The Memories Captured Project: leading lines and where to find them in your neighborhood

Welcome to the Memories Captured Project, a series designed to help parents take beautiful pictures of their children. See more in the series here.

Today's post was lots of fun to write, and it applies not just to parents, but to everyone who wants to take better pictures. The subject? Leading lines.

Leading lines are lines within a picture that naturally draw the viewer's eye to the subject. Leading lines are one of the major compositional tools photographers use.

Take for example this little snapshot of my toddler at a picnic area:

Here are all the leading lines found in the photo:

Do you see how many elements of the table and seats draw your eye to the subject?

Leading lines can be either found in nature or found from the architecture of your setting, and are emphasized by strategic placement of your subject.

Here are a few pictures I snapped of my toddler in our neighborhood last week. They were snapped in the hour before bedtime, with my crazy toddler and my twins in the stroller, just around our house. But hey, if I can find leading lines without even trying, imagine how much easier it will be to find great leading lines when you have no other distractions and are purposefully focused on your goal.

Another example:

This is a little snapshot I took of my youngest daughter crawling last week. Do you see any leading lines?

Even the grains and grooves in the hardwood floor help draw the eye upward toward the subject.

The great news is that leading lines are everywhere. Everywhere! In the middle of nature, in the middle of a city, inside your own home.

Here are a few good places to find leading lines in your own neighborhood.

+ roads
+ sidewalks
+ pathways and walkways
+ stairs
+ playgrounds
+ fences
+ anything with multiple iterations in a row
+ shadows, clouds, or light bursts

A great place to start within your own home is your couch. If you take a picture of your child sitting on a couch from a straight-on angle, there's not many strong leading lines. But if you scoot your child to the side of the couch, and then take the picture from the opposite side, you'll find leading lines going straight to your subject. Then head outside and crouch down to take a picture of the sidewalk. See all the lines drawing your eye down the sidewalk to infinity and beyond?

Two examples of leading lines in rural settings:

The good thing is that, once you're thinking about leading lines, they are absolutely everywhere, and easy to find. It's a fun and easy way to really improve your composition and make your photographs more visually appealing.

And now I want to go out again, sans kids, for a fun leading lines shoot. Anyone want to come?

Does this help introduce leading lines?

I'd love to see your favorite leading lines pictures!

The Memories Captured Project: How to get your toddler to smile for the camera

Welcome to the Memories Captured Project, a series designed to help parents take beautiful pictures of their children. See more in the series here.

Last time, I explained how to get babies to smile for the camera. But toddlers? Toddlers are an entirely different game! All my strategies for getting my baby to smile went out the window as she got older and began walking (usually away from me, right when I wanted to take her picture).

Individual personalities are definitely a factor, but today I wanted to share tips and tricks that help my toddler (and my photography clients' toddlers) smile for the camera.

HAVE YOUR CAMERA READY

A lot of great photo opps have been missed because my camera was all the way on the other side of the house, or not charged! I started keeping my camera charged, with a memory card, and in the same central location in my house. That way, when my toddler suddenly thinks plugging her own nose is the most hilarious thing on the planet, I have time to capture the giggles before she moves on. If I'm really in a pinch, I know I can at least capture the moment on my phone camera, which I almost alway have with me.

PRIME THE CONDITIONS

Toddlers won't smile if they're not in a good mood! (I actually love this about toddlers, because you know when they do smile, it's a totally genuine and real grin.) It's also hard for a two-year-old to understand that you'll have dinner soon, if they can just smile and be happy for ten minutes beforehand. I always try to avoid photoshoots right before bedtime, or when they're super hungry.

RELATED: HOW TO GET YOUR BABY TO SMILE FOR THE CAMERA

LET THEM KNOW

The great thing about photographing a toddler instead of a baby is a toddler can actually understand you. When I need to take photos of my daughter for a sponsored blog post, for example, I'll tell her what to expect before it happens. "When we get to the park, you get to take a few pictures with mommy, and then I'll push you on the swing." When you set expectations with your toddler, they feel in control, happy and are much more likely to oblige and give you that cute grin for your family Christmas card.

