Photo Challenges

I was added to a photography group on Facebook that I'm really enjoying. Apparently, there are 100 days between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and the purpose of this group is to take a picture and post it during that time. I'm doing a daily photo challenge anyway, so I thought this would be fun. The group facilitator posts a prompt / challenge that we are supposed to try and complete at least once during the week. I thought I'd share my first month of "challenge" shots here- and some background info, like how I took them and why I chose them.

Week One: Harsh Light

Harsh Light (in direct sunlight) is not a photographer's favorite but there is a lot of it in the summer and you miss a lot of good opportunities if you don't know how to use it. Here is the one I chose for the challenge:

Exposed correctly for his face, hair slightly blown out but I like that effect so it's okay, nailed the bubbles. I just made sure the overexposed parts are not really visible in the frame! :) 

Week Two: The Decisive Moment

I'd never really heard of it before the challenge, but apparently the idea is not to just take 549836745986754-billion pictures and then choose the best moment from them, but instead, just watch and wait, clicking the shutter at the exact moment in time that tells the story you want to tell, not a moment too late or too soon.

I watched him run through a few times and then took this one on the first snap. Not bad! That face, though. :)  

Week Three: Get in the frame

This concept has gained some popularity in the social media world lately, and the idea is for moms to get more pictures of themselves (especially with their kids)- exactly how they are. Not waiting to be perfectly made up or photo-ready, since we usually aren't. Our kids don't care how we look but will want pictures of us one day. And, much to my dismay, selfies don't count, the idea is to go for real pictures. I agree with the concept that I'd like more pictures of me with the kids but struggle with the idea of not making myself photo-ready. 

So I used B&W, which hides a multitude of flaws, lol!  I used a stack of books and the timer feature on my camera for this, because my remote batteries were dead and I was too lazy to go find the tripod (very real life, lol). On the first day of summer- when we could finally sleep in- that there baby got me up way too early, so I decided to capture the moment. In my pajamas. In the interests of total honesty, I will admit the only staging of myself that I did was to put on a bra. Because seriously. LOL. However: no makeup, no hair done. 

Week Four: 1/50 SS (or lower)

The idea here is to use a slow shutter speed, something those of taking pictures of kids usually avoid because with fast-moving tiny people, a slow shutter speed usually = blur. But, blur can have its uses in telling a story so the idea is to get comfortable using it.

I knew as soon as I read the challenge that I wanted to use it to try panning. I tried this years ago for a photo challenge I did with some friends and it really didn't work. I think I tried it a few times, actually. It really didn't work for any of them. Panning, in case you don't know, is when you track your subject and move your camera along with it, so the subject stays in focus but the background blurs with an element of movement (not nice creamy swirly bokeh, but streaky blur). Think pictures of professional bike races, or something.

So, because I knew it'd be hard for me, I decided I needed a wider range than usual for "distances in focus", so I put the aperture up as high as I could go. I needed to do this anyway because I was shooting in daylight and of course, to get the panning effect and meet the requirements of the challenge, I had to use a shutter speed lower than 1/50. (I wound up having to use 1/30 to create the balance I wanted).  The advantage to the high aperture was that a greater range of distances from the camera would be in focus, important because I wanted my subjects moving, but I knew I wasn't going to move. (Apparently some people pan by moving alongside their subjects- I can't figure this out- unless they are on wheels, it seems like it would be bumpy and create blur that way. And if you're on wheels, WHAT ARE YOU DOING LOOKING THROUGH THE CAMERA! YOU ARE GOING TO CRASH, OMG, TBI.)  Anyway. I had the boys race back and forth in front of me in a straight line so they didn't vary in distance too much, although obviously some. But I think the higher aperture helped compensate for that.

So then I picked a spot in a park I liked, and had them get to it! I'm actually super happy with the result...

Owen's a touch blurrier than I'd like but Toby is pretty sharp (at least his head is, lol) and hey, it just adds to the story! Pretty dappled summer afternoon light through the trees, a few clovers, and brothers racing... Perfect!