Welcome back Picture love friends. I'm so happy you are here. Thank you for sharing your energy with me and your time. Thank you for letting me be in your ear. This episode is inspired by my beautiful and loving and inspiring clients. And the title of this episode is how to take better pictures. This conversation is for anybody who just loves their pictures like I do, and they want some better habits or a couple little tweaks that they can put into place so that they have a more satisfying collection of them. I think there's something in here for everybody. So I made a list of 10 tips, pro tips for you. and reasons why. And I think this is going to be something really meaningful. And if you could just tell me what your favorite takeaways are, I would love to know what resonates for you. In my decades of working with clients, pictures, I have seen the spectrum of family, vacation, pet career, all categories of photos. I mean, I'm talking, you know, Garage sale inventories, insurance claims, you name it. It's amazing how many things lurk in our archives and whether they're printed or they're digital, you know, not everything is a legacy moment. Some things have a fleeting value. So here are 10 tips that I came up with to help you not only have better picture collection, take better photos to start with. The first takeaway is to have an assortment of different kinds of pictures. Think of one occasion that you had recently or may have coming up or something that reoccurs in your life. Whether it's an occasion, whether it's an event, whether it's a holiday, I don't know. Just think of an occasion where you would be taking multiple pictures. Okay. Got it. Think about it this way. Can you take group pictures and individual pictures? Think of closeups and distance. Zoom in, zoom out, candids and occasional poses. Action, sprinkle in activities rather than stopping to smile for the camera at each individual moment. I don't know about you, but I have a very irregular history of photographs. Some of them are acceptable and others are horrendous. And I really hope that some of those freeze frame moments are not how the world sees me because they're not flattering. I would much rather you see a variety of my face rather than a wax museum face. And while yes, sometimes vanity comes into play, it would be so much more interesting to see a collection of photos where it's not every single frame where everybody stops and smiles for the camera, stops and smiles for the camera, stop and smile for the camera, stop and smile for the camera. I'm a child of the 70s, 1970s, growing up 70s and 80s, and it was very popular back in those pre digital days to have a photo of a full body and the context, which I consider a zoom out. Sometimes that's really helpful when you want to see a spatial relationship of your body and the size of that tree or your body in front of your new home or standing in front of the Grand Canyon and you need the splendor of the background in a photo. That's beautiful, but when you are capturing a moment of a human or a baby or an animal or a finite being. It's really important to also zoom in. So my years of scrapbooking, there have been many, many, many countless decades that I have cropped out the background to then highlight the focus. Well, here in digital, we get to zoom in and zoom out with, without even thinking about it, it's just instinct because our technologies made it so easy. So sometimes we go to the opposite extreme and everything's always close up, close up, close up, close up. And I know being a mom, some of these younger generations are not hesitant to take a camera roll full of goofy, blurry, messy, silly pictures. And quite honestly, I think they have value too, but try to mix it up, try to give yourself a variety. I mean, if a salad was made out of only cabbage, you wouldn't call it a salad. You would call it cabbage, right? So think of your camera roll as a salad, have the different ingredients that add texture and add variety and add interest to your pictures. Number two, look for beautiful lighting. Now, 20 years ago, I was up to my eyeballs in love with a direct sales company that got me started in my entrepreneurship. I'll be honest. Thank you creative memories. Shout out to creative memories for what they did to help me go from a career that was chosen for me to something I chose for myself. So deepest gratitude for that stepping stone that got me on a trajectory where I am today and so happy. So one of the benefits of working with this company is a professional photographer named Nick Kelsh you can Google him if you don't already know him. Nick Kelsch. Nick Kelsh. And one of the things that he does really, really well is talk to everyday photographers. And he teaches lots of things about how to take better pictures, but he taught me about how to look for beautiful lighting. I would love to have him here on picture love. Somebody tell Nick Kelsh, he needs to be a guest on picture love podcast. So he taught us about, you know, flashes have a purpose, but sometimes when you turn a flash on it makes somebody look radioactive because it blows out the color of their faces, right? Makes people look ghostly, makes them look like different race because the color of the pigmentation in their skin, it's blown out