GET IN THE PICTURE

This is my trump card and number one tip! The easiest way to get a toddler to smile is to have one of their parents or a sibling play with them. Twirl around with them, tickle them, or chase them. This is also a great way to capture toddlers interacting with their favorite people, and makes for really sweet and memorable photos.

FOLLOW THEM AROUND

Gone are the days where good pictures have to be formal, posed, and with a perfect studio backdrop. I've had huge success following toddlers around, being silly with them, and becoming interested in what they like. When they're in a natural environment, real smiles will come easily! Plus, you get a more authentic snapshot of what your toddler loved at that age.

RELATED: FINDING BEAUTIFUL INDOOR LIGHT

BE SILLY

Self-respect and dignity? Yeah, you don't have that when you're trying to get a toddler to smile. Play peek-a-boo from behind the camera (great for younger toddlers), whack yourself in the head with a soft toy, or make a big show of trying to losing and finding your own thumb (great for older toddlers). Guaranteed to make them laugh!

THE BEST SHOTS AREN'T ALWAYS CLASSICAL SMILING PICTURES

Many of my favorite pictures of toddlers don't involve a smile. I love following toddlers around and capturing the little details and candid shots that show their personality. If you don't get a good smiling shot right when you want it, that's okay!

RELATED: 30-SECOND EDITING FOR BEAUTIFUL PICTURES

PIN FOR LATER:

What would you add?

Tips and tricks to get your toddler to smile?

The Memories Captured Project: how to get your baby to smile for the camera

Welcome to the Memories Captured Project, a series designed to help parents take beautiful pictures of their children. See more in the series here.

Today's post is all about those baby smiles. The question I get most often is how I find good light in my home (see the answer here!), but the second most frequent question is how I get my kids to smile for the camera so often. 

First of all, baby personalities do have something to do with it. My oldest was probably the most smiley baby on the planet. And of my twins, one is way more likely to smile at you, while you have to really earn a smile from the other one. 

That being said, I'm happy to share what I do to get my babies (and my photography clients) to give a big gummy heart-melting smile for the camera.

HAVE A SECOND PERSON HELP YOU

This is my trump card and number one tip! Babies are social creatures, and they're way more likely to smile when somebody else is there to say "Hi!" and "Boo!" and make ridiculous silly noises. Babies are much more likely to smile for a familiar face than a strange clicking camera. In the picture below, my toddler was standing right next to me making the babies smile.

PRIME THE CONDITIONS

Babies don't understand that if they smile for ten minutes, THEN they'll get fed. I like to take pictures when babies are the happiest - usually in the mornings, after a nap and a big meal. This picture was taken right after my daughter woke up from her morning nap, during the five minutes when she's just happy to be alive and doesn't realize she's hungry. Find what works for your baby and prime the conditions.

I was recently at a wedding and the photographer offered to take a snapshot of my family after the big group pictures were over. Honestly I told her no thank you, because we had a baby who had missed her nap for the wedding and was about thirty seconds from a breakdown. I knew if we tried to get smiles out of her it would only end in tears from the baby and stressed out faces on the parents. 


DON'T USE TOYS OR LOUD NOISES

If you're photographing a toddler, toys are a huge hit (especially toys you can whack yourself in the head with). But in my experience, if you pull out a toy mid-photoshoot, the baby will just get distracted and want to reach out to grab and drool on the toy. The exception: I once had great luck hiding behind a teddy bear and playing peek-a-boo with the baby I was photographing.

GET IN THE PICTURE

First of all, I say this because I absolutely cherish the three pictures I have of my mom and me together, and I so wish she had been in the frame with me more before she died. Please, parents, do yourself and your children a huge favor. Get out from behind that camera and into the frame with your children.

On a more practical note, babies are happy when they're being held and played with, so holding your baby + tickling them + swinging them in the air is a great way to get them to produce huge authentic smiles for the camera. 

BE PATIENT

All babies have off days. On some days, for whatever reason, babies are more tired and fussy and don't want to smile for anyone, much less the camera! I know some photography studios that will book a two-hour block for a half-hour newborn shoot, so you have some flexibility if your baby needs one more feeding in order to be happy. At-home photo shoots are much more flexible, so if your baby is not feeling it, try again later!

