Today is the day we start our new photo blog series. The second half of our book is an inspirational guide entitled Life Is a Photo Op because we feel that the world around us offers us endless inspiration on a daily basis if you just know how to look for it. Not only is it a chance to highlight photographers around the world, both professionals and hobbyists, but this is a chance to inspire all of you to start a photo project that maybe you will someday share with us. We are thrilled to kick off this series with a clever and almost hauntingly beautiful look at life with children.

Thanks to everyone who has already submitted their projects! We would like to extend an invitation to those that have or are currently working on a personal photo project to email us at info@beyond-snapshots.com. It can be anything that sparks your creativity. We just ask that you submit work that you were not paid to produce. Please send us a brief description of your project with up to 10 images. We would love to see what you are working on, and possibly share it with everyone here!

Ketti Phillips | kettiphotography.com

Where are you from?
Southern California.

Where do you currently live?
Seattle, WA

How long have you been shooting?
About 4 years

Are you self-taught or schooled in photography?
Mainly self-taught. I had to take a photography course while I was studying graphic design in art school and it made me fall in love with shooting. The darkroom was not my favorite though – I did not have the patience for that.

Do you photograph for a living or is this a hobby?
That is a bit of a gray area… I have a business and photograph families for money, but it’s not something I market or really work at to gain clients. I have about 1 shoot a month, and about a quarter of those end up being freebies. So I don’t earn a living through photography, but it’s also more than just a hobby.

What is in your camera bag?
Canon 5D, 35L, 24-70L, 85 1.8 and 50 1.4. I also have a Pentax 645 that I like to play with.

Do you shoot digital or film or both?
Mainly digital but I am trying to get more film into the mix.

What do you find both positive and negative about shooting in both formats?
The instant gratification of digital and being able to correct myself on the fly. I love how film forces me to slow down and really think about a shot before I push the shutter.

Why do you love Film or Digital?
They are both great mediums! There is a tactile quality to film that is so beautiful. Digital can try to replicate it, but the real thing is always better.

How did this project come about?
I was looking for something to shoot that would push myself to explore an area I felt I needed to work on. In this case it happened to be detail shots and storytelling through objects and scenes. Since I work at home, I am never without my kids and don’t get out much. It is easy to fall back on them as subjects, so this time I kept them as the subject but removed their physical presence from the equation. It’s called “Kids Were Here” and the rules of the project were one photograph a day for 30 days, about my kids, but with no actual children in the photograph.

What is it about this project that speaks personally about you?
It is all about my children and tells me so much about them and what stages and quirks they were going through during this time period.

What would you want this project to say to the viewer?
To give the viewer a sense of my children, their personality, behavior, the chaos that exists in our home…

Are you currently shooting or planning to shoot another personal project?
I would love to but haven’t found the inspiration yet!

How do you keep challenging yourself photographically?
I give myself little rules to follow. Right now I’m focusing on composition so I tell myself nothing can have a center comp, I need to explore new angles.

You have probably seen us post on our Facebook wall announcing “Mobile Photo Monday”. Some of you know exactly what it is, and others not so much.  We have to confess, it’s sort of a hidden agenda that we should probably tell you about.

We are so lucky to live in a age where photography is literally at our fingertips.  Today pretty much every single mobile device has the capability to take a picture, plus there are tons of applications that are either free or cost little to be creative when editing your mobile images and new accessories, including lenses, to really make this sub-medium of digital photography truly an art form.

There is much admiration for the popularity of using your mobile cameras. Just like using your DSLR, there is instant gratification, yet it somehow gives you the “film” mindfulness that we believe in. We are free from paying attention to our settings, and are able to concentrate more on capturing the moment. The result is often times perfect imperfection.

Another objective we have with “Mobile Photo Mondays”, is to start critically thinking about the pictures you take. Maybe the word “critical” is a bit harsh, and we should probably call it “thinking creatively”. We encourage you to stop before taking your picture and think about what makes the image you are about to create interesting, and most importantly that YOU connect (on some level) to it.

“Mobile Photo Mondays” will be a weekly occurrence here at Beyond Snapshots. We encourage you to post your favorite image that you have taken from your mobile device on our Facebook wall every Monday.  Of course we will tweet and send out reminders, and for those of you who do not have Facebook or Twitter, you can post your mobile images on our Flickr group and label them “Mobile Photo Monday”.

