A giggle, warm light bouncing off a sweet face, a silly dance move. THOSE are the things I wish to remember for the the rest of my life.
You will never hear me tell my daughter to say “cheese,” because capturing real moments are so much more honest. A forced smile doesn’t really tell a story.
I hope some of these images inspire you to look at moments from a different point of view!
— Justina Olenick
When photographing your kids this year, Justina encourages you to try to look at moments from different points of view.
As parents, we often want to zoom in on faces tocapture expressions, but what about capturing the entirescene?
In this photo, my father was showing my daughterhow to fly a kite for the first time on Florida’s gulf coast. Iknow for a fact she had a huge smile on her face, but I love thisperspective because I can actually imagine and relive everythingabout it!
STEP BACK
As beautiful as the sunset was falling into theocean, I fell in love with the warm light it painted on mydaughter’s face. It seems like we are always programmed to shootinto the sunset, but then we miss the beautiful things going onbehind it! The night sky rising was a beautiful rich blue andcomplimented the clear cyan water. I highly recommend turning yourback on the sunset to see what kind of dynamic images you cancapture.
But if you just HAVE to capture that sun, here is alittle tip! If you notice that the exposure on your subject’s faceis a little dark, use a reflector to bounce the sunlight back intotheir face (or save some money and pick up a piece of foamcore).
SUNRISE/SUNSET
I am always drawn to bright funky murals,especially ones with a 15ft fish with houses painted on its back.You can’t go wrong capturing a moment in front of something likethis. I asked my dad to turn to his side, and I am drawn to theimage because of the subjects facing different ways. It is a nicechange to break away from the norm of the straightforward “posed”image.
POSITIONING
Try capturing the moment from above, or get reallylow and shoot up!
In this photo, my daughter was checking out somebeautiful flowers at the The Peggy Notebaert Museum. As soon as Isaw the lines created from the benches colliding, and the vibrantcolors of the flowers, I knew it would create an interesting image.A lot of photography is anticipating the moment, especially withchildren. You have to act pretty fast! And now I can alwaysremember the little knot bun I put her hair in!
ANGLE
While I never know what I will come across whenexploring new places, I always keep my daughter’s outfit in theback of my mind.
In this photo we were wandering around in HermosaBeach, California and this vivid blue wall and bright yellowflowers just jumped out at me! I visualized her white tank toppopping and her little striped leggings matching thescene.
COLORS
It’s not only for children! While trekking up ahill in Manhattan Beach, California we passed this amazing paintedgarage door. Most people might think it is a bit odd, but I see anamazing photo op! When my significant other started acting silly bypretending to lean back I had to snag that moment up! It’s a funnymemory we will always have, and a reminder of the pain in ourcalves from all the hills.
BEING SILLY
While exploring the iconic bean in our lovely cityof Chicago, you will always see dozens of tourists trying tocapture their reflections in the bean, typically up close. I wantedto pull away from the crowd and capture my daughter in front of theentire bean itself.
Don’t be afraid to break away from the normand photograph a moment with a different approach, you might justlove the results!
BE DIFFERENT
