I love the exciting new possibilities that each summer day brings. We finally get to say goodbye to our daily routine and welcome a little spontaneity. Your challenge for this week is to photograph your kids (grandchildren or furry friends) enjoying their new-found summer freedom. The key here is to photograph them actively engaged in an activity like blowing bubbles, planting flowers, turning over rocks looking for bugs, swinging, sliding, rollerskating, drawing with sidewalk chalk, etc. Keep your camera handy and try to photograph activities all week. Need some ideas . . . try these links . . .
Martha Stewart’s 60 Days of Summer
As you are photographing your kids try to shoot from different angles and vantage points. Don’t worry about getting smiles- focus more on the kids being engrossed in the activity. Get down on their level and move around the action. Take a few “detail” shots (hand dipping the wand into the bubbles, a pile of sidewalk chalk, a hand holding onto the chain of the swing). Think about telling the story of the activity in photographs. Challenge yourself to take LOTS of photos. Assuming everyone is shooting digital, you can always delete the ones you don’t like.
{*Extra Credit} Read your camera manual and find the Burst or Continuous Shooting mode (this feature is available on DSLR and point and shoot cameras). Take a series of photos of your kids in action. Use the burst mode to shoot them running, skateboarding, jumping, blowing bubbles, etc. The results can be really cool. I think a series of these images would be so fun in a photobook or on a scrapbook page. If you are a Photoshop guru a series like this would be a cool animated gif.
I would LOVE to see what you come up with for this challenge. I’ll post my results on Saturday. If you have photos that you would like to share (and please do!) you can link them in the comment section of my blog on Saturday’s post. You can link from your own blog if you have one, or upload your photos to Flickr (it’s free) and link them that way.
Barb - Got it!!! How many photos are you looking for? I will probably be linking mine from my blog (which I have to say I have been slacking on lately). Of course, not sure how I am suppose to link these since I am sorta computer stupid some times.
Mel - Barb- I will post something this week about how to link your photos. It’s easy. You’ll basically be copying and pasting the link into a new comment. I’ll go into more detail later and I’ll talk about posting a link from Flickr too. yay! So glad you are hopping on board!
Mel - I forgot to answer your first questions (How many photos?). No limit, shoot a ton and just pick out the best. That may be 3 photos or 13. If you link from your blog just put up a regular post about the activity and post whatever you like best.
Barb Stimmell - Sounds like it can’t be too hard. I had really hoped to take some photos already but work is killing me this week! ugh! Maybe Melissa (my daughter lol) would know what to do if I can’t figure it out myself.