is, but you really need to hit the button just before you expect the smile. A lot of cameras (certainly not all) have a delay between when you hit the shutter and when the camera actually takes the picture.

    This picture was taken with an Olympus Stylus 810.