Every week we would like to post some of those images that you share with us, here on the blog. We think it would be interesting to see what you all do with the available applications, devices and accessories that you work with to create the image you are sharing.

Starting today we would like to share one of the “Mobile Photo Monday” submissions from our “liker” Amanda C. from Charleston, SC. You’ll find all the information about her and about the image below.

I was on travel in PaxRiver, MD and when we travel, we eat!    We had gone to dinner this night after it had stormed and when we came out of the CD Cafe, the sun was beaming over the Solomons Island Bridge.  So of course, I had to quickly grab my phone or my “Camera in my pocket!” and take the shot!  I used MagicHour for Android to take the picture and then edited it with the default filters that the app comes with.  When I saw this edit, it caught my eye because of the sun flare and vivid colors!  This image was taken in Solomons, MD in front of The CD Cafe!

Mobile Info:

• HTC EVO 4G Android 2.3
• MagicHour Application with “Lite Blue” filter

We hope you will enjoy this new weekly feature of ours and we look forward to seeing your images.  Please be on the lookout for an email via Facebook, Twitter or Flickr to get more info about your image if we do decide to post your image on our blog.  It’s amazing how many people don’t respond back to us!

Happy Monday Wednesday!

Our February class just ended, and we can’t believe how amazing all of our students were. We are so proud of the progress they made, that we had to share some of their best work. Thank you to everyone who participated. You all did a wonderful job! These are just a few of the many images that were submitted for assignments and we will be featuring more work from everyone who has taken the class in the near future (more on that soon!)

Images:
Joel Reid / Shannon Shaw
Ros McMillan
Bron Curnow

There is that saying, “when one door closes, another one opens” and this holds true to our online class for beginners. As our February class has ended, we are already heading into our third week of our April class and are already booking for our upcoming June class. We are particularly thrilled about the June class, because we are adding a little variety into the mix.

Starting with our June class, we will now be offering a “lite” version in addition to the “full” version.  What is the difference, you ask? The lite version gives you full access to class materials, assignments, and discussion boards, and instead of having us individually critique your work, we will work with you in a discussion setting so EVERYONE in the class can learn from EVERYONE.

This class is not only great for the budget concious individual, but it is also perfect for moms and especially mom bloggers. We have a few mommy bloggers in our class right now and another (Jill from Baby Rabies) in June! Jill will be giving away a spot in our June class, so check out her blog for more information (and a discount code for her readers)!

Our goal is to make this class accessable for everyone. We think that you will have fun taking it on your own or with a group of your friends. This last class had a group of friends who decided to all take it together and really got so much out of the class as they did assignments together on some weekends. We also have friends taking it this time who are in different states, but can still connect and focus on learning together online. Feel free to look at the class registration page for more info or contact us for payment arrangements and group discounts!

We are going to start showcasing some of our joint sessions on this blog. First up is this sweet newborn, what a strong little guy he was at only 3 weeks!

Captive subjects.

Good light, natural reflectors of tile walls and glossy tubs filled with white suds.

Fun, even with a tired baby, most kids like baths.

Post bath cuddles with baby wrapped in a towel are the perfect time to grab a self portrait with your child in the bathroom mirror.

You can even pass it all off as a task but get to take great photos at the same time.  Tell your partner that you’ll bathe the kids and they can do the dishes…it really sounds like a good deal.

rachel’s note: Be safe!  As fun as it is, the bath can be a dangerous spot.  Make sure you take your camera bag into the bathroom and get set up first before you ever put the kids in the water…you never want to take your eyes off of them.  I always have my camera bag within reach and an extra towel to toss over the top of it so I can switch from being a photographer back to mom in an instant.  Oh and make sure you have a UV filter on your lens…that front glass element is going to get wet.

tech tips: The best bath photos seem to be a balance of shallow depth of field to render the faucet and taps inconspicuous and a fast shutter speed to catch the splashed water droplets.  If you have enough light from the windows (try a morning or late afternoon bath) then you should be fine shooting around 1/200s and f/3.2 and larger (ie: the smaller numbers).  You may have to raise your ISO to get that fast of a shutter speed.  If it is too late for window light and you have  a flash*, put it on, set it to TTL, turn the head around and bounce it off of the wall behind you (IF and only if that wall is white, you do not want to have a color cast to deal with).

*We will get into flash photography tips later on and cover it well in the classes.  For now just know that flash is not the enemy it is rumored to be.  Two of the photos in the montage above were taken with flash…can you guess which ones?