Happy Labor Day!

With the official holiday to close out the summer, it’s time to start thinking about what you want to accomplish by the end of the year. And if you want to make a photo book, one of the best ways to start is to organize your photo library.

An organized library saves you time whenever you decide to print your photos. You’ll know right where to find your favorite photos and they will already be edited and ready to print!

Let’s get started with an easy challenge finding recent photos you love.

 

Challenge: Selecting Your Favorite Summer Photos.

I want you to go through your photos from the summer – Memorial Day through Labor Day (for those not in the US, basically June, July and August photos) and select 10 of your favorite photos.

They could be all from a vacation or you could select photos that sum up your summer.

Don’t overthink this: just select up to 10 photos from the summer that put a smile on your face.

Now here comes the organization part. Make sure you rate, star or tag the photos you select with your preferred rating system.

If you’ve never used a rating system before, start now. Most photo organization programs allow you to give a star or number rating to your favorite photos. Here’s a screenshot from iPhoto showing how to rate your favorite photos by quickly hitting the “heart” on a photo you love.

Don’t skip this step. It’s what helps you organize the photos that you love so they are easily accessible.

 

Here are my favorite 10(ish) photos with some suggestions to help you select your favorites from the summer.

 

PORTRAIT

It’s always good to include a classic and a creative portrait of your kids. They grow up so fast, it’s great to have a static frame showing who they are at this very moment.

BEACH OR POOL

Select an image from time spend at the beach or the pool.

HOLIDAY

Select an image from celebrating a Holiday. This summer our kids had fun with sparklers for the first time.

EVENT OR MILESTONE

Select a photo from the summer for any special event or milestone achieved in your kids’ lives. My daughter’s second ballet recital occurred at the beginning of the summer.

SIBLINGS

A favorite of mine is whenever I get these two in the frame together.

PLACE

Usually summertime includes travel to exciting places…or exploring fun places close to home.

EPIC LANDSCAPE

If you traveled to an expansive place – like the beach, lake, mountains, forest – chances are you have a great photo of an epic landscape.

FAMILY TIME

Include a photo that documents a visit with family.

EVERYDAY

Even though summer includes vacations and fun trips…and it also means times at home. Here’s a photo of my son and his stuffed bear while watching a movie.

EMOTION

And I’m sure you have a photo of extreme emotion – happy, sad, anger, laughter – from the summer. My daughter was not too happy to learn that an animal had been messing with her fairy garden.

SOMETHING NEW

If you worked on your photography this summer, challenged yourself with a project, or tried something new, include a photo from this experimentation.

Feel free to share your favorite summer photos on instagram, #favesummerphoto and tag @bookthisproject to hold yourself accountable. Plus, I’d love to see your favorite moments from your summer!

 

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Last year, I watched Modern Storytelling with Kirsten Lewis on CreativeLive (affiliate link) and loved seeing the way she captured families everyday life. I was aware of this type of photography but this workshop really opened my eyes to the art of making pictures that were real, humorous, emotional, and true in great light (when you can get it) and beautiful composition.

I purchased this workshop and re-watch it whenever I need to be re-inspired or reminded of how to look for those moments in my everyday life.

When I learned that she was going to be back on CreativeLive, this time teaching a workshop Photojournalism in the Home (affiliate link), I couldn’t wait. A lot of the content in this workshop builds on the lessons she taught in the first workshop. And while I really only able to watch some of the the first day, I’m catching the free replay while it’s on today.

My takeaways from Photojournalism in the Home are:

• To stay with a moment, an activity, a composition a lot longer than you think. Be patient. And take a lot of photos to get what you want. As Kirsten says, shoot past the moment. Even when you think you have a good shot, keep shooting.

• Don’t adjust the scene or prompt your subject. Again, be patient. Document the moment exactly as it is and make subtle movements in where you (as the photographer) are positioned instead of moving a sippy cup out of the way. Wait for action or moment you want without having to ask for it.

• Shoot with the crop in mind. Always square up and get as close (or far) as you need to get the crop you want while shooting. Minimal cropping can occur in post processing but her advice for photojournalism in the home is to capture the moment as you see it, crop included.

