DIY Holiday Photos

The holiday season is upon us! For any of you camera enthusiasts out there, this is the perfect time to put those cameras to good use. Use photos to show and tell people about your holiday traditions, whatever you celebrate this time of year. It's the perfect time to take advantage of the free on-camera talent that you have - your family and friends!

Here are some tips on how to capture your next holiday get-together using your point-and-shoot camera.

Photographs Tell Stories

The whole point of documenting an event in a powerful way is to tell a story in pictures. Like all stories picture stories have a beginning, a middle and an end that take people through the experience. If they weren't there, you want them to feel as if they were. If they were there, it reminds them of the experience in intimate, loving detail.

Many people celebrate many holidays during this time of year, but let's use Christmas as one example of a popular holiday gathering because most people know the general events surrounding the holiday:

1) Check your gear - make sure you have enough batteries and space on your memory card. Bringing a tripod may be cumbersome, but if you don't mind the extra weight, it's good to have. For various alternatives to tradition tripods, see the Resources section at the bottom of this post.

2) Let people know what you're doing-"I'm going to be taking photos for a slideshow for later," or "I'm creating a Christmas story book we can all enjoy." This helps people relax and enjoy the spirit of the event when they know what you're doing with the photos.

The Beginning, Event and End

All good stories have an introduction, a main event and an ending or conclusion. For the photographer, this means shooting photos that show each of these phases.

THE BEGINNING - When photographing your event, there are several types of photos or shots that will anchor your storytelling. These are called: Establishing shots and consist of portraits, detail photos and pre-event or preparation photos. The various kinds of establishing shots tell the beginning of your story. They not only introduce the viewer to your story, they set the mood for the story.

To document an event most effectively, you have to get there early, at least an hour before it begins. Begin putting your story/day together by taking "Establishing shots." These will set the time and location for your photo documentation. Establishing shots put the rest of the photos that you'll be taking in the right context for what you do with the photos later, such as creating a photo album, photo book or slideshow.

Examples: Wide shot of your mom's house / A highway sign that says, "Welcome to Townsville," or a shot of your parents opening the door.

Preparation Shots - When there's a big event, there's always preparation in the background. This is a good time to take some candid shots of people getting ready before the big event so your viewer feels the excitement and anticipation begin to build.

Examples: Mom taking the turkey out of the oven / Kids sneaking under the Christmas tree / People getting dressed or ready for the big day, especially if they rarely get dressed up (teenagers, children, etc). Think fun and silly.

Detail Shots - Your photos don't have to have people in them all the time and it's better if they don't. Details shots will help enhance the flow of your photos and give viewers a chance to appreciate the details of the day. Detail shots can help evoke a mood or emotion as well. You'll shoot these throughout the day, not just in the beginning.

Examples: Shots of decor in the house, like twinkling Christmas lights / Close-up of hands breaking an egg and other food shots / Shot of window looking out / A family pet sniffing presents / Shots establishing the weather - snow or frost on a window or ledge, leaves changing color in a tree in the yard / Flowers or candles / The centerpiece on the table or the table set and waiting for guests to arrive.

Portraits - Portraits help remind everyone of who was at the event. A group shot, or poised portraits are great, but candid shots are more fun and interesting for the viewer. Think natural light and candid shots as well as posed portraits. Use light coming in through windows, firelight and lights from sources in the room more than you use flash. You'll tend to capture some of your best portraits when people are unaware you're there. Hard to do, but so worth it! You'll also shoot these throughout the day as well. They can be hard to get if you wait, so shoot them as you see them.

Examples: Close-up of someone unwrapping a present/ Staring thoughtfully into the fireplace or out a window/or admiring the tree / Portraits involving parent and child / children playing or sleeping / Think about a portrait of carving the turkey or ham.

THE MAIN EVENT -This is the moment of truth. As a storyteller, it is best to be an observer at this point, watching reactions and grabbing photos of the emotions you see - surprise, laughter, joy, tears and smiles. Don't be afraid to walk around and document what you see, but don't be in your subject's face. Being too obvious with your camera will take away the spontaneity, and probably their enjoyment of the event. There's not much to photograph when people are eating, so sit down and be a part of the event.

