From the monthly archives:

February 2010

The journey to bring Beyond Snapshots to bookstores and libraries everywhere

is finally officially underway.  We have been working hard on this dream for some time now and today we can finally spill the beans.

We are excited and proud to announce our news that we have signed a book publishing deal with Random House / Amphoto!

With a focus that extends past just the time spent raising kids, Beyond Snapshots the book will teach people in all stages of life how to take their fancy cameras off auto and shoot life like the pros.

There are so many wonderful things in store for the blog now that this book is underway.  We will continue to bring you all the tips and features as we have been doing…there is just going to be even more to offer!  Make sure that you sign up for our mailing list and check back here for updates and casting calls…

Thank you all for being part of this journey, we expect it to be a lot of fun.

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little babies

With the birth of a new baby often comes a new camera or a sudden spark in the interest in taking great photos of kids.  The birth of a new baby also brings hormones and a lot of stress.  The sheer exhaustion of it all can suck the energy from that new photography spark and certainly makes the thought of reading your camera manual about as appealing as, well, reading a camera manual.

That is why many of you find yourselves reading this blog.

It is a great time to hire a professional photographer that specializes in newborns.  Newborn photographers are a rare and patient breed.

Despite being in the middle of new parent torpor, you deserve to also be able to take beautiful photos of your own baby in your own home.  They are only little babies for such a short time.

Here are a few of our tips:

Take a lot of photographs.  Daily.  They grow overnight and one morning you will walk into their room and find that they are almost a different child.

Make the most of your baby being stationary…the only time your child will stay where you want them to stay.*
*make sure they are ALWAYS safe, don’t put them somewhere they could fall because if they are anything like Clover, they will fall just to scare the crap out of you.

That said, create a window light studio…make a cozy spot for them in front of a window by moving a bed or bassinet right up to the light source.

While little babies are rarely easy to photograph, it does help your chances of getting their cooperation when they have full tummies and clean diapers.

Use special ‘newborn’ things in the photos, heirloom blankets, knitted hats, gifted toys, favorite binkies.  All things they will soon grow out of (unless they are one of Rachel’s children who will apparently be going to college with their transitional objects) and will bring back memories.

Get close and show all the details.  Tiny fingernails, beautiful lips, the lashes…

Keep scale in mind.  Step back and show just how tiny they are in the world.

Also, don’t forget to celebrate the days after those first few weeks.  They may not sleep through the sessions anymore, but their personalities begin to emerge and they really connect with their eyes.

And then, despite all your planning, chances are things will go horribly wrong.  And it will be awesome.  You will end up with something better than you could have imagined.

Embrace the chaos…

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your camera bag. lens focal length

If you follow Rachel’s blog, you may have seen that she is looking for a good wide prime lens and finding the choice a bit difficult.  There is a lot to consider (price, brand, maximum aperture, etc…) when choosing a lens, so we thought we would touch on one of the most important aspects, focal length, as it does greatly affect the look of your shot.

With a DSLR, you have a choice of lenses. Primes or zooms; There are some pretty great advantages to both. Good primes are amazingly sharp and crisp, and generally have higher maximum apertures, allowing for low light shooting and creamy smooth depth of focus (that background blur) whereas zooms, while usually giving up a bit of the sharpness, allow you to get a variety of different looks with one lens.

The range is:

fish-eye (10mm – 16mm)
wide (20mm – 35mm)
normal (50mm – 60mm)
portrait (85mm – 105mm)
telephoto (120mm – 210mm)
long telephoto (anything from 250mm on up)

Although terribly unflattering to adult (and even baby) faces, wide angles give a degree of distortion, which can be a lot of fun when used well.

In the below examples, the top two shots are taken with the 24mm end of a Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L zoom lens. The left one is taken from a bit further back, and the right one is taken by stepping forward and shooting from a slightly lower angle, making for a more interesting composition, and also putting the distortion into greater effect.

The bottom pair are shot with the Nikon 28-105mm 3.5-4.5 D. Where the top two were taken at the same focal length, by moving around to get a different look (as you would with a prime), the bottom pair are different in that they take advantage of the zoom capabilities. They were taken one after the other, from the same position, first using 105mm, then switching directly afterwards to 28mm, the widest end of the range.

Rachel tends to shoot with a variety of prime lenses as she tends to plan her photographs with certain looks in mind.  The zoom she used for these images is not considered a pro lens and is not one she uses often.  Peta shoots the majority of her work with the one zoom lens that was used above.  She likes the flexibility. Both cameras are full frame (FX) sensors, digital sensors (DX) change the stated focal legnth of the lens, unless that lens is specifically made for the DX sensor, in which case they wont work on FX sensors. See?… so much to think about!

Have you found a focal length that fits your style?  Or do you change it up?  Tell us in the comments below as it just may help another person make their choice.

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Announcing – Sold Out

Our first Beyond Snapshots online workshop. The workshop is now sold out. Check back for more dates!

We are so excited for this opportunity to team up and teach in a more intimate online classroom. Don’t worry, the blog is not going anywhere. In fact, it will continue to grow!

Interested in the class?

Things needed: Your DSLR with at least one lens (any brand), an editing program (Adobe Photoshop Elements or even better, Photoshop full version), a computer to do it all on.

