I'm sure parents of active children will agree with me that taking decent photos of kids while they are running/twirling/dancing is just about impossible. Grace very rarely stands still and looks at me and smiles when I have a camera in my hand. Ethan is a little better at it, but he smiles in general a lot more often and I don't have to really work for his smiles. The first challenge in photographing a fast moving child is to get all the crucial body parts in the frame since it looks silly to cut off a hand or foot let alone the head! If you by some miracle get the entire body in the shot the next challenge to overcome is getting a decent facial expression. Preferably one that doesn't look up their nose or have their eyes going cross-eyed. With Grace it's an extra hard challenge since her Ptosis tends to show up a lot more in photographs then you notice in real life. The final challenge is get a somewhat nice background, or at least a background that doesn't take the focus away from the subject. Even better is a background that doesn't show my messy house or dead plants but that's like asking for the moon.
I had the camera in the van (took some swimming photos as swim class last night) and when we pulled into the garage Grace asked if we could play outside. I agreed and let Grace and Ethan play outside for 15 minutes before we headed inside for lunch. Grace was busy twirling and running as usual and I did my best to get some decent photos. Ethan was a little more stationary which made my life a little easier. He's been easier to photograph from the get go.
Example of cut off hand...see how it ruins the effect?
That's a little better.
Oh yes MUCH better!
I would have loved this photo if both her eyes were open, but as it is I know her right eye is closed because of her Ptosis and she's not looking up with both eyes like she should be (one of the things we're watching to make sure she's doing). For that reason I'd usually delete it.
Cute but that corner of roof in the upper left corner is distracting.
Hey I found the clone tool in Gimp! Hurrah!
Example of less then ideal background. Ugly scrubby stuff behind our house. Notice Grace picking her way through the dog poop in the backyard. Also lovely.
There's my sweet smiley boy! The child that stands still and smiles for me, the dream photography subject. I just adore taking pictures of him! Unfortunately the background of this shot is also kind of yucky.
3 comments:
I'm so lucky you are a great photographer and your favorite subject matter is your kids!
And you have a fast camera! Imagine how hard it is for those poor people who are still stuck with nasty slow shutter lag. Seems like you have the solution right: shoot quick, take tons of photos, and edit when needed.
You and Dave made some beautiful kids, that's for sure. I thought I recognized Grace's ptosis - I've got it too (both eyes). Mine went undiagnosed until I was almost two or three I think...didn't open my eyes for two weeks after I was born, and loved rolling my eyes back in my head after that :) I had surgery just before 8th grade at the Casey Eye Institute (at OHSU), they were pretty awesome - especially after dealing with eye doctors for most of my life who didn't really know how to handle me. Like I said, I went undiagnosed for a long time... I'm not advocating either way, as Grace is beautiful as she is...but if some day she wants to know if there are options (I did, which is why we looked into it when I was 13), the Casey Eye Inst was amazing, and my folks' insurance covered it all (they deemed it medical, not cosmetic). Just something to keep in the back of your mind if someday she asks...
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