Examples: Unwrapping or handing out of gifts / Family pets playing with wrappings / Goings on of people during event / The interaction of babies, toddlers, children and animals / Food being served or eaten / People playing video games, watching television, having snowball fights or playing sports in the yard / People interacting, cooking, cleaning up in the kitchen.

THE END - The end is really the event's conclusion, winding down, or aftermath. The Main Event may fade into the end slowly, or quickly, but keep shooting. Documenting the aftermath will be a good indication of how successful the event was. It is also a great time for photo opportunities. People are happy, engaged and even sleepy as events wind down. The stressful part of the day - the main event, be it dinner or unwrapping presents, or decorating the Christmas tree - is over and people relax.

Examples: Photos of people leaning back at the table talking, laughing or enjoying a cup of coffee, hot chocolate or a hot toddy / Youngsters, exhausted by the day taking time to nap in unexpected places.

Conclusion - You've worked hard on documenting this event and if it stays in your camera all your hard work is just put to waste. Your great story goes untold until you tell it in a book, slideshow or album. While the moments are still fresh in your mind, take time to put them together where people can see, enjoy and share them. You can:

a) Build a photo gallery and share them with everyone.

b) Print them as a coffee table book

c) Make a calendar out of the best photos and give it to your relatives after the event to help them remember the fun all year long.

d) If you really want to have fun, make badges, buttons, bumper stickers or greeting cards out of your photos.

Photos tell the story of our lives and relationships better than words ever can. Photos not only help us connect our customers to our brands, but they help us connect our friends and families to our hearts and memories. May your holiday season be filled with love, memories and photos to last a lifetime.

For more information, visit Donna Santos Photography
http://www.donnasantos.com

Taking Great Photos - Photos With Impact

Do your photos seem flat?

In this modern day of photography, we have more tools available to use, than ever before. But are we putting them to good use? "A picture is worth a thousand words" is a mantra repeated again and again. However, how do we change those thousand words from boring to inspiring?

It is far too easy with all the resources we have, to get caught up comparing megapixels and other technical jargon instead of taking meaningful photos. The digital cameras we have today are brought to life by over 150 years of photographic growing pains. They are good. They are all good.

We can illustrate it by this point. Give the most cutting edge equipment to an amateur. This includes the latest in lenses, camera, filters, and all the other items we are pushed by retailers on a regular basis. Now take an artful professional. Give them a four-dollar disposable camera, and send the two out into the world. Who do you think will end up with the better photos? And why?

The answer is that the person who is more concerned about seeing their subject matter, and creating feeling on film is the one that is going to produce the best photos. Being concerned with 100 different buttons, and settings is going to get taxing and is certainly more than enough to distract and confuse the amateur who is eventually going to resign to have the camera set to "auto."

The fact is that the camera really doesn't matter. It is the person behind it that will make or break any photos that are produced from it. Don't get me wrong, there is a place for the terrific cameras that we have today, and I am not saying that you should junk that DSLR you just gave an arm and a leg for. But what I am saying is that many aspiring photographers would do well to clear their minds of all the rules they are trying to learn, and start to pay more attention to what they see.

Just like we can sit in front of someone whilst they talk to us and not hear a word they say, we can walk past a scene that truly displays beauty and not even notice. We need to listen more than just hear. We need to see, more than just look. Once we see something, we need to learn how to show it best. How to describe this scene; with the photo we will craft in order to best describe a feeling.

Upon starting out in photography, I was sorely mistaken when I thought taking a photograph was about reproducing reality. And this misconception still runs rampant among people with cameras in their hands. We even speak about "normal" focal lengths, as if a photo taken at the right focal length will take a page right from reality its self. This simply is not the case. Have you ever been taken at the beauty of a sunset, and had your camera handy? Perhaps from a trip or vacation you had taken. When you got the film back weeks later, and were eager to show it to friends and family something just wasn't right. Upon sharing the photo, you had to mitigate your own sense of wonder by explaining that perhaps "you just had to be there."

