Baby Photos and the Art of Photography
Photography is the art of capturing an image of that moment. It could be a face, a plant or a mountain. It could be something that will be there tomorrow but will look different or it could be something that won’t be seen again. I read in a comic book once of a conversation between a father and son. The young son asked his father why old photos were always in black and white and new photos were in color? His father said there was always color film in the old days, but the world was only in black and white then! It was funny but some of our most famous photography “artist” worked in black and white such as Ansel Adams. He and so many others were artists that couldn’t make up their work but had to capture it at the right instant of time.
I was going through some photos with my wife the other day. Some of them would take my breath away. They were images captured in time of babies in our family. Some of these babies are now 5, 8, 10, 14, 17 years of age. They are my children, nephews and nieces. Some of them are of my wife and her sisters. They’re baby pictures! They are an instant caught in time. They were either taken by my in-laws or given to them as gifts. They may not have been present at the time the photo was taken but they had that image of that instant in time to carry with them until they died. These images were no different than the images that Ansel Adams gave me as a gift when he photographed San Francisco bay where the Golden Gate Bridge is before it was built. He gave me a memory that I could not have had otherwise. My family and my sister-in-laws’ families gave my mother -in-law and father-in-law memories that they would never have had if it weren’t for photography.
Even if you aren’t a great photographer, a picture is still worth a 1,000 words. When a newborn baby comes home from the hospital and the family and extended family come by to see him or her, what comes out? Of course, the cameras come out and start snapping. I learned two schools of thought from photographers that I took courses from. One was in a roll of 36 exposures, 34 better be the top quality photos that you intend to sell. The other photographer taught that in a roll of 36 exposures, expect 2-3 quality photos that are worthy of selling. What I learned from this is spend your time taking posed photos but keep snapping for candid photos.
If you are taking photos of babies or children, take your time for both types of photos. I personally do not like posed photography but that’s me. I prefer to capture a child that is at play trying to solve a problem or just being natural. I like the expressions when they are deep in thought or interacting with other children. I found a photo of my son that I took through a car window when he was five holding his hand up with his fingers stretched out. That photo is so memorable to me because I sent it to my mother before she passed away. It was exactly the same photo that my mother took of me when I was five years old.
May I suggest that you seriously consider studying photography to get a better understanding of the capabilities of using a camera properly? If you are just starting out, you need to start with the basics and work from there. Here is a good site to learn various aspects of photography from: http://www.photographytips.com/ For some detailed photography, study someone like Ansel Adams and look at this website: http://www.anseladams.com/
