5 tips for great family photos (with a self timer)

As our baby turns 6 months, I've realised we don't have a single photo of the four of us.

Getting some professional pictures taken is definitely on my to-do list but we've just not got round to it. Life has been busy.

Last weekend I was determind to get a picture - the four of us, our little family, my camera and a self timer. Easy right? 

It took patience, a lot of patience with a toddler running into the garden after every shot and being dragged back to the sofa for 'just one more!'  We got there in the end though.

Here are some of my tips for getting that family shot:

1. Choose your weapon - you may have an SLR or compact camera and a tripod. You may be looking to balance an iPhone on a pile of books. Choose what works for you and work out how to use the self timer function.

2. The set-up - my advice (particularly if you have young children) is to decide on your location in advance (ideally close to a window with some natural daylight). Clear away clutter and any distractions. Use an adult to pose for a trial shot and see how it looks. If you have everything set up in advance, you just literally need to bring the children in and get going.

3. Patience- we bribed our toddler with a biscuit and entertained her with songs. She was not playing ball but we just kept persevering with the self timer, taking numerous shots.

4. Eyes to camera? Do you want everyone looking at the camera? We tried shots some looking at the camera and some away. The image I chose was less posed and more natural. This is the style we prefer but the beauty of the self timer is that you are in charge and you can try lots of different options.

5. Editing - my editing for clients is done on my desktop computer with Photoshop software. Increasingly for day to day family pictures of our life at home I upload my pictures straight to my iPad using an Apple card reader. I then use the VSCO or Snapseed apps to crop, tweak colours and contrast or change to black and white. 

 

Before & After

Before

After

As you can see I chose to be close to a window with plenty of light. I had originally tried to include a painting we have in our kitchen but in the end decided the painting was a little too distracting and cropping in closer would work better. I also decided without the painting, I preferred the picture in black and white form.

Using the self timer is definitely something to try out. It takes a little planning but great to have a family photo ready for framing on your mantelpiece. 

Now & Then - Re-creating my baby photos

In March this year I had a baby girl and as proud parents, my husband and I have been watching her grow and develop week by week. I try to remember to jot down how she is changing and what she is experiencing for the first time, from her first taste of solid food to running her tiny fingers through the leaves of trees. My parents kept a similar record of my time first moments but in the form of a baby book. I recently dug it out and paid much more attention to it than I had previously, as now the penny has dropped and I realise how even a new noise is a major milestone!

Tucked inside a pouch in my baby book, along with my hospital bracelet and a Cookie Monster first birthday invitation, was this photo (below) from 1980. Written on the back was my age at the time (6 months). It got me thinking that it would be fun to try to recreate the same picture with my daughter as she has just turned the same age.

The first challenge was finding the outfit. Thirty odd years have passed since then, so it was a case of trawling through eBay and Etsy. Eventually I found a similar broderie anglaise bonnet and a turquoise Disney t-shirt which I turned around and added the trimming, bought from a local sewing shop. It is funny looking at the results above as I find myself thinking she looks more like her dad than I realised and less like me as a baby!

Having dipped my toe into this project, it is something I'd like to try more. My plan is to raid my parents’ photo drawer when I next go home to see if I can find more photographic contenders. It's certainly a fun challenge and a great little mother/daughter bonding exercise.

Here's the second set-up using another picture I found of me at six months, recreated with my daughter. We happened to have just bought her an extremely cute towelling robe from Jojo Maman Bebe (complete with bunny ears)!