A photo a day

When I got my phone upgraded to an iPhone 6 at the end of last year, I made two decisions. Firstly, I would learn more about iPhone photography.  Secondly, I would use the iPhone camera daily.

The iPhone is definitely no replacement for my DSLR.  Let's face it, my Canon camera is big, very expensive and when going from A to B with children, pushchairs and a change bag stuffed with nappies, it isn't always coming with us. 

With a camera so easily accessible in your back pocket, taking pictures everyday has never been easier.

I've put together some tips on photographing family in and around your home:

1. Catching the light. Get close to a window with daylight. Turn off any lights in the room. Remove clutter that might show up in the picture. You may need to move furniture a bit closer to the window. Try using a piece of white card or a reflector to reflect the light and brighten faces.

2 . Photographing your children? Have time and patience. Getting our 2 year old to sit still and smile at the camera? Not going to happen. I actually prefer pictures I have taken of her happily playing. My advice would be to clear some space near a window & choose some toys or an activity. Or let them happily play in garden, avoiding harsh direct sunlight. Let them play and have fun and photograph the results. Be patient and take lots of pictures.

3. Phone vs camera? Use what works for you. I use my iPhone 6 to take most of my pictures for Instagram. A few times a week I will plan things a bit more and take pictures with my Canon 5d Mark III DSLR camera. I have a fixed Canon 35mm lens that is great for capturing family moments.

4. Get in the picture yourself. This is something I'm trying to do more. I realised recently it's never me in the pictures with my children. I want that to change. Last week I dusted off my tripod, attached a Joby GripTight GorillaPod and hooked up my iPhone. I set up the shot while our toddler was asleep, clearing background clutter but intentionally including one if our favourite paintings in the frame. When our 2 year old woke up, I gave her a lolly and we had about ten attempts at the shot with a self timer until I found one I was happy with.

5. Take time to edit. When I do a baby or family shoot for a client, I'll spend the equivalent of 1-2 full days editing the images in Photoshop. When I take pictures for Instagram (usually on my iPhone) I'll always use the apps VSCO or Snapseed to lighten and brighten shots before publishing. It takes just a few minutes and looks much nicer than slapping on an Instagram filter.

 

6. Printing and sharing. Artifact Uprising remains my favourite printing site. We chose them for our new baby thank you cards and their stylish square print sets. I'm a big fan of Apple coffee table books and they do great personalised photo calendars that don't cost the earth. I'm hooked on sharing pictures everyday through Instagram. It's also a fantastic way to get inspiration from people all over the world.

Summer is here

The past week has been spent trying to keep cool in temperatures hitting 35 degrees and little breeze. We are fortunate to have a little garden in which our daughter is happy to spend hours inspecting sticks, flowers and blades of glass or waving at passing aeroplanes. I often try to have my camera to hand and using my fixed 50mm lens (great for portraits), I have been documenting her first summer as a toddler. I'm looking forward to letting her explore the beach next month and her second trip to France is planned. Towards the end of the summer, I intend to spend time printing many of the pictures that are currently stored on my computer and putting together an old fashioned album/scrapbook so we have a printed record of her early years.

Arthur & Albert

A warm sunny day and two young brothers happily giggling together made for a perfect afternoon photo session. Baby Albert, clearly in awe of his big brother Arthur was highly amused by a game of 'Peek a Boo' and it was adorable to watch the boys cuddling together, already perfectly used to each other's company. 

Meeting baby Oscar

On a recent trip back to Guernsey (my childhood home) I had the pleasure of meeting and photographing Oscar. Barely two weeks old and snuggled in his parents arms, he seems to have settled in perfectly to his beautiful surroundings,  a lovingly restored cottage complete with exposed Guernsey granite and an open fireplace. 

It's a wonderful time of year to be welcoming a baby. Our daughter had just turned 12 weeks a year ago and as that big milestone was reached, the evenings became brighter, the sun became a more frequent visitor and suddenly those very long nights of continuous feeding became more bearable! Oscar is set to get a great introduction to Guernsey this Summer with beach trips, coastal walks and the fresh sea air to look forward to.

Happy New Year!

It's fair to say our daughter (despite being dressed as an Elf for most of the holiday) seemed to enjoy her first Christmas and New Year celebrations! She has decided to ring in 2015 by getting on the move and exploring her surroundings. Her first crawl took place in the first few days of January and now her daily challenge is to try to stand, propping herself up using anything in her path. The excitement of her achievements means she is too wired to sleep, so evenings are proving challenging as we attempt to encourage her to relax and calm down! Long gone are the days of drinking coffee with friends while the baby sleeps soundly - soft play here we come!