Chickamauga

 Captured this photo at Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park while on our 2 week 7 city road trip in July. Julia is standing near one of the monuments in the park. 

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Chase

Sure, it's easy to dress up your child in clothes they're uncomfortable in, put them in a setting they've never experienced and hold a toy they don't own. Or, go to their house and take a picture in their own setting, wearing whatever they happen to be wearing.

Personally, I like the pictures that show kids being who they ARE, not looking like someone they're not. It's fun to dress them up in cute outfits, but only if it reflects who they really are.

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Wind & Water

From the same session as this shot, and this shot...

This time the wind made her hair do an interesting dance around the outline of her face. It seems like it's ALWAYS windy in TX. That doesn't make for good pictures sometimes, but I happened to catch this one after taking a few with her hair completely obscuring her face.

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Just Happy To Be Here

Ever see a kid so excited about being able to sit on an incline? Me neither, but it made for some good expressions.

I've blogged about getting good expressions before, and with kids it's pretty easy. Take them to an area they've never been to, or not allowed to go to (with parental supervision of course). The expressions start coming naturally. Start snapping.

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Look Away From The Camera

Something about the look of an old, faded polaroid that is just so cool. 

This picture reminded me of another method I sometimes use to get good pics of kids who don't want to be cooperative. Tell them not to look at you. Where is it written that a portrait MUST be of someones face?  

To get that retro, faded look, I use a Photoshop action I downloaded from somewhere. There are literally tons of Photoshop actions out there you can download for free. Here is one good source.

The Polaroid frame came from PhotoFrame.

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Take What You Can Get

When it comes to taking pictures of my son, I'll pretty much take whatever I can get. Usually, if I point a camera in his face, he gets as far away from me as he can. When he does let me take a picture of him, his fake smile and obvious discomfort makes any picture generally unusable. The trick is catching him completely off guard.

Last week we were extremely proud to watch him receive an accomodation for making honor roll. I was feeling quite under the weather and not really in a pic taking mood, plus I figured we'd be too far away from the action to get a good shot (I STILL don't own a lens bigger than 105mm since switching to Canon). My wife was obviously annoyed at the fact that the family photog wasn't bringing a camera to this very special event, so I caved and brought it along.

The lights were fairly bright in the gymnasium where this was taking place. Since I always like trying to see how far I can push the 5D Mark II without using a flash, I left the flash off. My son was relatively nearby when I grabbed this shot. As expected, I was too far away to get a decent shot of him receiving his certificate.

The pic above was taken at 99mm 1/80 sec, f4, ISO 2000. I added the vignette in post.

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A Thanksgiving Tradition

As a kid, I always thought it was kind of silly to do certain things on holidays for no other reason than "because we always do this."  As my sister and I got older, we became less interested in doing things out of tradition. We couldn't see the reason for putting on Christmas music whenever someone opened up the Sears catalog because "that's what we always do.." or not putting up the tree until Christmas Eve because "that's when we always do it..."  It's better to be practical and not force others into situations they don't want to be in. That's my opinion, anyway. 

For the last several Thanksgivings we've been taking the kids to the playground behind Bennett Elementary where I usually photograph and videotape them playing. I edit the video, add some funny music and it usually makes for 2 minutes of mildly entertaining shenanigans. The kids love it, and watch it throughout the year.  We always ask them if it's something they still like to do and they always say yes. But....the kids are much older now, and some of the silliness I've managed to capture in the past just doesn't happen anymore. That makes editing much more challenging. I still haven't edited last years video...

This year was the first year I've had the 5D Mark II to record video with. I also managed to get a few pics. The picture above was given the "retro" look I've been playing with recently in Photoshop and the one below was made using Silver Efex Pro and Photoframes.

So while our tradition of going to this particular playground on Thanksgiving may not seem like any big deal, it has been a big deal to the kids for some time and I think we might be approaching the end of it. The video editing is still a long way off. I really need to get to work on last years..

Distract Your Kids

Last week I realized something that's probably painfully obvious to most photographers. There's a big difference between taking pictures of your kids and someone else's kids. Whenever I've taken pictures of a client's children, most of the time they're cooperative and willing to do what I ask them to do. When it comes to my own kids, forget about it.  

My daughter used to LOVE to get her picture taken and would pose away whenever I asked her to. Now, at age 11, she doesn't really cooperate. She insists she's trying, but no matter what, she closes her eyes, something itches, the flash is bothering her...it goes on and on. My son is the same way, but he never liked getting his picture taken.

Then I came across the picture above I took in 2008. I realized this is really the best way to take pics of your own kids: Have someone else distracting them while you take as many pictures as you can. One of them is bound to be a keeper AND you're getting a very candid portrait, which is what I'm usually after anyway. It's a tactic you'd expect to use with only babies and toddlers, but it works with pre-teens too.

For the picture above, I found a grassy area while visiting the Polynesian Village at Disney World. My wife distracted them while I snapped away. You can see my son is in mid-sentence while my daughter is half laughing...great capture.

The problem I had last week was when it was just me trying to take their picture (for this years Christmas card). I had to try on two different days because my daughter couldn't stop fidgeting and absolutely refused to keep her eyes open. I never did get the picture I really wanted, but eventually got something I could work with. I'm saving the whole story for a later blog.   

More Portraits from Adriatica

 A couple more from Adriatica in McKinney. These were taken last year, back in the days when my daughter would cooperate anytime I wanted to get a few shots of her. Those days are LONG gone...

Anyway, this is the Northwest corner of the development where there is a long stone wall. I took these with my D80 (also long gone) and added some post-processing later.  

Christmas Pictures / Holiday Photos

Hard to believe it's that time again, and it's always a busy season for photographers. Doing all those family pics with the kids, the dog, Dad wearing that ugly Christmas sweater in front of a fake fireplace or outside in front of an old fence with fake snow and a broken wagon wheel....yawn. 

We send out a card every year to people on our "list" which is really everyone that sent us a card last year. Most of these folks don't see our family pictures throughout the year, so I try to throw them one that will probably be different than any card they get

So one year I made a portrait of the kids with Santa hats...completely in black and white except for the hats. Above you see the result. Now, it's turned into a tradition...when you get a card from the Haberkern's it's going to  have a similar look. Same kids (just a year older) in b&w with color Santa hats...just a different pose. It's become our holiday trademark. Everyone knows to expect it when they get our Christmas card.

I'm working on this years picture but can't disclose what it will be until after the cards are sent out. Don't want to spoil the surprise.