Photo tip of the week: For those with kids who avoid the camera

Wow – two kiddos is kicking my butt!  And that is WITH help from my mother-in-law!

I have been experimenting with ways to capture good pictures of my daughter given that she avoids the camera like the plague.  Some kids love taking pics and posing…not this one.  She LOVES showing me the back of her head…and the top of it…and the top of her eyelids…

But lately I have been trying “shooting from the hip.”  Or actually, shooting from the “thigh.”  I put the camera down by my leg, and engage her in something (usually chasing her or letting her chase me) and then shoot away while we play.

This of course results in quite a few garbage pictures…

But as you can see, I also end up with a at least a few great ones!

These are all from this afternoon.  She was in the mood to chase me, so I ran away from her, taking pictures behind me.

The key is to make sure she is not focusing on the fact that I am taking her picture! Then I actually get real smiles and views of her FACE!

How do you actually get things in focus, you ask?

These are the settings I use:

1) I use a higher ISO than usual so that the pictures can handle some movement.  Basically, you want a faster shutter speed.  If you have a “sports” setting on your camera, you could use that.

2) I make sure the focus point selection is set to all.  I.e. the camera will focus on the first thing it sees that hits it’s focus points.  Usually I keep my camera set to focus only on the middle focus point – but that doesn’t work for this method of shooting since I’m not aiming by looking through the view finder.  It takes practice to aim the camera just with your hands and still get your subject matter in the frame, but you definitely get better the more you do!

3) I keep the focus mode on “AI Servo” – I’m not sure what the equivalent is in Nikon (I use canon) – but basically that means “continuous focus.”  Again, this is different than my normal practice which is to keep the camera set to focus once and lock that setting.  I do this so I can focus on something and re-compose the picture without losing my desired focus point.  However, since I’m usually moving while taking these pictures (as is my subject) it is better to keep it on continuous focus.  Actually no…it is ESSENTIAL! to keep it on continuous focus! =D

Well hope that helps and gives you something new to try.

Have fun!