kids – Page 3 – JWNPhoto.com

Articles Tagged with: kids

Kayla & Kegan

My kids’ grade school held their annual community fair this past weekend, and my son was very excited to get a chance to hang out with one of his favorite classmates, Kayla!

The kids slid, jumped, and climbed for hours on a beautiful spring day.

I though I’d let my son have a say in this post, so here’s my interview with Kegan about his buddy:

Joe: What do you want to tell everybody about Kayla?

Kegan: She’s very nice!

Joe: What is your favorite memory of Kayla?

Kegan: She came to my birthday party and got her picture taken while playing.

Joe: If you could tell Kayla one thing right now, what would it be?

Kegan: I’m so happy that we are friends!

I’m happy they’re friends also 😉

I was searching through my Flickr stream for some valentines day photos when I realized that one year ago today, Charleston, SC was buried in snow! I know my buddies up north aren’t that impressed, but I think it’s surreal to see palmetto trees covered in snow:

Mac Reenacts A Scene From "A Christmas Story"

The snow started vanishing by that afternoon, but the kids made the most of it while they could. They built snow forts:

Had snowball fights with the neighborhood kids:

Tried to make a snowman:

And of course, made snow angels:

With all of the snow that the rest of the US has gotten this season, we’ve been able to grin as we put on nothing more than a sweatshirt to stay warm here in the low country. These photos remind me that it’s very possible to be put back in our places with a good old fashioned snow storm. My hammock just doesn’t look so relaxing in all of that snow!

Looking back on the technical side, I should have manually set the white balance on these shots – it’s all over the place when using AWB in the snow.

Winter Desaturation

1/250th of a sec | f/5.6 | 300mm | ISO 1600

A popular effect in many casual portraits is the washed-out or desaturated look. Taking cues from high fashion photography, people tend to look more attractive as the facial features get even and blown out while retaining a high contrast with their eyes, clothes, and background elements. The difference is in the deliberate heavy-handed approach – you’re not trying to play a photo trick here, you’re making an obvious change to your photo’s look.

1/200th of a sec | f/5.0 | 180mm | ISO 1100

This effect works best for me when making outdoor photos, and depending on the feel I’m going for, the color of the sunlight and the time of year determines the best course of action. For a bright sunny day, where the grass is green and the flowers are blooming, it’s best to use directional sunlight in the morning or late afternoon and put the subject between you and the sun. The back-light will give a warm yellow halo effect around your subject (make sure to use spot metering to expose for your subject’s face, because matrix metering will be way off when shooting into the sun).

For winter photos, shooting on an overcast day will naturally give you a cold blue color temperature to match the dead grass and barren trees. In the shots here, I was deliberately going for photos that feel like winter in the south. Sure, the temperature was really warm for January when I took these, but the environment and color still help define these as winter/fall shots. The key here is reign in the yellow grass so that it’s no longer a warm yellow. I started the two shots above using Nik Color Efex Pro’s Bleach Bypass. I made more use of the effect’s local contrast slider more than anything else in the plugin. After I did that, I brought the photo back into Adobe Lightroom and performed some tweaks to maximize the effect as detailed below.

What if you don’t have Nik Color Efex Pro? You can still get similar results using just the basic tools available in Lightroom or Aperture. This shot of my daughter was created without the use of the Bleach Bypass filter. It is less dramatic, but for her I didn’t particularly like the hardness of the filter.

1/200th of a sec | f/5.0 | 170mm | ISO 1600

You can see that I needed to be a bit more heavy-handed with my Lightroom basic adjustments without the use of Bleach Bypass:

In the shot below, I used a different approach which resulted in a much warmer effect because I wanted to have contrast between the pavement and the grass. Although it’s more saturated than the other photos, it still has that grainy high contrast and desaturated feel to it. Another factor that is more of a way of exploiting your lenses shortcomings is to shoot at a high ISO. Depending on the lighting, this can give your shots a graininess that looks quite gritty. I’m pretty sure if I was shooting these with faster glass, I would have chosen to add the grain in later to taste, but since I wasn’t, I chose to take advantage of the high ISO look (and by take advantage, I mean I didn’t have much of a choice).

1/200th of a sec | f/4.8 | 140mm | ISO 800

Raw Talent

I got to witness some really talented kids today. My children are lucky to attend an arts-infused school, and my daughter is part of the school’s chorus team. Today, they performed two showcases in the area and included dance and painting as well as singing in their performances.

The three painters that were participating started with a blank canvas and were given the duration of the performance (which was only about 20 minutes) to create something. I was particularly interested in them because I love to see a creative challenge like this. I’ve posted previously about the occasional benefits of boundaries, and I think it really separates the people who love their craft from the excuse-makers who aren’t quite there yet. These kids did not disappoint.

The painters were positioned right up front with the vocal performers, and the onlookers who were curious enough to walk around to take a peak were treated to an evolving trio of paintings. I can guarantee that if they were not forced to finish, they would have kept going and would have ended up with totally different paintings than what they created this afternoon.

It was a great display of raw talent. These kids are all about 10 years old, and are at varying levels with their arts, but they are mostly uncorrupted. There’s no agenda, just the urge to make something and say, “look at what I can do”.

