Last weekend I had the honor of attending Jake’s flag football game.  Imagine, if you will, total chaos.  Kids running helter skelter, willy nilly, this way and that way, round and round all while their parents, coaches, siblings, and friends cheer them on. And photograph them. The average, I’d guess, was 10 cameras per kid. Of course, I was also there with my own camera.  My own camera and my own two kids for whom I was the sole responsible adult.  And although my camera is a fancy one, I don’t have a zoom lens- I have portrait lenses, so it wasn’t as if having a fancy camera alone was going to produce better pictures (Side note- having a fancy camera alone NEVER guarantees better pictures.  If you don’t learn how to use your fancy camera, you should save your money and stick with a point and shoot.  Point and shoots are actually excellent cameras and super small, so you’ll always have them with you.  And a point and shoot maximized might actually perform a fancy camera that has gone un-maximized.  And now on with the show). So although Jake isn’t actually my kid, I definitely had the “photograph my kid whilst watching my other kids with an inadequate camera” experience. I thought I’d pass on my tips. #1- Get down to their level.  Remember this Starting Out Post?  Yeah,

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know me and you know my style.  Life as it happens.  Real moments.  The good and the bad. This means that I don’t really like posed portraits.  I like following kids (mine or others’) around and documenting what they do.  Or at least making it look like that… Because the truth is that just following a kid around, hoping they’ll (a) do something cute (b) while staying still enough for my camera to focus is really leaving too much to chance.  I’m hired to make kids look great on camera.  And while blurry photos CAN be super cute, it’s best if they’re not ALL blurry. And so. Here’s what I do. I confine them. You’ll notice a lot of photos of my kids are when they’re CONFINED by objects.  Since I photograph them when I don’t have anyone else to help confine them, I use high chairs (eating, drawing, being cute) or the crib or the bathtub. I’ll put Henry down with something that will keep him occupied for half a second. If there’s an adult on hand, I’ll use them. I’ll go with the standard “Quick!  Pick ‘em up and hold ‘em!” And book reading is nice. Snuggling on couches or beds. All of these things pretty much guarantee lovely, in-focus photos. I’ll tell you what DO NOT guarantee lovely,

You’ve bought your expensive camera, now get the most out of it! I’ll be leading a photography “seminar” (that’s in quotes, because it’s more like a dialogue) in Chandler, Arizona on October 1.  We’ll look at finding the light, framing your photo, and working towards turning your camera OFF of automatic. We’ll meet at Coffee Rush in Chandler before taking to the streets with our cameras, practicing and practicing. Email me at sarah (at) pikkuarkki.com if you’d like to join me! Ps.  If that date doesn’t suit you, but you’d like a seminar while I’m in town, find two other friends and choose your date!  I’m in Arizona September 19 – October

In most cases, there is more than one person in your frame.  And that means more than one set of eyes to focus on.  So, who do you choose to put in focus? You need to figure out what your story is and then use your focus points to tell it.   Here’s are my rules of thumb: If it’s a family shoot, the child is the focus. (I break this rule if I want to show the way the parent is looking at the child) If it’s a wedding, the bride is in focus 80% of the time. (I break this rule when I want to show the way the groom looks at his bride) Or you simply focus on the person looking at you. In fact, looking at each other is a great way to maximize the appearance of focus while also capturing relationships and real expressions. If you have multiple people all looking directly at the camera and you want them all to be in focus, then temporarily up your f-stop (to maybe 3.2?) and then take the same photo over and over, quickly, quickly, using a different person’s eyes as the focus in each shot.  When you get back to your computer and you can see it on a big screen, you can decide which focus was the best. And then tell them to stop looking

DSLR cameras have the wonderful option of allowing the photographer to choose the focus point (Most point and shoot cameras focus on the object nearest you or have face recognition and try to focus on the face- SOME might let you choose the focus point.  This is yet another reason you might consider upgrading to a DSLR).  You can focus in the corner or in the middle or to the side or on the top or on the bottom- you get it- you have options. And focus is one of the most important elements of composition.  It’s what tells the viewer what the most important thing about the photo is.  Is it the smile on the child’s face or the seashell he’s holding?  Is it the musicians intense stare or the piano he’s playing? 80% of the time, the thing I focus on is the face.  Sometimes I want to zero in on the hands or feet or a toy or a flower someone is holding.  But mostly, it’s expression. And WHEN it’s the expression, it’s 100% the eyes.  The eyes are the window to the soul.  Eyes are an ocean in which dreams are reflected. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Blah, blah, blah. I focus on the eyes because when the eyes are in focus, it make the entire photo look like it’s in focus. For instance: In this photo

