Embracing the Wide Side

When I got my first DSLR camera (about 4 years ago, has it really been that long?!) I was amazed at all the capabilities it had that my point-and-shoot did not. Most especially I loved that I could get so close to my subject. It was heavenly to be able to fill the frame with my beautiful kids' faces, their eyes sparkling back at me in the photographs just as they do in real life.

I found shooting nature and flowers close up to be a awe-inspiring experience, as well. So many details! All the amazing colors and shapes and beauty to be found if you get down close to a simple wildflower or moss growing on a rock.

However, before long I found myself firmly in a photography rut. All of my photos began to look the same and my inspiration was waning. My photographs looked tight and cramped to me and I was feeling a bit cramped myself.

Elizabeth is jumping over the waves in this photo. 

Finally, I learned to mix things up and breathe some new life into my photographs by embracing wide angle focal lengths. For me that meant shooting on the 18mm end of my 18-105mm kit zoon lens or shooting with my 24mm prime lens.

All of these pictures were taken on our recent vacation during a brief visit to Mustang Island State Park using the wide end of my 18-105mm zoom lens.

In these photos there is room for my subjects, be they children or husbands or birds, to move and interact with their environment. It's also easy to see there different sizes of the kids relative to each other.

I particularly love capturing so much of the sky in a photo so you can see the beautiful natural gradation of the blue. Capturing the surroundings as well as the subject in a photo adds so much more interest.

It's a whole new world on the wide side.

I won't stop taking those close ups of my kids' precious faces, though. I just now know to mix them up with a few shots that capture their entire bodies and their surroundings, as well.

Go, Clara, Go!

Note: Roll over the photos in the post with your mouse to see the unedited, straight-out-of-the-camera version of the shots. 

I reread my recent blog post about lacking photography inspiration and in it I was such a whiny baby! Winter is ugly, I'm so uninspired, blah, blah, blah. The fact is that I'm surrounded by inspiring things if I'd just get up and do something about it.

This winter had been unseasonably warm, the rye grass that Eric top-seeded our lawn with is lush and green, and my pansies are blooming beautifully.

I also have 4 precious children who, in my so very unbiased opinion, make lovely photography subjects.

So, no more whining. Just doing.

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Clara decided she was ready to conquer the scooter the other day.

She really struggled with it at first. However, it was so fun to watch her determination! She had to give the scooter a good talking to, but this little girl would not give up!

Within just a few minutes she was off and rolling and so very delighted with herself.

Since I have lots of these pictures of her to share, I'll throw out a few photography tips as we go.

Objects in the foreground create a nice sense of depth as in the previous picture.

When your subject is moving, it's a good idea to leave visual room in your photo for your subject to move through. Meaning, if she could actually move in the photo, there should be room in front of her to allow for that movement. In the photo above, there is not a lot of room in front of her, but there is more than in the photo below.

This photo (above) seems cramped and Clara looks much more confined than she did in the previous photo. The sense of motion has been lost.

This next photo is much better. Clara has plenty of room in front of her to ride on through the frame.

Now for a photo-shoot prep tip: Comb your daughter's hair, for goodness' sake! That scraggly hair is now captured for all eternity! (But, otherwise, I really like this next photo. Her body language is so focused and I love the sunshine in the trees in the background.)

Notice that I again left plenty of visual room in front of her to preserve the sense of movement.

Try to find different angles and perspectives. You don't always have to see your subject's face to get a good photo.

Though, that precious little face definitely deserves some attention of it's own!

I love the light in her hair in this shot. The sun is actually setting to the right of her and she is in the shadow created by our house, but a few rays of sunshine are bouncing off the windows of a house across the street at the left and are back-lighting her perfectly.

As you can see from the rollovers, I make plenty of mistakes. I had to straighten, correct exposure and white balance, remove distracting objects from the background and even clone out the snot from Clara's nose in the last picture. Unfortunately, though, I haven't yet figured out how to photoshop scraggly hair!

7 Quick Takes Friday vol.11

--- 1 ---

I am a podcast junkie. The first podcast I found was the Faith and Family Live! Cast and I listened to it on my computer every once in awhile. Then, after several months, I discovered how much easier it is to listen to a podcast if I actually put on my iPod (who would have thought?) and then I was really hooked. I loved listening while doing all my otherwise boring chores: cleaning the bathroom, folding laundry, doing dishes. Now I look forward to those chores so I have an excuse to stick in my earbuds. I also discovered SQPN.com and their line up of fantastic podcasts that are the perfect marriage of Catholicism and nerdy-ness (just like me!). Some of my favorites are Catholic Weekend, The Break with Fr. Roderick and Secrets of The Hobbit. Another favorite is the family podcast called Justa Buncha Hacks.

Are there any other great Catholic podcasts that I need to know about?

--- 2 ---

We recently went on a Cub Scout family campout at Brazos Bend State Park here in Texas. I never realized that such an exotic place was within an easy drive of my house. There are several swampy lakes in the park and they are all inhabited by alligators!

I wish I had a telephoto lens to get good close ups of the gators but I definitely wouldn't want to be physically any closer. Considering there were no fences or other barriers, those gators were really close! It was so cool to see them in their natural habitat with frogs jumping out of their way as they swam through the muck and birds alighting on tree stumps nearby. The views from the observation tower (in the background of the above photo) were really amazing.