The fact is that they were not there. And they rely on you to tell the story. Unfortunately we often do a better job describing this vocally after the fact, instead of trying our best to get it in the photo. The photo can speak for itself, we know that because they are worth a thousand words remember? So what are your photos saying? What do they say about the mood of the scene? The mystery, or intrigue? Perhaps the playfulness of it all, or the pain and anguish in this fleeting moment on earth? We often call this capturing the moment. What are the thousand words telling us to feel?

This is easier said than done. As I said earlier, photographs are not about reproducing reality. They are about creating it. If your photo has impact, it will create a reality all its own. It might not be exactly as you remember it, but it has the ability to touch, move and inspire you and anyone who looks at it into something more than just a scene on a two-dimensional piece of paper. A photograph can create a new world for the person viewing it, only if it has impact. There are ways of inspiring this, but not until we have unbound ourselves from the boxes we so easily fall into in this information age.

In conclusion, the next time you are going to take a snap, ask yourself what story you are trying to tell, and hot it will make someone looking at your photograph feel.

Learn Nikon is a site devoted to sharing the wonderful passion of photography with amateurs to experts. Focused on being a definitive source for the aspiring photographer who wants to learn about all aspects of crafting great photos. Please visit Learn Nikon Taking Great Photos [http://www.learnnikon.com/impact-photos.php] For more insightful articles. Though the site focuses on Nikon brand cameras, many of the articles are universal.

Now That I've Got My Photos On My Computer

In an earlier article on this site "What to do with all those digital pictures?", we talked about our system of using the marvels of digital photography to take thousands of shots.

We created folders in "our pictures" directory on our computer, one for each month of the year, and simply off-loaded the camera's media into the appropriate month folder as it became full.

This process provided a historical time reference for any photos stored on the computer. In a year or two we could still correlate a specific photo to the month and year in which it was taken. A helpful process for those of us who's memory is starting to get a little wonky!

Now, what to do with all these photos?

Make digital slideshows with them, that's what.

Our "DVD" case is full of home made slideshows created from paper and digital photographs.

Some slideshows contain all the pictures from a complete calendar year, with the months of that year as the chapters for that show.

Others are slideshows of specific events; family gatherings, a trip to Upper Canada Village in Ontario, Canada; you get the idea.

Not only does having slideshows provide hours of entertainment for gatherings at our home, having the slideshows on Cd's provides a back up should any of the original digital or paper pictures be lost.

So, how do you make slideshows?

For those folks that haven't the time, or the inclination to learn some software the easiest route is to contact a provider of digital slideshow services. Their professional experience will ensure an excellent outcome for your shows.

If you are more adventurous, and would like to tackle making slideshows yourself, here are a some tips.

If it's paper photos you want converted into digital, or it's existing digital photos you want converted to slideshow, first select all of the photos in question.

On the back of paper photos, number them from one and up, in the order you want them to appear on your slideshow. Decide if you want on-screen captions for some or all the photos. If so, write the text for that caption on the back of those you wish.

If you are converting paper photographs into digital format, which is necessary for making a slideshow, you will need access to a scanner. If that becomes a bit daunting, reconsider using a service provider. They will be able to handle the scanning of your photographs for you. They can then provide you with an electronic album of your photos, or create the slideshow for you, or both.

For digital pics, select all of the digital photos you want for a particular show, and copy them into a folder you have created for the purpose. Once you have the copies in there, rename them from one and up, in the order you want them presented on your show.

Create a word .doc with the text for each caption beside the corresponding number of your photo should you wish captions visible as the slides are shown.

Do you wish any chapter headings, a cover shot for the slideshow? Make a note of these.

What about music? Select the music you would like as background for your slideshow. Try to get music long enough (or a number of pieces of music that are long enough) to last the length of your show.

Each slide in your show should play for about 6-8 seconds. That's ample time to see the shot and to read the caption without the picture becoming boring. Therefore, if your slideshow has 30 pictures in it, your music selection should be around 3 1/2 minutes.