by lighting. So sometimes it's nice to look for natural lighting, use the sunlight wherever possible. Use candles, use string lights, have alternative lights, illuminating the face, illuminating, excuse me, the faces of our subjects. Diffused light is also great. On an overcast day when you're taking pictures outside, since the light is Is refracting off of the particles in the clouds. It's really beautiful way of truly having what a photographer does with those beautiful umbrellas to help bounce the light off from all sides in in a photo studio. And those diffused lights really. Soften shadows and light up more of the subject. So if it's an overcast day, don't be sad that you don't have blue skies say, Oh, yay, maybe I can actually get a better photo of my subjects. So food for thought now, speaking of beautiful lighting, number three is let the lighting light up the subject. Not the lens. What I'm saying there, if it's not already obvious, is try not to take pictures of the sun. Try not to take pictures of a lantern. Try not to take pictures of the flame of the candle. Try to take pictures of the actual subject, unless those things are the subject, of course. So try to get the lighting where it's lighting up the subject, but you're not taking a picture picture. Of the light, you can be surprised by the number of glares that's behind somebody when they're posed for a picture in front of a window and the glare picks up the flash of the camera. And then the flash of the camera bounces off that reflective surface. And diffuses the subject and makes everybody look like they have a strange halo or a haze over them. So trying to get the lighting where it's behind the camera and not necessarily being highlighted in a mirror back into the lens is really wise. So if you're outside, try to get on the vantage point of where the sun is behind you and lighting up the subject, but not lighting up the lens. So I hope that is a helpful reminder of something that might sound obvious, but when we're emotional and we're trying to capture a memory, or you just want to get that shot before going off to whatever this milestone event is, scooch over. So that you're not taking pictures of the light, you're taking a picture of the subject in the light. Here is, here's tip number four. And I love this one. Get creative about where you're taking pictures from. You can take pictures of reflections in water and windows and mirrors. We already talked about not wanting our flashes to bounce off of reflective surfaces that distort the subject, but you can get creative about the different angles instead of just straight on. You can take different positions. You can take pictures from above, from below, from the side. You can take pictures of people taking pictures. It's really fun when, especially in the. The smartphone era where you can actually see the frame somebody is capturing on their phone while you're taking a picture too. So those are fun editorial ways of still telling the story, still capturing the moment, but not making all of your pictures look the same. I love that. Another thought is less is more. Seriously, unless you're documenting the details for an insurance claim where you need all angles, nobody really wants to see and reflect. Every single gift and multiple at first, you pull off the bow, pull up, read the card, peel back the wrapping paper. Nobody wants to see all of that captured in necessarily 25 frames for each gift. That gets really boring. I mean, that's what video is for. If you want to watch the whole stage, just capture video. When it comes to multiple frames, that's multiple, multiple files that you have to fish through just to get through the gift unwrapping section of a shower, for example. So thinking in terms of less is more, take a few check for some accuracy, just that you captured that moment that really mattered to you, not because you had to, but because it was important to you. Don't, don't let obligation clutter your camera roll. And then. Put the phone or the camera down and enjoy the event and just be present. Take time to absorb it and feel the gratitude that, yeah, you, you documented that it happened and now you can go have a bite to eat while everybody else is too. You don't have to be the photographer unless that is your paid job. Fair enough. Now, babies, humans, animals, any kind of babies, yeah, they change rapidly. And there is the, that instinct to capture every little moment. Now, as a parent, I've been there. I know what it's like to be a new parent. You want to capture the different stages because they, they're very fleeting. That I totally understand, but there is such thing as moderation, because if you think about it in terms of instead of taking a hundred photos a day, maybe think of 25 photos, a couple dozen photos a week so that you have a manageable collection, a baby that grows up and looks back at their first year of life and only has 1, 250 photos is no less loved than the one that has 365, 000 photos of their first year. It may sound like a goofy metric to share with you, but honestly, Thank you for being present. Thank you for loving to document, but we want to live in the memories, right? And the disadvantage of having too many images collected of those memories is when they grow up and look