THE BEST PICTURES AREN'T ALWAYS CLASSICAL SMILING PICTURES

Some of my all-time favorite pictures of my children don't involve them smiling at the camera. Capture their tiny toes, their wide-eyed curious face, the little pout they make when they want to be picked up. You don't need a smile to call it a perfect photo. Exhibit A: my twins holding hands in this detail shot.

THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS TOO MANY PICTURES

Unless you're shooting on expensive film or have a super old 4GB phone, there is no such thing as too many pictures! In the picture below, I had basically given up on getting a smiling picture. The twins were NOT having it that day. So I let them roll around for a bit, and then they rolled themselves together like this (I just had to adjust my daughter's head a bit) and gave me these cute smiles. Even if you take 100 pictures and keep 5 from a shoot, it's worth the effort to capture those priceless memories.

Do you have any magic tips for me to add?

How do you get your babies to smile for the camera?

And what do you want to learn next?
I'm already planning a post about getting your toddlers and older kids to smile.

The Memories Captured Project: Finding Beautiful Indoor Light

Welcome to the Memories Captured Project, a series designed to help parents take beautiful pictures of their children. See more in the series here.

Today's post is all about that good indoor light! By far the most common questions about which topics I should cover were all about indoor light. How do I take good pictures of my kids when we're inside? Where should the light be coming from? What if I live in a darker home?

Photographers are ALWAYS thinking about light - it's one of the biggest factors in how their product turns out. Light and bright, dark and moody, harsh shadows, endless brightness - there are a million ways you can manipulate light to produce beautiful and artistic photos. My personal style is light, bright and happy, so I'm going to share tips that help me achieve those types of photos indoors.

1. Find the best light

Open all the curtains in your house. Check the lighting in each room in the morning, middle of the day, and 1-2 hours before sunset. I'm always surprised which rooms get the best light, and what times of day. You're looking for lots of sunlight and that beautiful glow.

This is the corner of my bed in the master bedroom (and my toddler who refused to move for the picture):

This room gets lots of light in the mornings, so I like to strip the blankets and pillows off, open the curtains all the way and take pictures of my kids on the bed during that time of day. Here are some pictures taken with my kids on the bed (the first one is from my old apartment, which also got great light in the bedroom).

2. Turn off the flash and lights

I'm serious. Unless you have a super fancy external flash that you paid hundreds of dollars for, TURN OFF THE FLASH. When you photograph your child indoors with the flash on, their face will be overexposed and bright, and the rest of the picture will be thrown into harsh shadow.

Also turn off your overhead lights if at all possible. Unless you have those fancy bright daylight bulbs (luckyyyyyy), your overhead lights will put a weird yellow tinge on your children's pictures. It can be edited out, but it's better not to have it in the first place.

If I'm trying to capture a really memorable moment late at night or in the fairly dark far back corner of my kitchen, I'll turn the light on. But for the most part, turn the lights off and the flash off. (You can easily brighten the picture by following my tips from this post.)

Here's another example of a room in my house that gets fairly good light, thanks to the huge sliding glass door. The living room:

And here are some pictures I've taken in the living room. No light, no flash, no color distortion.

3. Avoid direct sunlight and backlight

If you have direct sunlight pouring in a window, place your subject just outside of the direct light. Almost all my food photography pictures in my old apartment were taken in my daughter's room. It got LOTS of direct sunlight, and so I'd just place the food on my faux backdrop right next to the direct sunlight.

Also avoid backlight. If you have a huge window with tons of light coming in, fabulous! Just don't place your subject directly in front of the window (unless you're going for an artistic silhouette picture that also captures the details of what's just outside the window). Instead, place your subject to the side and turn their face to the light.

My kitchen gets lots of direct sunlight. See how backlit it is if I stand here and take a picture?

When I take pictures of food for my blog, I scoot the table to the side a bit so it's out of direct sunlight, and then I take the picture so the light is coming in from the front and side. (I put my faux backdrop right on top of my kitchen table for these pictures.)

6. If you can move your kid to the good light, do it

Obviously you want your pictures to be authentic. So if your child has spilled an entire box of cereal in the kitchen, you'll photograph it in the kitchen, even if it's not the best light in the house. But ask yourself, "Can I still capture this moment if I move my child to where the good light is?"

