Posts Tagged ‘photographing children’
© Tim Pannell Photography
Shoot through stuff guys…..now that’s real technical sounding isn’t it? If any of you have watched the show “24″…..they do it all the time. There is almost always something very out of focus in the foreground of most of their shots.
If gives the image a little bit of mystery, a little bit of depth and a little more interest than just a straight photograph.
I love depth in imagery. I usually want my images to look as 3 dimensional as possible.
For this shot of my neighbor’s daughter I thought it would be much more interesting if I shot the image through the French door rather than on the inside of the room with Jillian.
She’s by far the cutest little girl on the planet….she comes over and visits 4 or 5 times a week to eat “white” cheese and “good” pickles…”not the icky kind.”
When we lived in Arizona we had neighbors with 2 little kids that would come over and visit us as well…..we miss them dearly…..Jillian’s visits have helped us through our “withdrawal” period from Trenten and Cadyn.
As always, when shooting 2 or 3 year olds you can’t get too technical in terms of directions……gently nudging is about all you can do. Let them have fun….see what they naturally come up with……you’ll be surprised what great images you can make just observing what a 2 year old invents on the spot.
The next time you shoot, find some different objects with varying degrees of opacity to set really close to your lens in the foreground. See what happens to your image when you shoot through it. Play around with different things until you find something you like. Shoot through windows……play around with reflections.
If you go too far with something, just dial it back a little. Experiment with different depths or distances from your lens. Try different f-stops……typically wide open, or close to wide open works best, but try stopping for a few if only just to see what it does.
Most of all…..just have fun playing around with your photos. The beauty of digital is that it costs you nothing but your time to experiment.
Good luck!
© Tim Pannell Photography
I’ve been looking around at some of the “photo blogs” that are out on the internet lately and there is one thing that has really surprised me. Why do so many of the blogs use the exact same template with almost identical images to other “photo blogs?” Heck…..even some of the verbage is word for word the same as other blogs. The images almost always look like they were shot by the same person as well.
I’m disappointed that so many just go out and copy the work of someone that is basically already copying the work of Anne Geddes. Not only is that plagiarism, but it is as far as one can get from true creativity.
© Tim Pannell Photography
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with getting inspiration from someone’s work or vision and using that as a starting point or jumping off point…….but to do the same shot and then call it your own…..that’s not what photography should be about.
My advice……try harder. If you want to recreate someone else’s work as an assignment to learn a technique…..that’s great…..just don’t promote it as your own work. Any self respecting professional photographer knows there are laws in place to protect against that and would never do this.
There is a big difference between owning a professional digital camera and being a professional photographer. I’m a little taken aback by all of the misrepresentation going on of late. My niece is getting married in August and gave me a list of several “wedding” photographers’ websites to look at.
To my surprise….they were all just bloggers. All of them did something else for a living and did photography because it was their “passion.” Each of these blogs featured ” fully retouched or “edited” images” awash in posteriziation, clipped highlights and clipped shadows. Many of the images were very beautiful. Interesting crops, interesting use of available light (only available light) very limited scenarios because of their inability to do anything other than just point their camera and shoot.
This is a recipe for a wedding disaster. If you’re looking for a wedding photographer….don’t hire a blogger……get a professional that knows what they’re doing….it’s worth the extra money.
They initially wanted me to shoot their wedding, but I declined because even though I’m a professional in the biz for over 25 years….I don’t shoot weddings. It’s not what I’m good at and it wouldn’t be fair to them to misrepresent myself.
If you’re learning photography……admit it. If you’re still struggling with Photoshop……admit it. Don’t promote yourself as a professional baby, teenager, wedding photographer when you are consistently posterizing every one of your images that happens to have red in it. It’s not honest.
That being said……we all start somewhere….just be yourself…..not Anne Geddes, not your next door neighbor, not me.
© Tim Pannell Photography
Learn your craft so that you can try new things and experiment. It’s when you experiment that you come up with images that can look unique. Unique is a lofty goal to aim at since seemingly almost anything worth doing has already been done, but I think you get the point.
I spent a couple of days last week shooting with an art director friend of mine from New York. It was a blast to be working together again. It’s kind of like this intricately intertwined photography dance we have going. She knows me well and I know her well and consequently its a joy to shoot together….she brings out my best.
We spent several hours on a neighbors porch. She had so many wonderful knick knacks all over the place that made for wonderful props for my kids and families to use.
It felt a lot like play time for me as well as the models. We wanted the images to have kind of dreamy whimsical quality to them. We chose specific colors in the wardrobe and props to achieve that.
My personal opinion is…..it worked.
In any case…..don’t copy other people’s work or websites or text……it’s not ethical.
Sorry I got off on a rant there…..ooops…..I’ve just plagiarized Dennis Miller……ahhhh crap!
Just go out and play, have fun……..try something new and different………and most importantly…….be yourself!
© Tim Pannell Photography
Here’s a really simple photography tip: try to find a new angle to shoot from.
In the last couple of weeks I’ve seen the same shot over and over again.
A little kid sitting in a chair on green grass, shot from an adult’s perspective.
The adult stands in front of the kid and shoots down on them.
The adult is between 5′ 3″ and 5′ 10″ tall.
They’re nice shots, but I’m amazed at how consistent they are from picture to picture.
