About 6 years ago, Cliff Batson encouraged me to buy a digital SLR and learn enough about photography to take decent pictures. If you have kids and haven’t entered the world of SLRs and decent photography yet, I tell you… each day you wait is a crying shame. (And if you’ve ever paid a photographer to take stock shots of your kids, you probably could have redirected that money to a camera and paid for it… Yes, I know, the quality is different. Yes, I know, you have to do some work to become competent. But yes, I know, there’s a pride that comes from getting those shots yourself. And lastly, you’ll get shots you never would have gotten by having a photographic session.)
If you’re the least bit tempted, check out How To Photograph Your Baby by Nick Kelsh. In simplifying things, he has led us to have so many great shots of our kids… shots we simply don’t have of ourselves as kids. The key concepts from the book are these, and they’re so ingrained for me that I haven’t had to look at the book in about 5 years…
- Turn off your flash (it ruins pictures)
- Take more pictures (and throw 90% of them away)
- Get closer. And then, get even closer. (The picture is almost never about the stuff around your kid.)