A quick supplement to yesterday’s Starting Out Post. I understand that, especially with kids, things can happen so fast that you haven’t got time to move.  They’re not playing quietly in the sand or sit quietly eating cake for five minutes.  You can’t see if you like the photo before trying something else.  If this is the case, you can do ONE thing that will make all the difference in the world:  squat or kneel- QUICKLY! Let’s say your kid is running after some ducks.  You’ve got to act NOW or the moment is over.  Just throw yourself down to his level and start shooting.  You’ll be impressed at how much better the photo is when you tell it from his perspective.  Just that little move will do a lot, I promise. For this post, I tried to find an example of when I didn’t get down to their level (not so right)  to contrast it with getting down to their level (usually right), but I don’t actually have any when I haven’t gotten down to their level.  It’s become a natural instinct now just to get down with my bad self.  Either that or I delete the ones that I take whilst standing up and keep the ones that are taken kneeling, sitting on the floor, squatting or on my tummy.  I can give you some examples of

Yesterday, Olli and I took the kids to the Helsinki Zoo.  (Ps.  We now have an annual pass, so if anyone wants to head to the zoo, let us know and we’ll join you!  Pps.  We also have an annual pass to the Phoenix Zoo.  Wow, are we ever the international supporters of zoos, huh?) I don’t have any photos from the zoo.  This was on purpose.  Sometimes I need a break from my camera, so I leave it at home. But OTHER people had cameras.  Everyone had cameras, in fact!  And a lot of them had big fancy cameras, with big fancy lenses.  Others had simple camera phones.  But everyone (apart from I) was taking photos. And the photographer in me watched all these moms (for, they were ALL mothers) and I noticed something.  Something universal. The camera phone moms were better at composition than fancy camera moms. Think about it. Camera phones are generally not very good.  So, if you want to take a photo of, say, your kid in the sandbox, you have to be right there in the thick of it.  You’re down on your knees, in the sand, three feet away from your kid.  You take a photo, see if it works on your phone and when it doesn’t, you move a bit and try something else. But fancy cameras- oh, they make a lazy

Part of the advice I give my Starting Out students is “Never stop shooting.”  Keep taking photos during your sessions because 1.  People get nervous if you stop- like they’re not worth being photographed and 2.  You might surprise yourself with the photos you end up taking- you might like them much more than you thought you would. I also tell my students not to go for the obvious looking at the camera and smiling shot.  Play around, get the moment to come out. As in many things I say during my Starting Out seminars, I really should listen to my own advice. On Friday, Olli and I were afforded the opportunity to spend some time ALONE together.  We haven’t had a date night since…  our anniversary if memory serves me correctly.  That was two months ago. We enjoyed the gorgeous summer weather by eating out at a restaurant in Lauttasaari by the sea. Well.  I had just bought a new dress.  I had a big glass of orange soda in front of me.  The sun was shining.  I was on DATE with my husband.  I wanted a photo to memorialize it. I wanted, I confess, an obvious (read: boring) looking at the camera and smiling shot of myself.  Something like this: But, it seems that Olli knows a thing or two about photography as well.  And he knows that

A few weeks ago, I was asked to lead a Starting Out course in Hyvinkää, and about one week ago, the course came to fruition. I met two lovely sisters and their lovely DSLRs for some discussion about cameras, light, and life. I’ve already told you how much I love photographing sessions.  Probably ad nauseum.  But now NOW I’ll tell you how much I love teaching. I love it. A lot. I love LOVE sharing everything that I’ve learned, I love talking shop, I love being in the presence of other photography enthusiasts.  I love learning new things.  I love listening to my own advice and realizing what a total hypocrite I am (Do as I say and not as I do).  These starting out sessions help me return to my roots, remind me to take a deep breath and get back to basics.  Look for the good light, make your subject comfortable, and fire away. After discussing the functions that create your light (shutter speed, f-stop, ISO), we headed outside for the basics of good light. Open shade, people.  Remember it’s your best friend.  It’s safe.  It’s easy.  It’ll help you until you get more adventurous with your light choices. Then we explored alternative light if open shade isn’t available.  Such as backlighting or using yourself as a human shade umbrella. And then we discussed the perils of bad

My favorite topic for these Starting Out posts has to be light.  Mostly because I haven’t figured it out yet, either.  But the bits that I have learned, I’d love to share with you, so we can all get better together. Now, you’ve heard me talk about finding even, open shade whenever possible.  And that still remains.  If I find that my kids are doing something particularly cute, I’ll often just move the whole scene into better light, where I can shoot.  Or I’ll wait for them to move by themselves (I can do that now, because Henry also moves.  Surprisingly/Frighteningly quickly). But sometimes it’s just not going to happen.  Open shade just ain’t available.  And you’ve got to work with direct sunlight. One of my favorite things to do if the sun is low enough is to backlight photos- but that will be its own separate post, because it’s so wonderful it deserves its own.  But if you’re shooting at high noon?  You can’t backlight, because the sun isn’t even BEHIND you.  It’s directly ABOVE you. And if you want to capture memories at high noon in direct light AND you want them to look halfway decent- here’s what you can try:  use a body to create shade, at least on the face. So, here’s what I did.  I positioned Olli in between the sun and Benjy and ordered