How To Photograph Your 4 Year Old

You know my technique. I resorted to it again. Bribery. He asked if he could go to Target to look at Lego's. I said sure, but you have to let me take your picture. He gave me "silly face" and "clown face" and then finally "love face," followed by a big hug.

Ahhh, free love! I can push a cart through Target for that! Miraculously he left with only a box of animal cookies. I, on the other hand, found the 50% off Valentine's stuff shelf!

My light source was behind me in the shape of a HUGE window at our local coffee shop. Not much better than 830AM sun as it filters in. I moved so the light was almost even on his face, keeping it behind me. I spot metered off of that sweet sweet face (not the red cheeks) and shot away.

I'm hosting a chat this Saturday@10AM EST during DesignerDigitals all day chat! I'll have a fun new tutorial to give away during the chat. I hope to see you there!

15 Years Ago Today

15 years ago today was my very first date with Mr. Kennedy. Valentine's Day happened to be on a Saturday. We'd run into each other at the gym the week before. He remembered me from high school. I didn't recognize him at first.

He was the boy I always thought about when other boys treated me badly. I'd known him since we were 13 years old. We'd spent one week "going together," which at 13 doesn't mean much. I tired of him and his smelly 13 year old ways.

I always thought about him. With friends we'd joke, "should have stuck with Shea" every time I was jilted. Later I would discover he was checking up with my friends to see how I was.

I had no idea.

I love how life sometimes leads you to the decisions you need to make.

We met again at a gym. I was on the stair-master. We were both a little bored having moved back to our home town after college. Later, I called him. It felt too strange not to. He showed up at my house with a pink carnation. My least favorite flower. I made a gross dessert. He ate it anyway.

And after those 13  or so years of making the wrong decisions about boys. I made the right one.

Happy Valentine's Day Mr. Kennedy.

Don't Forget The Snapshots

Remember your childhood photos? The ones with all of the stuff in the background, the toys you loved, bikes you rode, pots and pans your family used? Maybe heads were cut off. Maybe things weren't in focus. You love them though. And if you've suffered the misfortune of losing those treasured childhood photos, you know exactly how valuable they are.

So as I continue to focus on what I love, I've decided to capture some snapshots as well. Just the everyday. Not amazing photographically, but amazing in the details of our lives.

50mm | ISO 800 | f/2.0 | ss 1/50

This is such a familiar scene. In my office in the late evening, right before the bedtime routine begins. Ian and Shea watching a Netflix movie on the laptop. Perched in the chair that was rejected from the living room last year. In the background the boxes of  unused craft supplies. Somehow I can't get rid of them. The bookcase overflowing with training and development books from my day job. Books I'm slowly purging. Shea with a beer in his hand, one he carefully crafted in our hall closet. Ian holding his new cork gun (a completely different story behind that).

Look even closer, you'll see my gardening basket given to me by my mom. The window covering? Still the paper ones used to cover our living room windows after our newly installed shades had to be returned. I just couldn't bear to see them throw perfectly good paper out, so they were a makeshift temporary solution in my office. And yes, temporary can be two years!

This is our life. This is what drew me to photography in the first place. This is why I continue.

What snapshots do you need to capture? What is it that you love in yours?

For Love of the Sweetheart

50mm | ISO 200 | f/1.4 | ss 1/100 | 32mm extension tube

Sweethearts. A tradition since 1902. I don't actually eat them, but I love to photograph them and it just wouldn't be February without them. So my love in this photo? Tradition. I love a good tradition, passed down in all its stamped corny goodness. 

However, there is another, newer, love in this photo. Any guesses?

It's Photography I'm Enamored With

I considered taking a photo of my camera for LoveFest Day 4, but it's not the equipment I love. It is photography I'm enamored with. Seeing things through my viewfinder, capturing the moment so I can hold it forever. Knowing I can look back on today and recall what it was made of.

200mm | ISO 1000 | f/2.8 | ss 1/100

So my photo of the day is just that, capturing a photo of this very moment, this very day. Complete with my end of the day tired hair. Burn marks on my hand from cooking dinner. Tripod mount ring on my lens because I was too tired to take it off. And the grain? I needed it there. I needed it to show my day. Tired from standing in front of a classroom all day. Tired from a week of standing in the classroom. Tired from balancing life.

Photography is my love. And today had it not been for my love I wouldn't have picked my camera up.

How Do You Capture What You Love

You follow him around with the camera as he does things he loves. When he asks you if he should look at the camera, you say no, just pretend I'm not here. He proceeds to cook dinner. And I click. Trying to find the right light and the right angle and the right composition. Trying to fit it together as the right expression covers his face.

50mm | 500 ISO | f/1.4 | ss 1/100

I think I got it.

I took this in the low, yellow light over our stove. In Lightroom I used a Kelsey Smith Black and White Preset to even out  his skin color skin and the kitchen light. I like the moodiness it adds to the photo.

Today was a long day for me. Photos weren't my first priority. I snuck it in between teaching a class all day and heading to yoga in the evening. Not the best conditions. But captured. Do you have those days? How do you snap your photos when you're balancing other things in your day?