“If you could offer only one piece of advice to help me take better pictures of my kids, what would it be?” I was asked this question as the guest speaker at a parenting group recently. My answer, just three words, flew out:
“Photograph with love.”
The single most important ingredient in photography is emotion. Whoever you are pressing the shutter, your heart is in each photo you take. Your unique personality and outlook on life can be felt in the photographs you create. Photography provides us with a superb, rich and parallel forever-narrative; subjects or photographers, the people we love are never gone. Timeless captures allow us to come as close as we’ll ever come to the impossible: experiencing a specific, genuine emotion again. Good photography is purposeful. While your gear and technical skill set will impact the quality of your photos, you should first consider your emotional approach. Here are 5 things you must do (whether you shoot with a disposable camera or the newest digital camera on the market) in order to create meaningful photos:
1. Be present. Actively engage in your life. In a world where we’re trained to a) constantly accomplish stuff, and/or b) exist in a perpetual state of distraction, being present is an easily buried simplicity. Try this simple exercise: take a long, deep breath in through your nose. Slowly let it out through your mouth at the same time that you imagine your mental to-do list spilling away. Breathe away demands and expectations. To be present, awaken your senses as often as you can. What do you hear? What do you see? Fuel your heart with the ordinary. When you’re really with your kids, you’ll learn special things about them that you might have missed out on. You’ll have the opportunity to overhear or take part in the best conversations. You will see and want to record what would otherwise dissolve under layers of life. You’ll laugh more. You will learn about yourself: what you’re capable of letting go of and what you can’t live without achieving. There is great clarity in living in the moment; a natural attentiveness and appreciation.
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2. Pick up the camera often. Be Respectful. I probably won’t remember even a fraction of the things my children say and do on a daily basis, their ever-changing expressions and growing personalities. Life gets to be a blur when you have kids – daunting for the memory-keeper within! Last year, I finally bought a phone. I can quit lamenting “I should have brought the camera” when I’ve felt too weighed down to carry anything else. For me, it’s a little bit like a security blanket tucked in my back pocket and allows me the freedom to document our daily stories. When you find yourself thinking “I really want to remember this” – listen; your inner storyteller is nudging you to pick up the camera. Just to be clear, I’m not suggesting you photograph anything and everything. That would completely negate #1. Photographing with love requires you to be respectful: ask, accept, and know when to leave the camera out of it..jpg)
3. Become a Natural Story Ninja. What the heck is a “Natural Story Ninja”? A job title and you’re hired – read on! Candid photography captivates us because it documents a connection, emotion, something meaningful and therefore worth remembering. Photograph the “ohhh, I remember that!” moments for your family and the special ones in between that they were too young to remember. Sometimes this’ll mean that you need to be quiet and stealthy (that’s the “ninja” part). Shoot from a variety of angles; try bird’s eye point of view or lying on your belly. Do yourself a favour and ditch the list of poses from Pinterest. Be yourself. It’s not hard to be authentic; just tell your own stories.
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4. Zero in on the details. Photograph those little curls at the nape of his neck, her freckles, the way she lines up her My Little Ponies at the end of the bed, his latest Lego masterpiece, his obsession with light switches, the way he sleeps with his feet on the crib rails. This is the good stuff and trust me, you are going to want to remember it.
5. Let go of perfection. Delete with care. Composition, focus, exposure are important, yes, but secondary to emotion. Don’t erase every image that isn’t perfect. Maybe you missed focus or the light was dull. If you’re quite normal, you definitely don’t always (er, ever) have a photogenic living space. As years turn into decades, not a soul is going to care or even notice any of the imperfect. They will be thankful for the incredible story, however small, from a time they were too tiny to remember or perhaps didn’t belong to at all. If you love the feeling a photo evokes, let it be. Hold on to your stories. Even the ones that include persistent appearances of smurfs. Perhaps, especially those.
© Laura Reive, 2014
Specializing in photographing newborns, babies & families in Simcoe County, Barrie, Elmvale, Wasaga Beach, Collingwood and surrounding area. Connect to book your custom portrait session – 705-322-6546 | info@laurareive.com