back, they're not going to be able to find the trees through the forest. When there is too much clutter, it is so hard to find the gems. So let's make our legacy of love, not our legacy of clutter and stress that hides the beauty. So that was number seven. Number eight I already touched on, but look for different angles to take your pictures. You know, views from above, maybe the top of the stairs looking down, or if it's an outside event, maybe you're inside a building and you can take a photo outward or ask somebody who's already inside and just say, Hey, can you just take a picture of down below? Maybe take a picture from a baby's vantage point, you know, down on the ground. If you're sitting with a little one, maybe you'd see what their perspective is on their loved ones. Just a thought. Or the pet's view, right? What is a nature view? If you were mother nature, where are the different vantage points you would have that maybe you don't always think about because that's not your role. So it's really fun to take different perspectives. And of course, let's be compassionate and considerate of flattering angles. If you catch somebody in a compromised position because they were crossing their legs, be willing to delete. Before they're backed up and shared, don't be afraid to experiment, but also hold ourselves accountable for cleaning up what might be considered somebody else's mess. That's. That's not what we're here for. Now, not every photo is a legacy moment. I just kind of hinted to that and you've probably, if you've been around long enough, you've heard me say there is joy in deleting the clutter, right? And getting rid of the excess. Well, the reason why you might want to tidy them up, let's say a new parent is, you know, impulsively taking pictures of the baby. We don't want to back up pictures of questionable poop or strange rashes that you got to show the pediatrician at the doctor's appointment next week. What we want to do is only take pictures of that kind of thing for its purpose and delete, delete, delete, delete. Because quite honestly, I have never heard of a baby who grew up. Benefiting from pictures of baby diaper rash later in life, I have, if that is out the thing, I'm unaware of that lifestyle. Just be mindful of some things don't need to be backed up. Because if they're backed up, they're probably going to be shared number 10 special occasions. Here is a tip for when you are hiring a professional photographer. And this was given to me before my wedding going on 26 years ago. And to this day, I love this advice. Make a list of photos that are important for you to have. Somebody else is in charge of taking pictures. Give them a list. Don't make it pages and pages long, but give it them a list of, listen, these are the top 10 most important pictures for us to have after this event takes place. Name, names, let people know who are the special relationships, you know, the elders in the family moments, traditions, what are the things that you do want in film and what are the things we can just kind of skip? Let's not catch people with their mouths full of cake. Now, if it's a first birthday, yeah, the first bite of cake for that little one, that could be the picture that goes on your list. So keep in mind, what are the most important things when you get out ahead of it and you communicate to that professional photographer, this is what matters to me most, then you're helping them serve you better. And you're also releasing the responsibility of having to capture those moments yourself. So shout out to all my professional photographers, capturing special memories, special occasions for families and loved ones, all far and wide. You all have a special place in my heart and let's trust them. Trust them. If there's somebody you don't know, look for samples of the work and ask them how they work. Oh, and another part of the giving them that wish list is talk to them about how present you want them to be. If you'd like them to be very discreet and behind the scenes so that they're not in other people's pictures, let them know that. Say, I'd like for you to be a little bit of a more of a phantom thing because I have seen beautiful, talented photographers who take their jobs so seriously, they cut in the middle and nobody else can actually get photos, candid photos. So it's really important to give yourself the benefit and that photographer for how you would like the photography experience to feel fair enough that it really served me. I hope it, it serves you to have those thoughts before your next special occasion. So those are the 10 tips. I would like to offer everybody who would like to curate a more satisfying collection of photos for yourselves and for those who will receive the benefit of your photo legacy. Let's picture love. With love, let's picture love in our pictures. Let's picture love in our actions and let's all be present to actually receive the love we are picturing for the world. From my heart to yours, I hope this just fills your heart up, supports you, and if you need any help with curating your collection of better photo memories, I'm here for you. There's a contact form on my website and I would love to see how I can help you reminisce with the best possible collection of memories. See you next time.