Don McLeer Photographic Art

Photographing Children: Put The Camera Down, and Step Away From The Baby

Written: April 22nd, 2010

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Funny concept for a photographer to write about. But the truth is that sometimes, you have to stop taking pictures. My girls have been in front of the camera since the moment they were born. After 8 and 10 years of seeing dad with the camera pointing at them, they can “strike a pose” on command at a moments’ notice. I think both my daughters might actually think my camera is a part of my face. But for those who are just starting to explore a lifestyle of photographing your children, and even for those in my position, sometimes you just need to give them a break. Taking a break will give you much better photos because your kids won’t just run away from that big black box which mom or dad is pointing at them again.

You may have heard it said before that taking too many pictures prevents us from savoring the precious moments in life. I absolutely could not disagree more. If there is a beautiful moment and I miss documenting it, it actually ruins the experience for me. Good photography stitches the seams in time and enhances a memory. I have a couple large black and white prints of our two girls hanging on our living room wall that were taken 5 years ago. I can still remember the day we shot those images, the girls laughs, their 3 and 5 year-old ideas for how to pose, and the stop for ice cream on the way home from the studio. But you have to get to the point where you can take photos and still be engrossed in the moment. This comes with time and practice. After 20+ years of actively doing photography, my camera is now just an extension of my eye and I can even shoot in manual mode without much thinking. And I even sometimes break the sacred unwritten law of professional photographers and just shoot in automatic mode when I don’t want to spend time thinking about lighting and camera settings and would rather experience the precious and rare moment where my kids are actually being nice to each other.

For those whose children are accustomed to our photographing antics and the lengths we go to capture “the moment”, the camera can actually be fun for them. Both my girls love thinking of things to do for me to photograph. And I find that for every few shots they make up, they’ll let me tell them what to do for another shot, so it’s a total win-win.

When do I know that it’s OK to put my camera down? When we’re going somewhere I’ve already photographed a zillion times, when I know I’m not in a particularly patient mood, or when I know that the girls need the whole me engrossed in their activity and not the me with a camera. In our obsession to photograph their every breath, we can often become selfish and ignore their needs or desires.

When photographing client’s kids who don’t know me, I’ve come across many a child who is terrified of my camera. Once, I had a mom even tell me that the child’s father was a hobby photographer. Figures. Poor kid probably had it “up-to-here” with picture taking and he really, truly was frightened. Even though I am being paid for my time, I sometimes have to explain that we need to take a break. I’ve even put my camera away, and just sat on the studio floor with the child to let him know I’m “OK” and won’t hurt him with the big black box in front of my face.

Sometimes, you just have to know when to give them a break and leave your camera alone. Above all else, make sure the memories you are capturing are good ones.

Tips For Photographing Kids and Babies

Written: March 18th, 2010

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I thoroughly enjoy photographing children and babies, because they haven’t yet developed that sense of self-consciousness. Kids are so naturally photogenic.

The most important tip I’ve learned in photographing them is to get on their level. I’ve seen so many photos of 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. When I’m in the studio with kids, I often find myself on the floor, crawling around with my camera to get better angles.

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

I find that one of the best ways to get good shots of babies and infants 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. To get the beautiful little bundles of baby joy, don’t be afraid to take photos of your newborn within the first 2 weeks. Newborns are the easiest to work with in the first 2 weeks because they don’t yet move their arms and legs uncontrollably. You’ll get those amazing Anne Gedes style poses in the first 2 weeks after birth.

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 find that with children in the 2-6 year old age range, the best time to photograph them is when they are doing something that they enjoy. Take them to the park, photograph them when they are painting pictures, get them to take you on a tour of their room or take them out to play in their favorite sport. If they are a little distracted, they’ll be less likely to run around out of your shot. While they are doing their activity hover around at their level and take lots of shots.

A Series of quickly captured images can tell a great story

If your camera has a continuous shooting mode it might also be worth keeping that on with bigger kids who tend to be more active. 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 great opportunities.