I have to give the faculty members of the school that came out to participate on a Saturday great praise. They are an example of the right kind of educators that our children need to grow up in an enlightened and progressing world. A place without creativity would be a frightening one because it screams to be set free from the minute you begin to connect with the life around you.

I put up a set of photos from the events on my Flickr.

Time To Give Back

**UPDATE – 12/1/2010** – I have posted the notes from our first planning meeting here. We have our volunteers set for the December 6th event, but still need people for the 16th and back-up volunteers for both dates. We also could use a portable photo printer if you have one to loan us.

**UPDATE – 11/29/2010** – Our first planning meeting will take place on Wednesday, December 1st at EVO Pizza in North Charleston. The details can be found here.

**UPDATE -11/22/2010** – We have set two dates: December 6th & 26th 2010 – please click here for the details.

Original Post – 11/16/2010:

Last year, I saw a video about the annual Help-Portrait event in Charleston. I thought it was brilliant and put a reminder in my calendar so I could remember to get involved with it this year. Help-Portrait is the brainchild of celebrity photographer Jeremy Cowart. The idea is for local photographers to organize a way to use their skill to give back to their community by volunteering time and prints for those in need.

My wife and I have been talking back in forth for a long time about how we could help kids with cancer. She regularly follows the blogs on CaringBridge.org, and get very emotionally attached to the families and their stories. Recently, one of our daughter’s classmates, Jesse, got diagnosed with Leukemia after he couldn’t walk into the state fair with his grandparents. Just the thought of a 10 year old boy not being able to make it into the fair is heartbreaking enough, and to suffer through the horror of finding out that your child has been diagnosed with cancer is something I could never even fully imagine – but it happens to the most unlikely and innocent children.

So, when I signed up for Help-Portrait in anticipation of volunteering for an event that was being run by another local photographer, I was kind of bummed that nobody had anything planned yet for this year. Then it clicked in my head. I could do it. Why not? But what to do – who could I serve for this? The answer hit me like a ton of bricks – We could do it at the MUSC Children’s Hospital and we could take holiday portraits of the families who are in similar situations as Jesse’s!

Today, my wife Amy finally got to talk to the Child Life Manager at MUSC and explained our plan. Unfortunately, the day that Help-Portrait is planned for (December 4th) is not a possibility with their schedule. However, she did say that she was really excited about the idea and that there are plenty of other days that we can do it on! So I talked it over with my wife, and we both easily agreed that the date is really unimportant – we don’t have to do it on a specific day to be part of this. The idea is to give back, not to give back on only one specific day! I’ve created a group for this MUSC Kids project on Help-Portrait.com for anybody who wants to participate with me. It’s the same idea as Help-Portrait, just on our own schedule. Anybody can help – photographers, make-up artists, hair stylists, people who can hold a light stand – anybody who wants to be a part of this is welcome! I also signed up with the existing Charleston, SC Help-Portrait Group because I plan on helping out with whatever event pops up for the 4th of December.

This is what we are going to be focusing our efforts on in the coming weeks, so please, sign up at the Help-Portrait community site and get involved! Lets make this happen together, it will be fun and you will make someone’s day a bit brighter.

The Shot Between The Shots

If you read a lot of photography blogs and/or books, you will hear the veterans of the craft talk about the shot between the shots. That it, the real shot is the one that is caught when the subject is off guard and their true personality shows.

Over the weekend, I was walking my dogs with my son and when we came upon a small pond in our neighborhood. The morning light was awesome and my jaw dropped when I looked up and saw the color of the trees behind the pond. I immediately decreed that it was time to take fall portraits of the children. Unfortunately, my wife and daughter were working at a community garage sale and then I had to take my daughter to piano practice right afterward. That meant no picture taking until the ugly hours of the middle afternoon. Booo. As luck would have it, a bunch of clouds rolled in and turned the ugly direct sunlight into soft diffused daylight! I dragged an umbrella out to the pond that afternoon and asked the kids to stand together for a portrait to send to their Grandmother for her upcoming birthday. I swear, I almost lost my mind trying to get these two to stand still and smile. After only a couple of attempts, this was the best I could do:

I wish I had the patience with my own children to somehow get them to cooperate, but within seconds after this shot my kids were rolling on the banks of the pond and then my son ran off all upset at his sister! Here I was, just getting started, and they were finished. When shooting kids – there’s no practice time. You’ve gotta get it right immediately or else you lose them.

I asked my daughter to smile pretty for some shots after my boy ran off. When I did that, she put on what was obvious to me as the world’s most forced smile and pose. If I could see it, the world would see it as well. So, I began to talk in a crazy demon voice and she started to giggle at my silliness. Luckily, she was in frame. That is the shot at the top of the post, which was my favorite of the day – the shot between the shots. That’s my daughter – a happy kid who loves to laugh, and that’s how she looks when she’s doing it.