All three of those are something that I need to work on. I’ll often pick up things that I don’t want in the frame or ask my kids to repeat what they just did because I missed the shot. And I love to crop in Lightroom.

Here’s the thing. These tips are not ‘general’ photography tips. They are for shooting your everyday life as a photojournalist. That may not be what you want. I’m attracted to Kirsten’s style of shooting and her lessons because it’s about capturing life as it is….hopefully with a few photographic principles in mind.

I’m no where near her skill level but I love the challenge! As a professional photographer, the skill to define the moment is an extremely difficult task to achieve. Seeing how to bring light, color, composition, layers, and depth of meaning to a moment is an art. But for me and my desire to photography my family, it can actually be quite freeing to let go the idea of perfecting an environment and focus on capturing the moment as best as I possibly can.

After the first day of her live workshop, I decided to attempt to take photos inspired by her lessons. Our photography theme in my mastermind this month is technology. I shot these photos with this intention – capture technology, stay with the moment, no prompting, and do my best to crop in camera (still working on this one ;)).

Not perfect but a fun attempt!

With this last photo, if you watched Kirsten shooting in a family’s home, she mentioned how difficult it was to photograph kids while watching TV because they have zombie face. So this last photo, it was my attempt to capture zombie face. Ha! Of course, I didn’t capture even a corner of the TV/computer but because you know I’m shooting for technology, it’s implied. This photo probably wouldn’t make sense on it’s own….but it’s another example of how I can compose and define context when I include it in a photo book layout.

This post contains affiliate links. I could receive a commission for any CreativeLive purchases you make after clicking on my link. I only provide affiliate links for products that I highly recommend. 

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I’m sure I say it every year. I’m sure you say it every year. It goes by so quickly. It seems like just yesterday, I was getting ready for my son to start kindergarten. Yet here we are. Another calendar year to be preserved to memory.

Of course, I love creating photo books to document the year. But to add a little fun, I also love making a video of our year using photos and videos.

Here’s what I look for when making my end of the year video:

1. Horizontal photos.

2. Photos in a series – even if some are slightly out of focus.

3. Photos with funny and differing expressions.

4. Photos featuring family members.

5. Not necessarily my favorites (those are for my photo book) but photos and videos that represent our year.

Of course, I could spend way more time editing each photo in the video – but then I would never finish!!! My goal is not to have a perfect product but to finish something that my family can watch together for years to come. This is the third year in a row I’ve made one of these videos. It’s now a tradition!

Here is my 2014 video.

I know….there are a lot of photos! And they go by really quickly. But what I try to do for these videos is show several photos that are very similar with slight adjustments. It’s a lot of mini-stop motion photos spliced together to convey our life. It helps to show the variety in our year.

For this video, I worked really hard with the pacing of the photos. I tied to match the changing of photos with the beat of the music. To help make the connection, I selected a song with a pronounced beat. While the photos are chronological, I did not label the months, like I did in my 2013 video.

If you want to follow what I’ve done, I’ve prepared my strategy and screen capture video of working in Apple’s iMovie to create a similar video for your family. I reveal the organizational and program shortcuts I use to save time.

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Recently, I told you about my love of taking underwater photos. While I’m definitely not the expert or take stellar underwater photos, I still love documenting them.

But editing them?!?! I was lost.

Until I read through Lynne Rigby’s Splash! Getting Started in Underwater Photography and Editing with Presets. Right now, this is available for FREE through The Photographer Within for about one more week. After that, it will be up in the store for purchase.

Lynne’s PDF walks you through her gear, steps, and process. She includes an editing video so you can see how she edits her underwater photos. Plus, she provides some presets she created.

This PDF was immensely helpful for me…as you will soon see! I thought it would be fun to share my before and after.

Let’s start with this one:

BEFORE.

AFTER.

Look at how much better the skin tones are!!! This is using Lynne’s Nevis Preset.

Here’s another example using the Barbados preset.

BEFORE.

AFTER.

BEFORE.

AFTER.