The goal isn’t always attainable, but it’s nice when an effort is made to try to be a little different than everyone else.
Look for interesting shapes, light patterns, backgrounds, colors and angles.
Try getting down low with your subject. Shoot at their level.
Try shooting them from behind, you don’t always have to show their face to get a great image.
I did this shot for a client down in Fort Meyers, Florida.
This playground was in a fairly ugly area and the background was really busy with old buildings, bad colors and unkept landscaping.
I wasn’t happy with the location and I was struggling to get something nice that captured the freedom kids feel at the playground.
I shot her from the front and hated it. I shot her from the side and hated it even more.
She wanted to go higher and higher and eventually got to the point where she was really leaning close to upside down at the apex.
I got down pretty low to the ground so I could eliminate the ugly cluttered background.
This let me shoot into the treetops and sky.
Since I wasn’t shooting her face, I was looking more for interesting shapes.
I asked her to have a good time and have as much fun as she could.
Mission accomplished.
© Tim Pannell Photography
One of the best photography tips I can think of is to not over think your shots.
Over thinking leads to overproducing.
Overproducing leads to frustration.
You don’t have to make a big production every time you go to take pictures of your kids.
You do, however want to control the things that you can control.
Just don’t try too hard to control your “subjects.”
Picture a scenario….the less contrived the better.
Pick good angles to shoot from so your background doesn’t detract from your images.
Be sure to shoot when the light is pretty – morning, late afternoon, open shade.
Have your kids and anyone else in the shots wear nice co-ordinated clothes.
Then, when you’ve got everything ready….go out and play.
Give people a basic idea where you want them and have them do their thing.
© TIm Pannell Photography
If you see something you really like give your kids some feedback and have them continue doing what they’re doing.
If it’s not working, don’t let them know it. Give them encouragement until it starts to look right.
Take your time, let the shot evolve. It doesn’t have to be “perfect” right off the bat.
Be playful, make it fun.
Springtime is coming soon…..even if it is snowing here in Utah…..ridiculous!
There are lots and lots of Springtime activities to shoot – gardening, water fights, picnics, playgrounds, parades, barbecues.
Pick something and shoot away.
© Tim Pannell Photography
Another good photography tip – you don’t have to make people look at the camera to get a great shot.
Shoot your kids interacting.
The kids will have fun no matter what their ages.
I take that back….if they’re 17 they won’t have any fun.
If they’re 17, find a different hobby. lol
© Tim Pannell Photography
Just when I had given up on getting any more snow to shoot in, we got 10 – 12 inches.
The forecast was for a whole week in the 50′s.
We’ve lived here in Utah for just 2 months and the weather has been accurately predicted about 4 of those days.
We heard for weeks and weeks in January about major snowstorms coming our way and then..poof….nothing…..no snow…..not even a flurry.
© TIm Pannell Photography
When they said that we’d see warmer, precipitation free weather for the next week……Blam!…..we get a bunch of snow.
Why do I bother listening to a thing these people say. Weather forecasters are the very definition of inept.
Sorry about the rant!
In any case, the snow came, we shoveled for a couple of hours and then went to work.
My youngest son stayed home from school and 3 of his cousins ditched as well.
It’s nice to know that I’m encouraging truancy in America and the non education of my family.
I just worried that if I didn’t shoot pictures that morning that even though we had a foot of snow outside, it would melt quickly once the temperature bumped up.
It was for good reason because that is exactly what happened.
© Tim Pannell Photography
By late afternoon 2/3 of the snow was gone.
Our snowman had bought the farm by 1 p.m.
We got the kids all dressed up and hit the ground running….literally.
I wanted to get images with a neighborhoody feel to them so we just shot outside our house.
It makes it real convenient to just be able to walk inside to download and edit.
If one of the kids gets hurt during the snowball fights, they can run in the house and get triage…..convenient, eh?
I just threw a tarp down on the ground in the snow, laid down and screamed action.
I shot the action shots with my Canon 70-200mm f2.8 set at f4 and 1/640th of a second.
I tend to underexpose my images just a little when I shoot in the snow in order to preserve detail in the snow.
I noodle around with curves later on in post production.
You want to pay close attention to your histogram as you shoot so you don’t end up with completely blown out highlights.
© Tim Pannell Photography
As usual, the key to getting great shots with kids is to make sure its fun for them.
Lots of encouragement with lots of laughter.
Don’t get uptight. Don’t make it life or death.
Be sure to notice when they start to get bored and change the action.
Move onto a different shot.
One more thing to pay attention to is color.
There are a lot of nice colors in this years winter fashions……thank heavens.
© Tim Pannell Photography
It’s nice to have a lot of scarves and hats to pick from as accents for the kids’ ski jackets.
Most places are completely picked over by now, but you may be able to find some killer deals for next year if you keep your eyes open.
You can find hats for 75% off or more in some cases.
If you can get a small arsenal of hats and scarves to use in your shots…..it’s totally worth it.
Find a bunch of colors that work together and have fun with it.
© Tim Pannell Photography
I don’t know if we’ll get any more snow this year or not.
I’m pretty ready for Spring at this time of the year.
Back in Arizona I’d be out golfing and seriously considering getting in our pool by now.
The key I guess is to appreciate the weather you have, when you have it.
Make the most of the photographic situation that presents itself and as always……..have fun!