For example, my twin babies will be cute and smile anywhere. So if I want to photograph them giggling, I'll put them where the good light is and then start playing peek-a-boo. When they get to be toddlers, it gets much more tricky. You want to photograph things as they're happening, and many times if you move toddlers to a different part of the house, they'll forget all about that super cute thing they were doing. The authenticity of the moment takes precedence over the best lighting, and that's okay.

A few pictures taken in the kids rooms. They don't get the best light, but the moment was authentic, so I took the pictures there anyway:

Hope this helps! If you're having trouble finding good light or taking good pictures of your kids indoors, please feel free to message me (on Instagram or Facebook or whatever works for you). I'd love to look at the lighting in your house and offer what tips I can.

The Memories Captured Project: Easy Valentine Picture Ideas

Welcome to another installment of the Memories Captured Project, a series designed to help parents take beautiful pictures of their children. See more in the series here.

Today's post is short and sweet. I wanted to share some easy (very doable!) Valentine's Day photo shoot ideas.

Some parents love to have professional pictures taken of their children for every major holiday. This is nowhere close to my style of parenting. But it is fun to have a few cute Valentines-ish photos, especially when your children are young and it's still cute to have them covered in kiss marks.

I took the liberty of rounding up some very easy Valentine's Day photos for you. None of these require fancy studio space. None of these require an elaborate cardboard kissing both or a DIY red and pink backdrop. Most of them only need some pink or red clothes. Add some lipstick kisses, half a dozen balloons, or a heart from Target dollar spot and you are good to go.

Picture credit (left to right, starting at the top): 

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8 // 9 // 10

Have more questions about how to re-create these Valentine pictures? Feel free to tweet me or message me on Facebook and I'd love to help!

Now go take those fun Valentine's pictures (and show me the finished product - I'd love to see!). Don't forget to use my 30-second editing tricks to make your photos pop. And then sit back and watch those Instagram likes pour in. ;)

The Memories Captured Project: Rule of Thirds

Welcome to another installment of the Memories Captured Project, a series designed to help parents take beautiful pictures of their children. See more in the series here.

Today's post is all about the rule of thirds!

What is the rule of thirds?

The rule of thirds is the idea that images are divided into 9 equal sections with two lines that break up the horizon evenly and two lines that break up the vertical evenly. It creates four main intersections in a grid that looks like this:

Studies show that when humans look at a picture, they don't look right at the center. They look at an intersection point, and then their eyes travel to the other intersection points. Almost universally, people do this without realizing or knowing it. It's what our eyes naturally do when we see a picture.

So it follows that the most important part of your picture should lie on one of these intersection points. The lines also give great guidelines as to where to place your horizon or other important lines in a picture. Scientifically, the rule of thirds helps you get a balanced and visually engaging photo.

Some examples:

See how my daughter's face is right in an intersection? This is a great way to draw the eye to where the main action is happening.

Another example of placing a face in an intersection:

If your portrait is more of a close crop, try placing an eye or mouth right at an intersection.

When I'm taking portraits, I always try to place the subject along a line. Like these two examples:

When you're taking pictures of nature, try to line up the horizon or another main focus point along one of the lines. In this example, the cactus is the main focus, so I put it right on a line.

In this one I kept the subjects in the middle, but I used the rule of thirds to loosely position the horizon line.

Do I have to?

The rule of thirds is one of the first things photography students learn. It's a basic guideline you should know for taking pictures of your kids. Do you have to follow this guideline? Nope! Do all of my pictures follow this guideline? Nope! But, as Picasso famously said, "Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist."

How can I possibly remember to line up the lines when I'm in the middle of trying to take pictures of my crazy wiggly kids?

The good news is modern equipment remembers for you! Even the very old point and shoot cameras have a grid built in to the display to help you line up shots as you take them. And if you don't get the shot lined up when you take it, every single crop tool comes with a rule of thirds grid to help you crop accordingly.

RELATED: 30-SECOND EDITS FOR BEAUTIFUL IMAGES

P.S. Will you help me for a second?

Leave a comment and let me know 

what you want to read about in this series.

What do you want to learn more about?

What frustrates you most when trying to take pictures of your kids?