Friday, July 29, 2011

Q&A: Shooting while with family, how?

This question was written by Jessica B. from Salem, MA and I thought it would be a great oppertunity to share with the rest of you.

"Joe, I want to first say that I enjoy your blog weekly as I am waiting in traffic I can flip to it with my phone and see your great photos. I see that you travel allot, and you are with your kids as well. I have tried to take pictures when I travel, but my kids always complaign and get frustrated when I try to take pictures of them. How do you do it?"

Jessica, this isn't something that is going to happen over night. I got it the way I do because this has been a long time in the making! I went through that phase as well where my kids would not want to be in front of the camera at all. "Dad....not again....I'm tired of smiling".

Over the years, they began to see the images that I was coming up with and then I did this shot here, and I soon turned into the coolest dad in the world to them.


Things that helped me be able to shoot while on vacation, but still give the family the time they deserve.

Rules to Follow:
1. Family comes First, allot of times that means I can't be a photographer and I have to turn into a tourist/snapshot artist :) I have had to pass up the oppertunity on ALLOT of things to just shoot it and go, instead of taking the time to let a cloud cover the sun, an animal to change his position, a truck to move out of the way to give me better composition, etc...I'm sure you get the point.

2. Depending on how old your kids are, or if you are married or not you are going to have to do some planning. If you are married let your partner know that you would like a day to yourself to just be on your own and shoot. For guys, I'm sure if you told your wife "Baby, I'll take the kids for the day you go have fun at the mall or the spa" that it would be a good trade off for her to get that, and return the favor by giving you a day on your own for photography. If you are a woman, and need some time alone to shoot, offer your man something he hasn't got to do in a long time. It could be something simple like breakfast in bed, let him sleep in, schedule a pedicure for him (yes make him go) because you know his feet need some attention! Be creative, men aren't that hard to please women if you catch what I'm saying!

If you don't have time to give each other a day alone, wake up early before the sun comes up, and take advantage of the best lighting of the day! Catch the Blue Hour and the Golden hour at a place you had seen previously or scouted online for. Keep this in mind, for you "directionally challenged" folks. You need to understand whether what you want to capture at sunrise faces the North, East, South, or West! I've heard a many photographers tell me "I've seen this place online and it is spectacular with sunset shots" only for them to not know what they were looking at was facing the west or the east, and if the picture they were seeing was truly a sunrise or a sunset shot. They show up to do the shot, and figure out the hard way that they are there at the wrong time of the day! HINT...the sun rises in the EAST so you need to make sure that light coming from the EAST is going to illuminate your subject like you want! By you waking up early, and going to shoot, you can probably knock out easily a good 20+ quality shots before the rest of your family even gets out of bed!

Give your kids cheap point and shoots! Let them have fun while they are out. I even put ideas into a hat, and let them draw from a hat to see what they are shooting. I might put in the word "green", and whoever draws "green" out, has to shoot everything green that they see, but the composure has to be creative. For my 9yr old it took him some time to learn creative composition, but 2yrs ago he had fun just finding the "green" things.

You want pictures of your family on vacation, but they won't smile or give you the attitude of not wanting to be in front of the camera? This is easy, and is a great icebreaker to get them opened up and back in front of the camera. SHOOT CANDID...SHOOT CANDID...SHOOT CANDID. Leave them alone, and don't force them to stand in front of the camera. Let them be them, and watch them closely for great candid shots. Some of the best shots of people come from it being a candid shot, and not a staged one. It has more natural feeling to it. Below is one of the shots, where my son was sitting on a Canon at Ft.Zachary Taylor in Key West, FL. It was a candid shot, where I just took advantage of what he was providing, and I moved accordingly to position the sun behind his head, then adjusted exposure settings to give me my Starburst effect from the sun. Several other of his classmates asked him, "how come your dad was crawling on the ground" and my son says. Oh, he takes photos, he's pretty good, so he was probably making another good photo. It was quiet comical



Your family can also help you add to the element of the photo as well. I took them to an outdoor art exhibit along the beach and we found this frame, that framed the ocean. My daughter jumped behind it, and stuck her head through it making it a 3D Photo, and mimic'd the moving pictures from the movie Harry Potter.



Don't get your hopes up that you will have a perfect, photogenic, and photography acceptable family. Enjoy them while they are kids, because before long they will be gone, and you will have all the time in the world to have your "photography" days!

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