And I thought I would end on a selfie with my son. I used the Barbados preset and did absolutely nothing else. I seriously was never able to get right skin tones until I read this PDF! Definitely worth my membership with this one download!

BEFORE.

AFTER.

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So I was delighted when I received the Nikon COOLPIX AW120 16.1 MP Wi-Fi and Waterproof Digital Camera for Christmas. Even though it was made to be an indestructible camera…it still felt a little weird to actually submerge the camera under water.

But on our Spring Break vacation, I did it. I dipped the camera underwater looking for those elusive, floating photos.

So here are my 5 tips for taking those fun, underwater photos on your next vacation. (At least my experience with a point and shoot camera.)

1.  Shooting Blind.

For this first trip out, my method was about shooting blind. This means, I was in a 3′ high pool, without going underwater myself. I held the camera underwater in the general direction of my target and shot without knowing what I was capturing. This trial-and-error approach means that you have to try several times to get the hang of it. But it’s also really freeing. Don’t worry about limb chops or composition. The goal of the photo is to capture your kids doing something truly fun.

2.  Snap and Hold.

When I was using my camera, I had to hold it underwater, push the shutter about 1-2 second before I really wanted and then hold down on the shutter for about 5 seconds. I was never quite sure when the photo actually snapped.  It takes a couple of times to figure out they rhythm. And maybe you won’t ever really figure out when it takes. But there are always different stages of the cannonball jump to capture.

3.  Embrace any imperfections.

If you are shooting blind (#1) and holding down the shutter because you’re not sure when the actual shutter will happen (#2), then you need embrace the imperfections in the photos. They won’t all turn out. But that’s ok. They don’t have to. Keep trying. Eventually you’ll get something that you love. With water, it’s almost impossible to get something that isn’t fun, creative, and inspiring.

4. Discover new layers and textures.

One of the beauties of water is the layers associated. The waves, ripples, bubbles, sunlight and calmness. Water captures them all. Use your camera to capture as many different modes of water you can. Test it out by moving your hand to create a tide. Or do like I did and capture as your son or daughter jumps into the water. You’ll get plenty of water bubbles floating to the surface.

5. Video’s worth it.

You have a camera that captures above and below water. By using video you can seamlessly move from one environment to the other – all within a matter of seconds.

If you’re looking to add a little fun to your vacation photos, I highly recommend getting a waterproof camera. The point-and-shoot cameras are lightweight, relatively inexpensive (especially when compared to waterproof housing), and can capture a perspective of your trip that people typically don’t get to see.

I’d love to hear your summer vacation plans! What fun summer trip are you planning now?

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While this seems easy to do, it actually is quite difficult when you have two small children. To get out the tripod, set everything up, clear the clutter and get them to cooperate…suddenly the task seems impossible.

Following some advice from great blog posts, here’s what I do:

1 : Set up tripod

2 : Put my camera on timer

3 : Give us 10 seconds before the first photo is taken

4 : Program my camera to take 10 photos with a 2 second interval with one click of the shutter

5 : Bribe my kids with a sucker if they cooperate

6 : Let them push the shutter (taking turns) so it is fun and interactive for them

Recipe for success? With me, not quite.

Out of 150 photos (yes – a lot of clicking going on!), I had 0 good photos, 20 “bad” photos and 130 automatic deletes. The elusive photo I wanted of all three of us looking lovingly into the camera didn’t happen.

Some are out of focus. In some I’m talking. In some I’m grabbing them to get back in the photo. Some have closed eyes. Some have grimaces. Some have limb chops.

But you know what? I don’t care. Of my 20 ‘bad’ ones, I still love them. In fact, I cherish them.

Here are 10 reasons why I love my bad photos.

1 : I love my daughter’s smile.

2 : I love my son’s tender heart.

3 : I love that my daughter has a lovey that barely leaves her side.

4 : I love my son’s love of legos.

5 : I love the giggles.

6 : I love my smile.

7 : I love the sibling almost-fights. (He didn’t actually knee her…but it sure looks inevitable in this photo.)

8 : I love Saturday afternoons with my kids.

9 : I love the kisses.

