Blessed.

September 29, 2010 | Filed Under sneak peeks | Leave a Comment 

I am so very very lucky to be able to do what I do…I think I need someone to pinch me! This lovely Palo Alto family asked me to come do portraits for them, and we had such a joyful day, I hardly know where to begin…

Their house had amazing light and color everywhere:

then we went for a walk to the library and the park (and ate some toddler toes, because I’m all about the cannibalism when babies are this cute and giggly ;-):

…and, of course, we had to do some swing shots (I mean, this is *me* we’re talking about ;-): 

…and then we finished up with some snuggles on the grass (and I made papa pose for a funky ladder shot, because that’s how I roll ;-):

Thank you so so SO much my dears, for such an amazing day, and for making it possible for me to create some art out of your love!!

xoxo,
Lilia

5 Tips for Taking Better Pictures of Your Kids

September 21, 2010 | Filed Under cuteness, tips | 4 Comments 

So, it has come to my attention that not every parent in the world is (or lives with) a professional child photographer.

I find this to be simply SHOCKING! What are you people *thinking*?!?

In all seriousness, I know that, as much as my clients would love to have me following their children around every single day to capture every single cute thing they do (I’ve been asked, though, and it’s awfully flattering! ;-), that’s just not feasible. So, for those 364 days out of the year when you *don’t* have a family photographer, here are a few tips to help you get shots that you love…illustrated by my (almost)daily shots of a kid that *I* love.

No. 1. Pay attention to the light.

This could really be called Number Zero, or A-Number-One-Most-Important-I-Am-Seriously-Not-Kidding-Around-Here-People…photography is about light. Seeing the light. Playing with the light. Figuring out where it is, what it’s doing, and how to use it to make better pictures. Find the light in your home, notice when your kids are playing near the windows (one of my favorite spots is just inside our front door):

Experiment with backlight, with side light…once you’ve ditched your flash (see tip #2), you’ll start finding the spots where you get sweet images that just glow…and you’ll probably find that your child gravitates toward those areas to play. When you’re outside, pay attention to where the sun is, and try to avoid taking pictures when there are harsh shadows on your child’s face (you won’t like the result, I promise).

You’ve probably heard of “The Golden Hour”…that hour just before sunset (or just after dawn), when the light gets all buttery and juicy (yes, this I how I think about light…it makes me salivate)…try going for a walk with your kids and your camera after dinner…see how different the light is from the middle of the day High-Noon-Shootout-On-The-Playground:

You’ll be shocked at the difference in the images (which is why I will almost always push client shoots as late in the day as little schedules will allow – the light is just sooooo much better and we have more flexibility in our locations). If you do end up in a situation with harsh overhead sunlight, you can consider using a fill flash (just about the only time I’ll break my no-on-camera-flash rule), or looking for some open shade.

No. 2. Turn off your flash

On camera flash = pretty much evil. And not just because it gives you those oh-so-attractive I-made-a-deal-with-the-devil red-eye shots. Using your on-camera flash is pretty much guaranteed to kill any spontaneity and naturalness that you might have found in the image. “But I don’t have a fancy dancy $2700 DSLR with a super fast lens!” you say? Well, that’s a pointy point…and I will confess that most of my camera upgrades have been a result of my quest to push my usable ISO value (the equivalent of film speed) up…but, honestly, I find that I’m happier with a grainy (aka noisy) high ISO shot (yes, even from a point and shoot), or an aperture priority shot (when you turn off your flash and tell your camera to shoot as wide open as it can go) that has a bit of motion blur because the shutter speed was waaaaay low.

The image above is a case in point – I shot it back before I had much of a clue about photography, before I even owned a DSLR. I love the image. Love it, in all its unedited, un-color corrected, un-noise-reduced, blurred glory….and not just because it contains a baby in a Star Trek uniform….I love it because it’s the moment, and there’s no distraction of a flash, no harsh light….and my muse was a FAST crawler! I’ll take that shot over one where my flash went off and I have a deer-child in my headlights, startled and grimacing and definitely NOT being all cute and natural like she was just a second ago. So, turn off your flash. Practice having a steady hand, bump up your ISO (or put it on auto), and see what you can see…which brings me to:

No. 3. Get down on (or even below!) their level

It’s a wonderful thing to get down on your child’s level…sit on the floor….even lie down across the carpet…get as low as you can, and shoot up at them…see the world the way they see it, and put them in their own context. It will give you a wonderful perspective on how they see the world every day, and how they fit into their universe.

Now, this is a grain of sand piece of advice, and might actually better be titled Pay-Attention-And-Vary-Shooting-Height-And-Perspective (which our editorial board nixed after heated debate because it really doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, and I really can’t blame them).

I say this because some of my favorite pictures of my muse are from directly above, looking down…it’s often a view of her that I see, and it really speaks to me of her intent engagement with her own world…at her own level. Plus, she’s got these flipping AMAZING eyelashes (don’t they all?!)….which is a neat segue into…

No. 4. Love every bitty bit

When it comes to my muse, I love all her little bits….I love her hands, her feet, her wispy hair (especially wispy beach hair), her eyelashes…even her belly button.

As a parent, you love every grubby, sticky, freckly wonderful bit of your child…so document it. Get the chubby hands, grabbing a crayon for the first time. Get the way he curls his toes around one another when he’s eating spaghetti. And, yes, grab the bare tushie shots as he runs shrieking away from changing table.

In addition to being some amazing blackmail fodder for their teen years, these little closeups will be Exhibit A when you go to make the argument that time goes by WAY too flipping fast. “Freeze her in butter sauce,” is what we say in our house. Every bitty bit.

No. 5. NO CHEESE!!!!

Sometimes, at the beginning of a family session, I’ll be hanging out with a 6 year old who will be laughing and giggling…and, as soon as I pull out my camera, I’ll see a huge change in her expression…for a moment, I’ll worry that she’s in pain…and then I realize, no, it’s just the dreaded “cheese smile.” So I put my camera down and we have a conversation wherein I reveal the shocking secret that You Don’t Always Have To Smile In Photos. SHOCKING, I tell you!!

Please please PLEASE don’t ask your child to say “cheese”…the result is never pretty  (see above)….and more importantly, it’s never *real*…and real, authentic emotion is pretty much essential to a meaningful portrait. A real smile? It’s breathtaking…it makes your heart go pop (even when you’re being lazy and letting your camera choose the autofocus points so her hat is more in focus than her eyes ;-):

I would ten million billion times over rather have a real, serious, contemplative look over a fake smile. If you have a serious kid…let him be serious. Capture him just as he is…and if you want a smile, say or do something funny. Talk to him about his latest obsession (right now, with my Muse, it’s Tom & Jerry). Connect, and document the real moments, as they happen…you’ll treasure the result, I promise…even if there’s no cheese in sight.

And when those *real* smiles appear? No substitution will ever do.

And there you have it…my first 5 tips for taking better pictures of your kids when I can’t be there. I hope that this will be helpful, as you attempt to navigate those perilous professional-less waters of your everyday photographic life.

xoxo,
Lilia

p.s. Silicon Valley and SF bay area families: fall is booking up fast – if you’re planning on doing family portraits with me before the holidays, now is the time to call or email!