Style That Kid! Yes, please.

I'm really excited to be on the virtual book tour for Alida Makes's new 'Style That Kid!' e-book today.  Styling (or lack thereof, haha) is something I really struggle with in my pictures.  I've a made a real effort in the last couple of years to up my photography game- everything from a new camera and lens to photography courses and workshops- but although I can say my pictures have improved technically I'm still disappointed a lot of the time with the results.  I'd even go so far to say that's one of the reasons my blogging has slowed down as the internet can take only a finite amount of my family standing in our garden being basic.

Go get it here.

Alida to the rescue!  This is a great book that supplements technical photography skills with the more amorphous harder-to-learn (for me, anyway) understanding of how to make your photography more compelling and stylish.  She covers everything from the pre-shoot prep stage like choosing locations and props, to all the things you should consider during a shoot like positioning and contrast, and even post-shoot photo editing.   So armed with my new insight, I stepped out of my comfort zone to shoot one of the Shandiin tanks I made for summer.

Just kidding, still in my comfort zone / garden.  This is a picture to illustrate how I would normally take an outfit shot.  Straight on, clean outfit lines, conscious to show the pattern and fabric uninterrupted.  Nothing terrible, but also not very interesting.

Same for the back view- standard fare from me.

Except! With Alida's section on texture in mind, rather than throw her hair up into a messy ponytail as I would normally I introduced some visual interest and contrasting texture with double braids.  I think it better highlights a back as awesome and unique as the Shandiin's.

Okay- real talk.  This is going to sound ridiculous, but making Maia do anything other than stand was hard for me.

(Inner monologue) Why would she sit like that in the garden?!

But you can't see the lines of the top!

You can't see the outfit at all!  

This book really challenged me to think about things differently and opened me up to trying new things.  Breaking out of a long-established-and-safe photo routine is a big achievement for me, even if it's baby steps from the outside.

Next up is to try using some props (well, after acquiring said props).  It's something I really love when others do but without the book would've been too scared to try.

A massive thank you to Alida for writing a great book and having me on the tour!

You can purchase your copy here but Alida is also offering five copies of the e-book in a giveaway:
 a Rafflecopter giveaway 

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Capturing Childhood: The Workshop

I made a whirlwind trip down to London last weekend for the inagural Capturing Childhood Photography Workshop, travelling down on the train on Friday and back up to Edinburgh on Saturday!  After completing their Collect the Moments and Manual Overdrive e-courses, I was curious as to how much more the workshop would offer.  Obviously, the correct answer is heaps.

The workshop took place in a stunningly beautiful studio with the most amazing light.  The morning consisted of lessons from Kat and Kat on various topics interdispersed with tasks to test what we were learning.  Most helpful to me personally was learning about aperture; shutter speed and ISO I've been able to (more-or-less) wrap my head around but aperture nous remained elusive.  Consequently, I mostly shoot in TV mode and let my camera decide aperture.

But hark! I think I understand it now! The pictures I took on Maia's birthday were indoors with low light (a normal indication of impending failure) and I shot in AV for the first time ever.

We also had a very interesting guest lecture from a professional stylist Poppy Norton about dressing photoshoots, and a late afternoon walk about Shoreditch to practise our outdoor shots.

It was so helpful to be able to pick their brains on the spot about which settings to use rather than poring over diagnostics afterwords to figure out which combinations worked best.  Or didn't, as is often the case for me.

Those of you on Instagram might have seen that I had my own contribution to the workshop (which of course I didn't get pictures of before they were doled out) but nevertheless exist and Kat can prove it:

Rainbow camera straps for the goodie bags! They are comfortably padded and quilted straps with red leather ends and adjustable webbing. After I complete my outstanding orders and get the grown-up Skater Dress out to testers they'll be available in my shop.

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Collect the Moments: Redux

As the Capturing Childhood: Collect the Moments photography course finished while we were still on holiday, I didn't get a chance to properly share my thoughts on it. Or picspam you with some of my favourite holiday shots. So let's kill two birds with one stone...

I can't overstate how happy I am to have been on the course; the instructors were knowledgable and accessible, the modules informative and well-rounded, and the community of people taking the course were so engaging and supportive. Like many people, my photography was predominantly focussed on a 'look at me / look at the camera' remit which can produce good shots but also lots where the kids looked forced or unnatural. This course really challenged me to look at the camera as a bystander or a witness: to capture the mood, tell a story, show the personality of the subject.

These are my favourite shots from our day at the Connecticut Science Center (which by the way I highly recommend if you're in the area!).  Rather than lots of 'look at the camera / show me what you're doing' pics, I was trying to capture Jamie and Maia caught in the wonder of all that science.  The only picture that is 'staged' I re-focussed so that while he thought I was taking a straight-up shot of his creation, I was actually taking a picture of his fiercely proud face.

This collage tells the very sad story that the rules of baseball are hard.  From the back it just looks like a very sweet shot of friendship but by orbitting around you can see that two year olds, despite their reputations, are indeed capable of extreme compassion.