Who this class is for: Beginning photographers who want to learn how to get the most out of that fancy camera and see what actually goes into making great photographs.

What we will cover: We are starting from the beginning…that is why this class is for beginners.  After we get you understanding the functions of the camera and properties of light we will go through composition, posing, inspiration, style and other elements of portrait photography.  From there we take you through organizing and processing your files.  We will be posting assignments to inspire you and even sharing behind the scenes videos.  Our final focus will be on printing, sharing and blogging those gorgeous photos of yours.  There is just so much that will be covered that it can’t all fit here…that is why we are running the class!

How we are going to teach: We have a great new virtual classroom for this workshop.  You go through the lessons as they are released weekly and turn your assignments in online.  While these are not graded assignments, we will be giving each member individual feedback.  This is your chance for personal photo mentoring by Rachel Devine and Peta Mazey in the comfort of your own home!  Don’t worry, you don’t need to change out of your jammies, it is all online, but we do answer your questions and help you work through your trouble spots.

The first workshop is scheduled for 5 April – 24 May (7 weeks)

The workshop cost is $500 and has a limited enrollment so that each person gets personal attention from both of us.

To secure your spot in the class go to the registration website by clicking here

This workshop won’t be covering any business information or client relations.

Coming soon - Details on portfolio reviews and private mentoring with Rachel and Peta

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the majority vote for chaos in motherhood

Congratulations to Elizabeth. We asked her to share a few words about what this image meant to her. Here’s what she had to say:

A massive thank you to everyone that voted! All the kind words on the comment section were lovely to read and filled me with so much joy.  I absolutely loved looking at all the entries.  And seeing everyones faces.

My shot was taken in the morning light on our family bed. My son, Josh, and I were having a jump around on the mattress. Shhhh don’t tell my partner – being a stay at home mum is hard work. Really, it is. While we were jumping around I grabbed my camera. It was just a fun, chaotic moment I wanted to have forever stored on film. Ahem pixels. I want my son to have memories of him and I enjoying life long after I’m gone. I hope this photograph will do exactly that. Mummy loves you Josh.

We were so overwhelmed at all the wonderful images put forward and so was Gabi from My Funky Camera, so she has generously provided a discount code for the readers of Beyond Snapshots. Enter beyond at checkout to receive 10% off your purchase of anything in store. For such beautiful handmade quality they are already so reasonably priced, so this a sweet bonus. We received ours and they are gorgeous with their rich colors, impeccable detail, and they are so comfortable, with the softest black lining. You’ll be seeing ours soon.

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Spotted.

My, what pretty photos you take.

Often one will just catch our eye and we will talk about the reasons we love it.  That is how this new section, Spotted, came about.  While we know that constructive criticism helps a lot, we thought that it is so much better to learn from what is good rather than focusing on what is bad.  There is already too much negativity in this world.

We know that what is “good” is subjective, but the goal of the Spotted section is to help you learn how to look at photographs and keep those aspects in mind when you are shooting your own.

Each image featured in the Spotted section will be broken down in the following steps:

Composition – The details and form of a shot.

Color – and sometimes even the lack of color… Just the tone of the image set by the choice of colors.

Charm – The literal and emotional subject represented in the photograph.

Choices – Getting it right or making it work while breaking the rules.  The technical details of the shot.

We have the flickr group where you can submit photos for consideration or post links to your blogs on our facebook fan page wall.  We may just spot something of yours while we blog hop, but we will always ask first.

The photo we have selected to launch Spotted is:

rainy day. by Tracy Flaming

Composition – There is just so much of the composition to love.  Repetition…square within a square.  Repeat color blocking.  Graphic dividing lines that guide your eye around the shot.  The horse head on the t-shirt merging with the jeans of a similar color to almost merge the two subjects.  The phone cord creating a shape that mirrors the reigns of the horse.  The gray corners of the mother’s vest “pointing” back down into the shot.  And not to mention, the overall use of the rule of thirds.

Color - Keeping the image in 3 main colors ( grey, pink and tan) with white details creates order that defines the space.  The use of a small color palette simplifies a busy image.

Charm –  The connection between mother and daughter is apparent in the relaxed stance and the literal connection of hands being held.  The child’s quirky expression suits the quirky mood of the shot.

Choices – A great shot can be lost if it is not properly exposed.  Not always, but in this case, the perfect exposure just makes it easy to recognize all the other great aspects.  The low perspective works well in this case as it is unexpected in a self portrait taken by an adult.

While some of these things may be unintentional on the part of the photographer, all of the elements work to make a really great image.  What we hope you come away with from these segments is the ability to analyze photography considering many different factors.  Going beyond snapshots is not just merely learning how to master your camera, but understanding the components of great photographs.

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Flying

So much is going on behind the scenes right now that we are actually going to have to drag New Zealand a little bit closer to Melbourne so we can get things done.  OK, that is not really possible so Peta is getting on a plane and flying over here tomorrow.

We are going to finish up the online classes and release the dates and information in the next few days!  We also have a new feature of the blog to reveal and of course, the winner of the contest!

We also have a bunch of shoots to do and more.  It will be so much easier when we can be in the same room instead of meeting at our “virtual office” like we do every other day.

Thank you all so much for your enthusiasm and support as we get this all off the ground!

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