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| Children of the Church |
The first question I am going to address is about PHOTOGRAPHY. First of all, thank you for so many of your kind words about the photography that I use on my blog. I am by no means a professional photographer, but I truly enjoy taking pictures, especially of our children. My father has always loved photography and passed that love along to my husband when he and I were engaged to be married. We bought our first Nikon camera when we got married and my husband used it 90% of the time. He is an amazing photographer and really knows a lot more about the art and skill of photography than I do. When we started having kids is when I started gaining interest in photography. I read a few books, and then just PRACTICED, PRACTICED, PRACTICED! Here is a little about how I have learned, what I use, and how I organize photos.
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Books
Here are a few books that helped me learn when I was starting photography with a DSLR camera.
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Camera
As much as learning about F stop, ISO, aperture and shutter speed are very important when using a DSLR camera one thing that also makes a big difference is having a nice camera. I have used multiple different Nikon DSLR cameras over the years and currently have a Nikon D7100. I love this camera and think that it is easy to use and takes great photographs.
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| Nikon D7100 |
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Storing the Camera
This is a topic that took me a while to learn about! For a long time I would just take our DSLR camera, throw it in my diaper bag or in the front seat of our van to bring with on our outings to the zoo, Children's museum, etc. It did not take long before we had to send the camera in to be repaired and let me tell you that my husband, and our pocket book were not thanking me! I tried carrying a camera bag around for a while, but it just didn't work. I couldn't carry a camera bag, diaper bag and assist three children under the age of 5 years old! After a LOT of searching and a few different options I found the perfect bag for me. It is the Kelly Moore 2 Sues Bag!
I love Kelly Moore bags in general and love that she "gets" that moms are looking for something that can function as a diaper bag AND a camera bag, while also looking stylish. I had received the AMAZING Kelly Moore Libby Bag as a gift from my in-laws a few years back and it is wonderful. Yet, it is big, and heavy and when you pack it with lots of extra stuff it is really too cumbersome to use on a daily basis. I still love that bag for trips or when I want to bring extra camera gear.
I got the Kelly Moore 2 Sues Bag a few months ago and have used it every day since, it is perfect! It is flexible and molds to your body as you carry it, even with a camera inside. I keep both the short and messenger strap on the bag, which I love depending on how I want to use it. The bag has a padded insert for the camera with dividers so you can fit things in different arrangements. If you are not using your camera the padded section is completely removable and you can then just use the bag as a regular purse/diaper bag! I can easily fit my DSLR camera, 18-200mm lens, external flash PLUS baby wipes, 2-3 diapers, a cup and small snack for the kids, rosary, chapstick, keys, and phone. Plus it also has an awesome pocket on the side which is easily accessible to hold all of your credit cards and cash so you don't have to carry a bulky wallet. I cannot even explain to you how much I love this bag, and how much my husband loves knowing the camera is protected!
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| Kelly Moore 2 Sues Bag |
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Taking Photos
The best thing and worst thing about digital photography is that you can take a ridiculous amount of photos to get the result that you want. You might see a lot of cute photos on the blog, but a lot of times there were 20 "out takes" to get that one cute picture. Thankfully I think that when I take more photos our children naturally become more photogenic, so that does help as well. Even our 1 1/2 year old will say "CHEESE" with a big smile when I pull the camera out!
I love taking photos of our children when they are just being themselves and "catching" those special moments. I also love taking photos outside and with natural light if possible!
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Organizing Photos
Thankfully when my husband and I got married between myself being a Type - A organizer and my husband being very savy with technology we quickly developed a great way for us to organize our photos. I have a daily chore rotation (which might be a whole different post) to help organize my week and make sure everything gets done around our home, and one thing on my list each week is Photo Organization. Every Friday I take the time to sit down, take all of the photos that I have taken from that week and organize them to our home server computer that my husband manages. This way the photos are not taking up space and running down my own personal computer.
I have folders that organize the photos by year --> month --> day and then each particular day I label with any important event (zoo trip, Christmas with family, etc). I have found that by not only labeling the folder by the day but also by the event name it makes it easier to go back and find exactly what photos I am looking for at a later date. Some folders may only have 4 photos and some might have 100, but this has made it much easier to locate the photos when I need them.
I also use Shutterfly to make photo albums for each month and special events so that family and friends can follow. This was especially helpful when we were living in a different state from most of our family last year. I love that there is no limit on how much that you can store, you can set great privacy filters and people can print your photos from the site if they want any copies!
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Preserving Photos
Another huge piece to my photo organization is making photo books. For this process I use MyPublisher as I truly love their quality of books and ease of use with their program. They can be expensive, but let me give you a BIG tip! Every quarter of the year they run a sale of "FREE PAGES". Their typical book includes 20 pages and then you pay an additional $0.99 per extra page (each book can hold up to 100 pages). What I do is I make sure I fill up 100 pages in a book, then I sign up for their e-mail list serve and WAIT for these sales. When I wait, I then get my book for the base price of $29.99 instead of $110 ($29.99 + $80 for the 80 extra pages past 20 pages). It makes great quality books very affordable!
I used to make one book a year when my husband and I first got married, and then as we started having kids it went up to two books, three books, and now I usually fill four books per year! I also make a photo book for each big family vacation that we go on. I feel like we take a lot of additional photos on vacations and I like to have separate books for them! Adding photos to my photo books is also a part of my "weekly chore list" and because I do this every week it usually only takes me 10-20 minutes per week depending on how many photos I have taken.
I LOVE that we have photo books starting from when my husband and I were dating and engaged until the current time. These are truly some of my most treasured things that we own and I know I will appreciate them for years to come.
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Knowing when to Get Help
The last thing I love to do with photography is invest in a professional photographer! I love taking photos, but often that means I am not in them, or my husband is not in them if he is the photographer for the day. I think it is so important to get photographs of us together as a couple and as a family to preserve these years that fly by so fast. We have made it a habit to get professional photos at least once a year, and when we have new babies sometimes that happens even more than once. Thankfully we have a few favorite photographers in our hometown that are very affordable, do a fantastic job and also give us rights to the photographs so that we can choose on our own what to do with them! I think that taking the time and money to hire a professional every year is definitely worth the investment if you can make it work!
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| Heidi Keene Photography |
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| Jaybee Images |
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