Taking Photos of Baby

As you'll see, if you continue reading past... here, I'm not an expert photographer.  True confession: I don't shoot pictures on a manual setting with my camera.  Yep.  I do sometimes use Shutter priority, and I know how to adjust white balance, but that's about it.  So I'm not going to give you a professional walk-through of camera using.  I'm going to tell you how I, as a mama, take pictures of my baby, and what works for me.  So now you know.

Since Rileygirl was born 9 months ago, I've taken countless pictures.  Really, I can't count them all.  I've filled up my 8GB memory card more than once, I've saved so many pics on my phone that it is now slower than Handsome-when-we're-late, and I've maxed out Dropbox.  I've learned a thing or two along the way, about how to take some good pictures and how to take some awful pictures.  Seriously, So. Many. Awful. Pictures.  Luckily, we're living in the photographic golden age, where we don't have to send our film off to get developed in order to find out that we've taken a terrible picture.  Digital is amazing.  And this leads me to my first tip:

1.  TAKE A BAGJILLION PICTURES. (see above)  This isn't to say that you should always be behind the camera. I've found that once I'm behind the camera, I'm concerned about composing the shot and shutter speed and a thousand things that aren't "living the moment".  Handsome used to make fun of me for looking at pictures I'd taken of some activity, while we were still doing the activity.  He had a point.  You don't want to be so focused on pictures that you're not enjoying the event you're trying to take pictures of.  But when you do decide to take some pictures, snap 4 or 5 or 40, if you can do it quickly.  You can look through them later and pick out the ones you like.  Again - they're digital - exploit that.

0.  Oops!  I guess this one should have been first.  Take a moment to set-up your camera.  If that means making sure you're on "Auto" for everything, great!  If you're feeling fancy, know you're going to be outside, and want to adjust your white balance [WB] (the thing that makes your pictures look yellow-y or blue-hued or just right), go for it.  If you're going for an action shot, make sure your shutter speed reflects that.  You don't want to miss a hilarious food-flinging because its all blurry!

Our bathroom gets terrible light about 92% of the time.
So if I want a good bathtub picture, I've gotta grab it between the hours of 3:40 & 4:20, EST.
Not that I plan her baths around good pictures or anything...

2. (back to our regularly-scheduled numbering) Get in the light! If you're aware of where your good light is, you can use that to your advantage.  If you have a room in your house that is nice and sunny in the morning, use it.  If you're outside and want to see the people in the picture, but the sun is behind them, jump on the other side & use the sun to light them up.  Whenever possible, I recommend indirect sunlight, but if you're conscious of your WB, you can rock a picture with interior lighting.

I set RG The Troll down for a quick shot here, because I knew the background wouldn't detract from her awesomeness.
If I were to zoom out, you'd see the firefighter gear off to one side, the painting on the wall on the other, etc.
Zooming in is a good way to avoid clutter.

3.  Remove clutter.  I first read about removing clutter here, and I'm so glad of it.  Sometimes it just takes a moment to shove those dirty bibs aside, or change your angle slightly, so that the background doesn't detract from your subject.

4.  Have fun.  A lot of the time, I find myself being super silly with RG in order to get her to smile for a picture, and then I stop once I get the shot.  NO, Mama, no!  She's not a performer.  She thought we were playing, and she liked it, that's why she smiled.  She liked you blowing raspberries on her neck, she thought this peek-a-boo game was going somewhere, don't stop just because you got your shot.  Take that moment to remind yourself that you're capturing pictures to remind you of the good times, and turn that picture-taking moment into one of the good times.  

Clearly, RG is having fun in this picture.
But I had to remember not to just have fun for the picture, but instead to let the picture catch a glimpse of the fun we were having.
This is also a good example of #5.
This picture would be sorry without the pumpkin!

5.  Props can help.  One of my great sadnesses (slightly over-dramatic phrasing...  ) is that I didn't get newborn pictures of Riley taken.  I have excuses, like "I was exhausted" and "I didn't care, I wanted to sleep" and "I was tired"... Okay, so they're all the same excuse.  But regardless, I wish I would have gotten some of the super-cute, sleepy-newborn-with-props pictures.  I thought they were kind of dumb, until I realized just how terribly cute they are.  Now, I make sure to throw in a prop or two for good measure when taking staged photos of RG.  Not just to up the cuteness factor, but so that she has something to interact with, something to help bring out her personality.  So throw in a prop, slap a bow (or bow-tie!) on that baby, stick him/her in a pumpkin, do whatever, even if it seems silly.  You can always delete it!

One of my favorites.
Not great light.
No matching.
Bedhead.
I dont' care.
See Also: Black & White covers a multitude of sins.

6.  Even if the light is wrong, you can't figure out your camera settings, and no one matches, click away anyhow!  Pictures are about remembering.  So if the event you want to remember is the early mornings of your baby girl watching you (expectantly) get breakfast together, it doesn't matter if the light is right or the clothes match or there's some bedhead/food on the face.  Take that picture (or take 7 - see #1!) and be glad you will always have it to look back on and remember.  These moments are precious.

I hope I've given you, if not earth-shattering information, at least a little motivation to snap some more pictures!  Later this week, I'm going to talk some more about what to do with all of those beautiful pictures you've been taking.  Do you have any tips for me?  Really, I'm not an expert, I'll take all the help I can get!

<3 M.