Please note that if your slideshow is for other than personal use, you cannot use copyrighted music, which is pretty much all the popular music of the day. If your slideshow is for business use, consider finding public domain, copyright free music for your show. It's available if you Google those search terms.

Before you begin building your slideshow, decide if you want voice-over narration instead of word text. Or maybe you want both? Your call.

Limit each of your slideshows to about 3-5 minutes so that viewers don't get trapped into watching for huge lengths of time. Unless they have a vested interest in the show (for example, they were with you on the trip to that luxury resort) most folks won't hold the same interest in your photos as you do.

So how do we convert paper photos or digital photographs into a marvelous screen slideshow that you'll be proud to display for guests or at the next company function?

That's for the next article; "Making a slideshow".

As always, questions about the process are welcome. Feel free to contact us through our website.

Mr. Wade has parlayed a passion for computers, the internet, and digital photography into diverse activities including his own web site that discusses web site building, creating digital slide shows, and crafting Ebooks. He can be contacted via that site: http://www.solid-gold-websites.com

8 Ways to Take Better Photos of your Children

1. Don't let them say "CHEESE" ever. I'm not even kidding, get this word out of your life (except when you're making sandwiches on whole wheat to serve with tomato soup and maybe some goldfish). I have no idea who thought this was a good word for kids to say, or why, but don't ever use it... Silly words work great, I'm a fan of 'pickles', I know, who'd of thunk? but it's other, and it makes them stop thinking about trying to smile... A friend of mine used 'fuzzy pickles' but that's a little disturbing to me, makes me think they're moldy! We all have silly sayings and inside jokes in our families that work fabulously, you can even say the same thing every time (although I think it's better to change), make something up, take something from Dr. Seuss, a line from a movie, Shel Silverstein...

2. Get closer. Those beautiful faces, those gorgeous eyes, they should fill the frame once in a while, more often than not even... My favorite photos of both my daughter, and my dog, are ones where there is no background at all, just those sweet faces...

3. Let them be themselves. When my daughter was really little she had these great froggy boots, and she never wanted to take them off, not even for the bath! We'd dress her in these darling little outfits, and she'd go get the crazy boots. It's who she was. I, as an artist, embraced that, and have such fun images of her in that stage. Often, as parents, we think they should be dressed a certain way, or look or act a certain way, but let them be themselves and your portraits will shine.

4. Let them play. Don't make it all hard work. I know sometimes we want a perfect photo to send to grandparents, or for a special occasion, but often, if you let them play and be silly, dance around, dress up, twirl, play with a hula hoop, you get the photos you want during, or after the silliness... Last summer I had a few of the neighborhood kids in my yard, I took photos of them squirting me with those super-soaker water guns while I was behind my storm door (yes, there is value to being slow to change your storm doors!). The photos are such fun, and the expressions on the kids are amazing...

5. which continues into... Let them make faces. I don't think I've ever met a child who can make lots of different goofy faces and not burst into peals of laughter at some point. So you get the great smile, and all of those fun silly faces to create a super panel picture out of, or cards to send to cheer a friend or relative up...

6. Use natural light. Indoors use the window or doorway, outdoors get into the shade, you'll get more natural photos if you use more natural lighting...

7. Don't just take one photo. They're kids, they move, they blink, they are quick... take a few images if you want to be sure you've got it... That's probably one of the greatest features of this digital age, you can capture a bunch of pictures, and just print the one you love, how great is that?

8. Surprise them. The element of surprise is the most important tool in my arsenal. Children don't expect adults to talk in funny voices, burst into a silly song, wear washed up horseshoe crab shells on their head, stick shells on their nose or wear just about anything as a hat... It's so easy to catch them by surprise, imagine if dad took off his shoe and put it on his ear, or mom started dancing a jig (yes, this is while they're young, and most likely in the privacy of your backyard, but imagine the possibilities...). They're only young once, keep all of those precious memories safe.

Sarah J. Thornington, photographer of life at The Studio by the Sea on Cape Cod

visit our website at: http://www.thestudiobythesea.com