Getting Your Hands Dirty

My wife left me alone with the kids today so she could get some work done. I had no idea what we were going to do. I had two options; we could spend Sunday as it was meant to be spent – relaxing and getting ready for the week, or we could go out and do something. After a few minutes of lazying it up, we decided to venture out to the burrito place for some lunch. While we were there, we spotted one of our neighbors. Their daughter came and ate lunch with us so she could hang out with the kids. During lunch we talked about all of the things going on around town – there were two different Oktoberfest celebrations as well as a handful of pumpkin patches we could explore. After I shot down their idea to go roller skating (I did not feel like being pulled down every time one of the kids falls, which is like every five feet), I offered up a trip to the park.

My daughter, the social butterfly, invited her little friend to come to the park with us. Now we were four – I was outnumbered by three-to-one. I took a deep breath and we loaded into my car to head out to the park. The kids had a blast, and I had fun taking pictures of them playing. At a certain point, I had to come to grips and put the camera away so I could pay closer attention to the kids. Also, once we decided to hit the paddle boats and kayaks, I didn’t want to have any distractions (although I couldn’t stop looking at the great colors of the trees reflecting in the lake or composing in my mind the best shot of a great blue heron that was perched on the shore).

I do have a point to this story, and it’s two-fold. Number one is reiterating the point of yesterday’s post, which is that you need to go out and do something. Get started now – don’t put it off, whatever it is. Life is meant to be lived every day, and when given the opportunity to get up and go out, you should take that over laziness every time! You never know what your reward will be when you put yourself out there, but I can guarantee that sitting around the house doing nothing will get you nothing! Number two refers to the title of today’s post – that is getting your hands dirty. You know when a kid is having fun? When they look like they’ve been bathing in mud. As an artist, you need to get out and play in the mental mud. Try things that you normally wouldn’t try. Don’t be scared to get your shoes wet or your camera dirty. Get in there and get that shot – get as close as you can to make it work.

I read a story this morning that was both shocking and understandable in a sick sort of way. A New York Times war photographer named Joao Silva continued to take pictures after stepping on a land mine in Afghanistan and blowing off his legs. The man lived through such a horrible experience and was conscious enough to pull a camera up to his eye and photograph the aftermath of the explosion. That to me is the sign of a true artist – a crazy man with a sick dedication to his art. It makes most of us pale in comparison with our pictures of beautiful scenes and decisive moments. That man captured his own life altering moment. Hopefully nobody reading this will ever come close to enduring such a horror, but he managed to turn to his craft as a means to work his way though it and for that I can’t even express how amazing I think he is. Here I was, doing what I thought was the right thing by putting the camera away so I could pay more attention to my kids when entering a potentially dangerous situation in the water, and this guy is shooting in a war zone. I can’t compare myself to a guy like this, not even close, but I can certainly be inspired by him and his sacrifice.

Next time you second-guess pulling over the car to capture a fantastic cloud formation, or shy away from the idea of kicking off your shoes and getting knee deep in the water to get a few feet closer to an egret, remember that you will most likely not get maimed by an explosive and your discomfort is quite minimal and will be forgotten after you take home that shot that everyone else was too shy to get.

Everybody’s Working For The Weekend

I spent this past Saturday with my family in typical fashion. We are on a mission for a specific Halloween costume for my daughter that seems to be sold out everywhere, even on the internet (with the exception of eBay sellers doubling the price of the outfit). After checking out 3 different Halloween shops, we called off the hunt and broke for lunch. We then had to pick out a present at the local toy store for one of our little buddies who was celebrating her 6th birthday. When we got home, we found this little squirrel burglarizing our bird feeder. I grabbed my camera and quickly captured this mission impossible moment.

We wrapped up the gift and then headed to the bowling alley for the birthday party. The kids had a lot of fun and I don’t think the six-year-olds had any concept of scoring or even who’s turn it was half the time. Does it matter though with bumper bowling? As long as there were smiles on their faces I think it was very successful! Here’s a set of photos from the party.

After that the kids went to a jump party and the wife and I went to see “The Social Network”, or as I like to call it, “The Pirates of Silicon Valley 2”. It was a very well acted and directed movie – At no point did I find myself thinking they should have called it “Facebookland” after seeing Jesse Eisenberg’s previous acting roles.

Today should be more of the same, with pumpkin patches on our radar. Have I told you how I think October is the best month yet?

The Cub Sleeps Tonight

6 years ago, my son was 10 months old and would not sleep through the night. He cried. A lot. At some point I wrote this quick little lullaby for him:

Hey Kegan

We used to get to the neurotic point of insanity that could only be quelled by putting this song on repeat while driving aimlessly around Long Island in our car. I think my wife and I must have heard this song at least 100,000 times during that time of our lives, and to take a picture like the one above makes it easier to forget just how nutty raising kids can be.

I got some very cool news from Charleston Magazine yesterday, I hope that it all works out. I also should be receiving the prints I’m entering into the 2010 Coastal Carolina Fair photography contest today. Last year I printed my entries on cheap computer paper using a cheap color laser printer. I felt kind of silly when I saw how much better the professional entries looked when printed on quality photo paper, so this year I decided to take it a bit more seriously.

This was my highest scoring entry from last year’s contest:

Last but not least, don’t forget to come to the 6th Annual Kulture Klash Arts Festival this weekend, and check out the prints I am showing.

1 23