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

Change your Focal Length

Getting further away from a child, and zooming in can have a dramatic impact.

Another great way to change the angles of your shots when photographing kids is to use different focal lengths. If you’re using a Digtial SLR camera it might be worth investing in a couple of different lenses, like a wide angle and a longer zoom, to give you different options. If you’re using a point and shoot (most of which have at least a 3x Optical Zoom) make sure you use it. Taking pictures with a wide angle focal length can be particularly effective when getting in close to children. It opens up the angles and gives all kinds of interesting perspectives. I use an 18-55mm zoom lens on my DSLR which is perfect for this. It still allows me to zoom in a little but at 18mm the impact is amazing.

A zoom lens allows you to take photos from further away and will particularly be useful if the child is distracted by you taking photos. I use a 70-210mm zoom which I find very useful.

Have Fun

Lastly, the key to good kid shots is to rediscover your own inner child. Kids love to have fun, they do the unexpected, they love to experiment and test things out and they love to play. Approach photographing them in this spirit and you’ll find your pictures take on a wonderful childlike quality.

See more examples in my Kids’ photography gallery section: http://www.donmcleer.com/gallery-of-photography/kids-baby-portrait-photography/

How to Get Great Outdoor Photos Using the Sun

Written: January 29th, 2010

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The conventional wisdom in outdoor photography dictates that a subject should be well lit by the sun so that all the details of the subject can easily be seen in the photo. The easiest way to do this is by placing the sun at your (the photographer’s) back, so that the sun lights up your subject from a high front angle. There’s nothing necessarily wrong about this method. But we want to push the limits of of photographic skills, right? Right! So, here’s a tip to help you get more interesting outdoor photos, especially outdoor portraits.

The Hair Light provides nice highlights on the hair and shoulders of the subject

In the studio I, like most photographers, use a “hair light” for portraits. A hair light is a light that’s placed above and slightly behind a subject’s head. Done correctly, it creates a nice soft glow on the head and shoulders of a person. For female portraits, the effect is especially flattering, as it highlights the hair. But not only does a hair light create a flattering hair effect, it also helps separate the subject from the background. In this example, the hair light also highlights the shoulders too for a nice effect.

But of course, we can’t move the sun like we can a strobe when we’re in the studio. But, we can move our subject. If we break conventional wisdom, and turn our subject so their back is to the sun, and we are shooting into the sun we’ll get the “hair light” effect we are looking for. However, our cameras do not like to shoot into the sun. Unless you manually dial the exposure to the level of the back-lit subject (i.e. their face) the camera will likely auto-adjust to compensate for the bright background. Your subject’s face and front side will be too dark, possibly even silhouetted. And if you do manually adjust the metering for the subject’s face, the background will be overexposed. So how do we achieve a nice balance?

Using the sun as a hair light in a shadowed area under a tree provides a similar effect as a studio hair light.

The answer is by using “fill” light. By using a flash (or a reflector) we can put some light into the dark areas of our subject. The sun acts as the back/hair light, and our flash or reflector acts as the primary fill light. In the example above, we were under the shade of a tree, yet we had a stream of sunlight coming in down through the trees. Without some front-side fill light the face and features of my subject would’ve been too dark.

There are times when the subject is meant to be too dark. For example, this scene of the beach has a dramatic effect as the camera was pointed toward the sun.

When the sun is in the scene, be carefull of lens flare.

If the sun is in your scene, beware of lens flare. You can end up with streaks across the image which decrease contrast. Or you can end up with lens flare artifacts – bubbles of light on your photos that are caused by reflections within the camera. One way of avoiding this is to shield the sun behind something (like a tree or someone’s head).

As with all my photography tips, the best way to achieve good results is by trial and error. Just playing around with your camera and learning all the settings will help you get used to shooting photos in a variety of lighting conditions. So get out there, and have fun!