{Week 2 Challenge} Shhh! Photos for Dad!

This weeks challenge will be geared toward Father’s Day, however if you are a dad you’re not off the hook, scroll down to the end of this post for your challenge.  I want to do something special for Joe for Father’s Day and I’ve had quite a few ideas swirling around my head.  Your challenge is to adapt one of my ideas or come up with one of your own for “Dad” centered photo.  I dug out some photos from my archives to give you some ideas and to get my creative juices flowing. 

Idea #1:  This is a collage I put together for Valentine’s Day a couple years ago.  This idea could be easily adapted to Father’s Day using the letters D-A-D.  I cut the letters out of posterboard and had the kids paint them, but you could make them many different ways.  Michael’s used to have large three dimensional papier mache letters that would be fun to use too.  I threw a white blanket over a table in my kitchen and let it hang down for a backdrop.  I positioned the kids in front of our sliding glass doors in the kitchen for maximum natural light.  Of course this was shot in February so you can easily take your kids outside.  Make sure you think about your background though.  The beauty of this collage is that you photograph your kids individually (or if you only have one child he or she can be photographed all three times), print 4×6′s of each and put them together.  Take it from me, trying to get four kids to cooperate simultaneously is a challenge in and of itself!

Idea #2:  One year I painted and printed all the kids feet on our camping t-shirts.  I thought it might be fun to photograph the kids feet with a Father’s Day message written on the bottoms.  I have eight feet to work with so I was thinking something like  W-E, (heart on two feet), D-A, D-!.  Getting all four kids to sit still will be challenging, but at least I won’t need to worry about the look on their faces.

Idea #3:  I also thought about having the kids spell out D-A-D.  Each letter would be a separate photo and then I would put them together in a frame.  This photo was shot with my p+s.  I just held it up over my head to get everyone in.

Idea #4:  I have a photo of Truitt in Joe’s shoes when he was about 5 years old.  Unfortuanately, I can’t find it anywhere, but it’s a classic Father’s Day photo.  I think it would be pretty adorable to dress the kids up in Dad’s clothes too.  A few years ago I framed a photo of Joe with Isaac and Truitt and then had Isaac (who was about 6 at the time) write “We love you Dad” on the white mat around the photo.  It was pretty darn cute.

*Extra Credit:  Take a photo of the kids with Dad on or around Father’s Day.  This can be fun and creative or just a straightforward portrait.  See the Dad’s challenge below for more details.  Dad’s can adapt this extra credit by photographing the kids with their grandpa if possible.  Otherwise just work on getting a great shot of the kids.

A Challenge for the Dads!

To prepare you for your challenge you need to check out the work of one of my favorite “Dad” photographers . . . Jason Lee.  The photographs of his daughters are stunning and SO much fun.  He uses Photoshop so creatively.  He is a pro photographer by trade (and an awesome one at that), but his personal work of his daughters just blows me away.  My challenge to the dads is to set up a photo of you and your kids.  You can use a tripod and a timer or rope your wife into snapping the shot for you.  I have a feeling the dads who are participating in this challenge are likely the primary photographers in their families.  That means you are rarely in front of the camera.  You can be crazy creative with this challenge or just shoot a straight forward portrait with your kids.  However, you need to decide where to shoot (what will be included in the background), when to shoot (time of day/direction of sunlight) and how everyone in the photo will stand, sit or both.  If you have little ones you may want to lay on the ground and shoot from above.  Either way, down the road you’ll be glad you have this photo.  Check out Jason Lee’s photo with his daughters below . . . I love it!  Here are a few of my other favs:  Angry Birds, In one ear, Science experiment, Birthday

Once I figure out what I am doing for this challenge I will post my results on Saturday and I hope that all of you will do the same!  If you haven’t checked out the Facebook Challenge page you really should.  People are posting some incredible photographs!  We have some great work being posted here on the blog too. Thanks so much for shaing your work everyone!  We all learn so much from it.   Happy shooting!