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| catching snowflakes in her mouth |
I recently took some photos of our precious littles in the while the first snow of the season fell. It wasn't expected to stick or to be amounting to much, but it was so exciting for them.
One of my favorite things about chronicling our family adventures is catching our children experiencing new things. Children are amazing windows into seeing the world differently. Everyday things are so exciting to them!
Since I knew we wouldn't have much time for them to play in the snow,
I didn't wait for it to stop snowing. I definitely wanted to catch the snowflakes falling and their reactions to it. It was our mini mister's first time ever seeing snow!
I received several messages asking how to capture great snow photos of your kids after I posted these photos to Facebook. While I do not consider myself an expert by any stretch on snow photos, I think there are some basic things to keep in mind.
1. Don't be afraid to take photos while precipitation is falling. No, my camera is not weather sealed and it is my tool for my
line of work, there are precautions you can take. Either get a
rain sleeve, or you can
go ghetto-fabulous go green and recycle [like yours truly] with a grocery bag. I put a hood on my lens and the grocery bag and I'm good to go.
2. Put them in bright and fun colors! Snowy scenes create a great backdrop for tossing bright colors around. A fun colored scarf, coat, sweater or even boots can really add something to a snow day photo. I'm all for monochromatic and black and white but I like to balance these in family albums with great color images too. Our girls got these awesome nerd glasses they wanted for Christmas so we let them wear those too!
3. Manual Mode. Manual Mode. Manual Mode. Shooting in auto or program mode is usually going to produce a flat or badly exposed photo. Snow is bright and reflective [even when it's overcast] and leaving all of the decisions up to your camera is not a good idea. I know this because many years ago, I used to shoot that way!
Also, shoot RAW. The back of the LCD screen can be very deceptive. What might look properly exposed on the screen could end up being too dark once you get it into editing. Yes, you can check the histogram, and sometimes I intentionally overexpose a bit [that's my personal taste and style] but when I'm running around with my kids, I'm not checking my histogram.
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| There's something magical about this capture. Brie watching the flakes come down... |
4. Let them explore naturally & be their goofy selves. Children are natural born explorers. Everything is fascinating and snow provides a natural "toy" to keep them entertained. That's what's going to give you those "money" shots of them being natural and giving real smiles.
Don't make them say cheese. In fact let's pretend that horrible saying was never invented and remove it from our picture taking verbiage, okay? Okay.
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| She made a snowball and pelted Rory in the face. Nice throw. | | | | | |
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5. But how do you catch the snow while it's FALLING?! By this point, you might be wondering how to "stop" the snow so that it's all magical and sprinkles your photos with awesomeness. That was the most asked question, actually. This is why step 3 is important : shoot manually. You need to be able to up your speed. Which usually if you're photographing your kids in motion, you might already be there. I was around 1/1000 sec. It's hard to tell from the screen on the back of the camera if you're getting it, so be familiar with your camera! My ISO was around 400-500, with my aperture between 1.4 and 2.8 [depending on what I was shooting]
Have FUN! xoxo,Jane |
| The focus on the branch, let the kids be blurry in the background. |
