This Week's Photo Theme: 4th of July

I am looking forward to helping those of you who are going to bring their cameras to the 4th of July picnic.  In the meantime, here are pictures that can give you ideas for your pictures.  Remember to take LS through to ECUs.

Photo Friday Winners

And the two winners are...

Emily Hier: Gracefully Sleeping

and

 Anna Hill: Amazement

You qualify to have a photography class with me next week!

Good job to the honorable mentions!

More pictures from Tumwater Falls Park.

Next week's theme will be revealed tomorrow...I bet you can guess!?!

Shutter Speed: Waterfall

Today I took the Photo Friday winners to Tumwater Falls Park.  I taught them how shutter speed affects the look of pictures that have moving objects.  Water is an easy way to see this.  When the water looks smooey, we say that the shutter was opened longer (maybe 1/4, 1/20 sec).  If the water looks like little diamonds then the shutter was fast (1/250, 1/1000 sec.). 

Tips for Better Pictures of Children

I thoroughly enjoy photographing children and have opportunity to do quite a bit of it lately after many of our friends have had babies.

Probably the most important tip I’ve learned in photographing them is to get on their level. So many of my friends show me photos of their kids which are taken from 4 or so feet above the child which does nothing but dwarf them and make them look almost toy-like.

Getting on your hands and knees or crouching down before you take a shot of a child takes you into their world and helps you to engage with them through the images you take.

Photographing Babies
Babies are particularly difficult to photograph because they are so immobile. I find that one of the best ways to get good shots of them is to put them on a baby rug and too literally lie down next to them with your camera right on the floor. In this way you’re looking directly into their big beautiful eyes and it puts the viewer of the photo in the unique perspective of an eye to eye place. If the child has the ability to lift it’s head the effects can be amazing as you almost find yourself looking UP into their eyes.

Photographing Older Children

The same principle of getting down low applies with older children although you do have a little less lying on the floor with them when they are at an age of walking.

I particularly find that with older children the best time to photograph them is when they are doing something that they enjoy. Go to the park with them and their parents, visit their house when they are painting pictures, get them to take you on a tour of their room or take them out to play their favorite sport.

While they are doing their activity hover around (at their level) and take plenty of shots. Also include shots with them and their parents and keep an eye open for those candid moments when they fall over, do funny expressions or ham it up for the camera.

If your camera has a continuous shooting mode it might also be worth keeping that on with bigger kids who tend to move around more. As I look back at the times I’ve done this it’s quite interesting to see that it’s often the second or third shot in a sequence that is best. Shooting just one frame at a time can mean you miss these golden opportunities.

Another benefit of continuous shooting is that you can end up with a great series of shots that might go nicely together to tell a story (see below).

Read more: http://www.digital-photography-school.com/photographing-children-composition#ixzz1Qdd2zphn

Skewer Through Balloon

How can you pierce a balloon and not make it pop?!?

Balloons are made of a thin sheet of a rubber called latex, a polymer made
of long chain-like molecules, or strands, that are all tangled together.

There are also bonds between the strands, call cross-links. This tangled, cross-linked
network of molecules can be stretched, but when you let go, it returns to its original shape.

This happens when the skewer is twisted through the side of the balloon.

Make sure to poke through where the latex molecules are under
the least amount of pressure.  Near the tied part of the balloon.

When a very sharp skewer is slowly pushed, with twisting, into the balloon,
the polymer chains are pushed aside, but remain bonded, so the balloon does not break.

The Vaseline helps to seal the holes.