Tips for mums: W2 Changing perspective

Are you standing when taking pictures of your children or you just quickly put the camera to your eye and snap from the position you are currently in? Consider trying different angles and the whole perspective and the mood of the image will change.

Photographing from Eye Level
Most of the time I go down to my knees or even lay down (when babies are on their bellies) to be in the same level with child's eyes. When I photograph an older child lets say 5 -6 years old, yes, I am in that kind of 'sitting on the toilet' position :). This straight-on angle helps to prevent distortion, which will be caused by perspective or angle of view. This way I capture the way they are, nor smaller nor bigger.

Photographed at the eye level with no distortion.

Photographing from Below
If you go very low and photograph upward, you make your child looking taller. Also the subject might look to a viewer as if he is in control. For example, if your child is demanding something and saying 'I want my Ice lolly!' and has that typical stubborn expression on his face, you can emphasise the situation by going down on your knee and snap the picture upward. He will look even bossier and bigger. I love these kind of images, they are so narrative.

Photographing upwards I wanted emphasise, that he is a big boy now who is learning to bike, he looks older and taller.

Photographing from Above
When photographing downward, you need to remember that what is closer to the camera will be bigger than what is further away. So if you take a picture of your subject from above, not only he will look smaller than he is in overall, but also his head will look bigger compared to his body. It is a great way to show how we see children and how small they look in our eyes. I tend to do this especially when I want to show children's eyes, because as they look up they their eyes open up and usually they put on very curious expression. But I don't photograph from this angle very often.

I love his blue eyes and wanted to capture them, but don't photograph from this angle when it is sunny, they will squint!

Photographing from Above when child is laying
This is very fun angle and I love it, but you need to have the camera in eye level to your subject otherwise you might end up with picture where the viewer is looking up the nose. That is not something what you want to show :).

I stood right above his head, it is fun and great especially for little babies also you don't need to worry about background.

Photographing from behind
One of my favourite story telling positions. I like to photograph from behind when the expression of the subject does not matter to me so much but I am more interested in the story. You need to step back to include more of the subjects environment otherwise the image won't make much sense unless you are taking picture of the detail you want to emphasise (see below).

Painting the fence, I would not be able to see his full face so I have chosen to step back and include more of the fence.

Detailed image of his hair, which was quite long at that time and a bit curly.

EXERCISE:
Practise changing positions you photograph from but think also why, you are doing it. Upload your favourite to my ZuHuda Photography Facebook page and I will re-post my favourite one.

Puppy overshare

Lola is her name and she is our family member :). After seven long years of nagging and begging finally my hubby agreed to adopt a dog and now we have Lola, yaaay!!! She is so cute and sweet and even though at the moment the most frequent words in our household is 'stop biting, leave it!' I am absolutely sure, it was the right decision although the timing is not quite right. We should have got a dog long time ago...

So let me introduce you LOLA :)

 

Tips for mums:: W1 INTRODUCTION

 Photographers can capture beautiful moments and memories for you, create wonderful albums and lovely wall art but it is you who is there, when your baby first smiles, eats their first puree, walks first steps, claps her hands, wears uniform for the first time…

First steps

I am going to give you some tips, how to capture these special moments yourself and have pics worth printing, making a story or scrap book or whatever you decide to do with them but hopefully not just keeping them digital. :)

Playing with bubbles

Every week I post one tip here on my blog. I show you some examples and give you little task to try yourself. You can post 1 best image on my FB timeline and I will pick the best one and highlight it on my page and comment why I like it best.

This image always makes me smile :). It would not win any award but as mum I love it! Yes, I have it in our photo album :).

I get many questions about which camera or lens to buy. My answer is very simple. It is up to you what you want to shoot with. When I was deciding what to buy, I read all reviews possible and it took me some months to figure out what I want.

 

This years favourite summer image of my boy

The best person to advice you on buying camera is probably a knowledgeable sales advisor in camera store, who knows what cameras, brands are out there and what are the latest features or offers. 

However before you go to the shop ask yourself these questions:

What do you want to photograph?

How much do you want to spend?

How heavy/bulky can the camera be?

Are you willing to learn and be in control or do you prefer point and shoot and let the camera decide ?

On the left my very first digital camera and my little and big beast I am shooting with now. Picture taken with tablet :).

You can also post a question about what do you want to know or try. I will add it to my list and try to answer in one of my tips.

Next week I'll talk about geting down on your knees and even laying down :)

So let's try create better pictures of our kids for our kids :).

XX

Zu

Family together

This little girl has grown up so much since our last session. I am always very excited when returning client books a session. I wonder how much have the children grown, do they still like playing with same toys, has their expression changed when they are surprised? I have know Alice since she was born and everytime her mum gets in touch my mind starts spinning with ideas 'what shall we do this time?'

Looking forward to photograhing you in couple of months, love you guys! 

xxx Zu

Alice with her teddy and wondreful dress. She is so very cute isn't she!?

Big brother Daniel, future hearth-breaker :)

Must have picture with grandma!

3 generations :)

I was going for Mum and Dad picture and saw Alice walking to her parents, right there I knew this is going to be a fab image, they did not noticed her there!

Yes, you are family but couple too! This is so important to remember :).