The park was just teeming with wildlife! We saw deer, raccoons, armadillos, egrets and even snakes.

Gustin had a bit of a close encounter with this snake. He almost stepped on it! Thank the Lord that he didn't because we think it was a water moccasin!

I really can't wait to go back, but with just our family this time. Or maybe some of my local blog friends would like to join us?

--- 3 ---

My maternal grandmother passed away last month. Unfortunately, I didn't know her nearly as well as I would have liked to. I've spent most of my life in Texas and my grandparents and much of my extended family are in Nebraska. I am so grateful that I was able to go back for the funeral as I was able to catch up with all my cousins, aunts and uncles and I learned so much about my grandmother that I never knew when she was alive. She was a vivacious, spunky lady of tremendous faith and she is such a wonderful example for me of how to live my vocation. She will be greatly missed!

--- 4 ---

I love to read but I have to admit that I'm usually very leery of Christian fiction. So often the Christian message of these books is written in a very in-your-face manner with very little depth. The character's spiritual struggles are merely surface level and their prayers and manner of speaking trite. I long for well-written books that force me to examine my own beliefs and through the story bring me to a better understanding of God.

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger fulfills all those desires for me. I hesitate to label it as "Christian fiction" because it is so much more than that; it is literary fiction at it's best and is a book to I will be reading again. It is filled with sacrificial love, adventure, fascinating characters, moral dilemmas and miracles and is very beautifully written. I highly recommend it.

--- 5 ---

My mom and dad recently moved just 15 minutes away from us (they used to live on the opposite side of Texas, about a 9 hour drive away) and having them nearby has been wonderful. Besides the joy of seeing my kids' relationship with their grandparents blossom and the readily available babysitting, I now feel confident enough to start some sewing projects because my mom is here to help me. So, thanks to Mom, I started and finished a sewing project this month, a feat I haven't accomplished on my own in years!

Here are my new bedroom curtains:

Aren't they fabulous?! The curtains flank the windows and help define the window seat area of the room. Now this space reminds me of Jane Eyre who would curl up on the window seat and draw the curtains around her and look at books for hours. I've always dreamed of having a window seat like that!

The fabric is bolder than I normally go for when I decorate, but I wanted curtains that would bring out the colors in my photographs that I hung above the bed. Now, I need to add some pretty colored pillows for my bed to complete the look.

As you can see, my room did not stay in a picture-worthy, tidy state for long, thanks to my little helper and model. But, she's so cute that she gets away with it.

--- 6 ---

Here's a quick photography tip: How to make eyes sparkle.

First, turn the flash off on your camera and take your kids outside. Have them sit down in a shady spot and look up at you while you stand close to them and shoot down. The bright sky will create beautiful catch lights in their eyes.

To get Clara to look up, I kept asking her questions like, "Where are Mommy's ears? Where are Mommy's cheeks?" She's all about identifying body parts these days.

If it's a bit too bright out for your child, just tell him to tilt his head up but keep his eyes closed. On the count of three you tell him to open his eyes and you snap the pic!

Note that I did not specifically photoshop their eyes in these images, though I did do some color and contrast editing and sharpening to the images as a whole.

Try it and then marvel at the amazing and unique beauty of the eyes the Lord has given your children.

--- 7 ---

Wow, these picture heavy 7 quick takes weren't very quick so I think I'll leave it at 6. Have a great weekend!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Photography tip: Get low

There is one photography tip that I would give any new mom (or aunt or godmother) photographer who wants to be able to take some better shots of her kids (or nieces/nephews or godchildren) that is very simple to explain and the results are instantaneous better pictures, regardless of the type of camera being used.

Here it is: Get low. Like, eye level low, when you photograph kids (or grown-ups, too, for that matter).

If your subject is a standing (or running), growing-like-a-weed 9-year-old boy, bend your knees a bit.

If your subject is a standing 6-year-old girl, you'll have to do a kind of deep-knee bend.

If your subject is a one-year-old sitting on her Daddy's lap, you'll have to do a squat -- the kind that makes your thighs burn after shooting for a few minutes.

If your subject is a one-year-old standing in the ocean shallows, you'll have to do a deep squat; and, yes, your bum may get unexpectedly wet.

The same goes for a the crazy kids zooming around the house on a plasma car. But, if your bum gets wet while you're shooting in the house, you've got bigger problems than I can help you with.

If your subject is the cute bottom of a standing baby or a little one crawling on the floor, you'll have to get really, really low. Sometimes I squat or kneel and then lean over to the side and get my camera as low to the ground as I can go. Other times I'll lay flat on my belly.

If I squat and lean or lay down typically depends on the what type of surface I'm dealing with (tile, concrete, grass, dirt, wet sand) and how much extra laundry I'm willing to do.

This is a belly shot (for both of us):

Give it a try. Focus on always shooting at your subject's eye level.

Whether you're photographing a nose-crinkling, tongue-wagging, rubber-band wrist, thigh-roly-poly, swinging baby...

Or a couple of cub scouts catching grasshoppers...

Get low and at eye-level, even if those eyes aren't actually looking at the camera.

Your photos will go from snapshots, to true photographs, in no time.

Happy shooting!