Tips for shooting my 19 mo Daughter

[mson]

I have been able to get some good shots of my daughter, but I am looking for suggestions. She is FAST! I tried using the "sports" setting but I didn't like the results, lately I have been using Av mode w/ my 50mm f/1.8. I have tried to get her to sit in a small chair but she doesn't want anything to do with that while I have a camera in my hand. :) My approach so far has been to wait for her to start playing with something and then start shooting. This works OK, but usually means that there are toys, etc in the shot that I don't necessarily want or that she is not looking at the camera. Any tips?

[PeterS45]

Why not try putting your camera on a tripod and use the remote? That way she won't notice you're planning to take pictures.

[PacAce]

What's wrong with photographing your daughter as she is naturally, playing and with toys all around? You need to capture those moments as she's growing up, not just for youself but for her, too.

My father was into photography since the day I was born. We have all these pictures of us from when we were babies to when we graduated from high school which chronicals our growing up. However, they were all posed pictures and a lot of those taken when we were younger were with us (or at least me) pouting because we didn't want to be posed and have our pictures taken. We even have pictures of us when we went sight-seeing but again, we were in that static pose so none of the pictures really show us what we were doing at all these places we went to.

Maybe it's just me but I think candid shots tell more of the story than posed shots do.

[mson]

PacAce, you make a good point. I will still take candid shots, but would also like to get some "nicer" portrait shots as well.

[Namagemo]

mson...

I don't know if this helps, but you can take some "cluttered" photos and mess with them in PSE to achieve portrait type results. I'm basically just a P&Ser but here are two recent pics of my grandson to show you what I mean. Just shoot alot and the kids get used to and forget about the camera. You're bound to get a few good facial expressions, and these you can work on.


http://richanddiane.smugmug.com/gallery/99034/1/3487959

[gsmx2]

I bought this book and found it simple, but informative giving good ideas on how to photograph babies and children. And the ideas are good for big people too.

http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=7-1556708955-1

gsm x2