Or how about the story of 'I (deliberately) got my glasses wet, my eyes are all wet, ergo I don't need to wear glasses on the beach or probably ever'?  Nice try, Maia.

Two girls sharing a hula hoop, boys playing in the background. 

Pictures oozing with the personality of the subjects, but still natural.

And the technical information about lighting, focus, movement and framing were clearly helpful too.  Man, I really needed some technical help.

I think one of the biggest lessons I took from Capturing Childhood was that the journey to a picture is often just as good than the resulting picture. I think I love the shots of everyone reaching out to help Calvin onto the lifeguard's chair more than the posed one as it shows the dynamic in our family of closeness despite our distance.

Disclaimer: I received nothing in compensation for this review, I just couldn't recommend it enough!  Capturing Childhood: Collect the Moments is just about to start a fresh session if you're interested.

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Things: We Are Doing Them

We have been successfully evacuated from the wet and windy winterland.

All manner of holiday-related activities have ensued: swimming and beaching, the Farmer's Market, (the kids' first) fireworks, a science museum, and playgrounds. Infinite playgrounds.

And so many treats.  By the time I get around to photographing my Wonder Woman bathing suit, it will no longer fit. Or so I will tell you if I feel like too big a dork for public sharing.

Maia does not like the heat very much.  It forced us into a midday showing of Brave, which despite being a precise combination of the two things they are terrified of (bears and thunderstorms), was very much enjoyed by all. Other Things Maia Does Not Like would take to much of my Mum's bandwidth to chronicle, but she doesn't like mosquitos. The feeling is not mutual:

Believe it or not, this is day five of the bite and a vast improvement on days three and four.  And now a bite on her arm is going the same way.  So much fun.

Today's photos are courtesy of a new-to-me DSLR, which my mum kindly passed on!  Now I can take technically sophisticated terrible pictures too.

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Baby Steps

A little more than a week into the photography e-course and I'm definitely making progress.  Here's some of my favourite shots that haven't made it to the blog...

And I even shot all of these in manual!  My mum is very kindly passing on her DSLR camera to me when we visit, so I'm also thinking about joining in Capturing Childhood's latest course on Manual Overdrive.  The video is 2/3 enchanting and 1/3 intimidating, so many more buttons to learn...

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The New Specs Challenge

I can't quite believe that she's been wearing glasses for a full year now.  Which means a whole new set of specs!  The good news is that her prescription hasn't changed so we can use the old ones as a (much needed) back up pair and don't have to shell out to re-lens her sunglasses.

She tried on dozens at the opticians, but I'm very happy that she settled on this slightly cat-eye red pair. As fetching as the zebra prints were, the red has more mileage.  See how it matches her red winter coat? The winter coat that she is wearing on the last few days of May?

The first day of new glasses fortuitously fell in the first week of the photography e-course I'm doing through Capturing Childhood.  We're working on our lighting nous, and I actually took most of these shots in manual mode and I didn't even need to edit the sh*t out of them.

We are in unchartered waters, folks.

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Capturing Childhood

image courtesy of Capturing Childhood 

As I talk about in constant, tedious detail, I struggle with photography. With product shots, it might take me a hundred shots to get a handful that are acceptable. But at least product shots are repeatable; the clothes come out on another day and I try to do better. For me, the most frustrating aspect of taking sub-standard pictures is when I'm using the camera for personal and not business use. Special events, impromptu moments, holidays, and just spending time together as a family are the most important things for me to capture and I've had a lot of heartache when I've looked back on my pics.  Every single time this happens, I pester my friend Kat.  'Why does this happen?!', I whine on Twitter.  'What is going on?!', I post on her facebook wall.  'I have attached an album of terrible pictures for you to explain', I email.

Finally, Kat got so sick of me* that she collaborated with another fantastic photographer named Kat and together they designed a e-course specifically for capturing the everyday moments of having kids.  It's a six week module with a group of people all learning at the same time through weekly blog posts, assignments and plenty of scope to engage with and support each other.  And here's the video:

It made me a little bit tearful...... anyone else? Just me then.

So now I'm all signed up** and raring to go.  I'm really looking forward to learning heaps of things.  Kat's really looking forward to me not pestering her.  If you want to find out more, clickety click.


*This may not technically be true. I am very irritating though.
** This is not in any way a sponsored post and I gladly paid the full rate!

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Navel-gazing through the medium of Kelvins

After what feels like (and could quite possibly be) hundreds of hours of research into how to take better pictures indoors in poor lighting, I shelled out for a behemoth of a lightbulb that is especially calibrated to mimic daylight. It's almost as big as my head, which is admittedly small, but still- the lightbulb is massive enough that it can't be contained by my previous lightshade. I took some very quick test shots:

These are completely unedited comparison pics, straight off the camera.

And these were given a quick white balance adjust in Picnik.

What do you think... better, worse, indifferent?

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Breaking News: Swish camera has 'Beach' mode. So we go to the Beach.

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