Last part in the series! Check out the first two posts below or here.
The first six tips should be getting you closer to taking less and better photos. These last few will encourage you to make the most of your images AND the moments which you are trying to capture in the first place.
7. Print more.
There are many great uses for digital images (Facebook!), but I think that we still want to have those keepers that we print, display, give as gifts, and that make us smile every time we pass them in the hallway or on the mantle. Take the time to get your favorites printed, framed, and up on those walls and shelves. And please get them printed by a quality lab. A bad print can ruin a great photo, and that is tragic. A print should be beautiful – good color, quality paper, thoughtful presentation – the day it is made and just as good one hundred years from now. I recommend Phototechnika locally, and Mpix.com online. Lately, I have been obsessed with Pinterest. You can find great inspiration there for ways to display photos in your home. Join me there at http://pinterest.com/jenmenphoto/, but be warned: it is highly addictive for the visually minded.
8. Don’t miss the moment, in the moment.
Someone I love once told me that her dad missed most of her childhood, even though he has it all recorded on VHS. Don’t be that parent who is so caught up in getting the photo, or recording the video, that they forget to cherish the moment as it is actually happening. Get a few photos for posterity, then put that box down and live it. Being a more confident photographer will help you to do just that.
Movie night with my daughter and her animal friends. It was too cute not to take a photo, but I would have missed so much more if I had not taken the time to snuggle and enjoy the way she cackles unabashedly at the funny parts.
9. Read your manual, then try to shoot in manual.
When you are ready to dig a little deeper into the technical aspects of photography, start with your camera’s manual. Learn what all those buttons actually do. Most of them will be useless to you, but knowing what they are will make them less intimidating. The better you get, the less buttons you will need. The goal is to be able to shoot in manual mode because then you will have the most control over the images you make.
10. Let someone take your picture.
This isn’t just a shameless plot to convince you to hire me. Of course, I highly recommend investing in professional portraits at least once a year, but here I am talking about your spouse, extended family or friends, or older children. When it comes to family photos, one parent, usually mom, ends up being the main photographer and therefore gets left out of most family photos. Some moms are comfortable with that for many reasons, and will happily go for long stretches completely absent from the family’s visual chronicle. If you are one of those people, remember that the photos are not just for you, or those you share your online albums with, but they are for your kids and their kids. They want to see you, in your prime, as the young, beautiful, busy, and multi-faceted person that you are. Right now. Not just on holidays, or after you’ve lost ten pounds. Refer back to my first tip. Family photos are about telling a story, and you are a central character in that story.