10 : I love my kids.

Of course, on this particular Saturday I don’t need 130 bad photos in my Lightroom catalog to love.  About 12 will suffice. And they’ll look great in my annual photo book!

Now I want to see your bad photos! Let me know in the comments below, how have you embraced your bad photos? No need to be shy. Be proud! Blog about your love of bad photos and share a link below. I really want to leave some blog love for your bad photos too! <3

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Answer: So even though I had a difficult time getting Christmas card photos, I thought today I would show you how I edited my fall photos.

First, I want to stress, I’m not the best photo editor, but I’m happy to show you what I’m doing at the moment. Usually my editing is minimal and has to happen pretty quickly.

Here are my basic steps.

1. Adjust exposure.
2. Adjust white balance.
3. Adjust the tone curve.
4. Adjust any color saturations or luminance.
5. Apply any specific crop.
6. Apply a slight vignette.

Now with fall photos, I want to play up the beautiful fall colors. So here is an extra step I did with these photos that I do not typically do on my photos. And it’s a new feature in LR5 – radial filter. If you haven’t used this tool yet, I really like it!

So let’s take a look at what I did for this straight out of the camera photo:

The first step was to adjust my white balance and exposure.

Then I make some adjustments to the highlights, shadows, whites, and blacks.

Next up, the tone curve.

Then a little Noise Reduction because even though this was outside, it was getting late and my camera was set to ISO3200.

A crop…for this photo, I used the rule of third guide within Lightroom.

Then I cloned out a few of the distracting elements in the background, to the right.

Next step, I get to use this awesome radial filter tool in Lightroom 5. This tool allows adjustments to be made, in this case the background, without affecting the subject. And you can invert it as well. So I wanted to lower the exposure and increase the saturation in the background. This plays up the fall-ness in the photo.

If you don’t have an earlier version of Lightroom, you can always use the adjustment brush to select the background. The radial filter is just a faster option!

Finally, I make a  couple more edits to his face using the Adjustment Brush tool. I lighten his eyes ever so slightly, reduce the circles under his eyes by reducing the saturation and add a little warmth and increase exposure to his face.

And there we have it! Here is my final photo…it’s not perfect but it’s definitely an improvement from where it started.

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Last week, there was a great post on Clickinmoms about low light photography by the talented photographer, Megan Dill. I can definitely relate to what Megan wrote. I also work outside of the home and during winter time it becomes very challenging to photograph because most of the light is gone by the time I get to see my kids.

But I decided to take her post as inspiration and try a similar type shot she included in the post. Deciding against a self-portrait (for now…), I went with one of my son. I used a flashlight app from my iPad, manual focus, and the quiet mode on my D7000 camera. These were taken at 11:30pm!!!

The top photo I left in color and for this one I converted it to a black and white.

Make sure you check out this article and try out some of Megan’s tips. January is the perfect time.

What are you favorite low light photographs? Leave a blog link below – I love to leave some love!!!

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Here are my top three tips for taking farm photos this year!

1. Capture the landscape.  In other words, go wide with your shots.  If you have a zoom lens, look to use around the 24mm side of your lens.

2. Capture pumpkins, corn maze, hay ride, animals, face painting, and any other fun activity that you do during the day.

3. Do not get frustrated if you don’t get eye contact or static poses. Document the action.

4. Do not get frustrated if you do get harsh shadows or color casts.  Document the experience.

These are some of my favorite photos from 2009.  It was my son’s first pumpkin patch and I think these photographs capture his sense of exploration, how dusty and windy it was that day, and his trepidation of the animals.

Let me know in the comments below your tip for taking pics at the farm this fall!

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Stay tuned for an upcoming post about specific tips for editing photos that are going to go in your photo book.

On to the edit!  You may remember this photo from my August “How I view…” series.  It took a couple of edits to get the version captured with my camera to the version I am going to use in my photo book.

Before

[divider] After

[divider] And here is how I got there!

[divider]I want to hear from you! Leave a comment below letting me know if you typically edit your photos and what program do you use?

And if you enjoyed this post, make sure you sign up for my Thursday email!!!

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