photographing my children.

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for part III of our series with Canon, i wanted to talk a little bit about photographing children! like we mentioned in the first post for this series, we are still learning when it comes to knowing our camera, but if it isn’t already evidenced from this blog of ours, taking photos, and especially photos of our children, is kind of our favorite thing to do. ;)

i like to make a habit of taking my camera with me everywhere when i’m with the kids. i know it can be easy to only bring it out at ‘big events’ like a birthday, or holiday or special outing of some sort, but sometimes those best and most candid moments happen when you least expect them. one of the things i first noticed about Canon’s new EOS Rebel SL1 camera is how super small and light it is. it definitely makes bringing it out on a day to day basis much easier.

something that’s important to me is that my littles never feel forced to “smile” or “pose” for a photo. heaven help me if they look back on their childhood and are like, “ugh. my mom and her dumb camera!” there are plenty of great moments when i want to pull it out and start shooting, but it’s fun to enjoy moments with my children without a camera in hand, too.  i also try my best to put my camera away if my littles are being shy or aren’t feeling it. i know they’ll want to ham it up later, so i’ll put it away and wait patiently. i have learned to keep an open mind when it comes to taking pictures of little ones. saying, “can you come sit here and hold this and smile?” has never worked at our house. but when we play and just have fun together as a family, letting our kids be kids and do what they want to do, that is when the real smiles come, and our best moments are captured.

we also like to take several photos at once over just one when taking photos of the kids. they blink and spin and turn and move so quickly, we’re more likely to get that perfect shot if we take a few! we also like to keep different angles in mind.  we’ll crouch down to their level and really move around with them.  they tend to move so fast that we end up moving quickly too! it’s a workout whenever we’re with them. ;)

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^^^tiny feet! i’m such a sucker for my littles and their saltwater sandal tan lines.^^^

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^^^this little chapter of E’s life where she insists on pigtails each day, it’s been one of my favorites.^^^

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^^^ouuuuhhh!^^^

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^^^this was one of those moments where the kids and i were playing together and they were crawling all over me. it might not have appeared as the most ideal moment to whip out the camera but my husband is smart and did anyway.  these next few photos are so dear to me… with eleanor pulling on my shirt and both of them tackling me down… it’s moments like this where i feel most blessed. and so glad to have these moments documented.^^^

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^^^a moment before she decided the bunch of grapes would now be her phone.^^^

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^^^”helllooooooo?”^^^
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what tips or tricks have you found helpful when taking photos of children?

canon-red-logo-lovetazathis post is sponsored by Canon. as always, thanks for reading the blog and for supporting our sponsors.

anniversary.

we are so sleep deprived, but we are still laughing. thanks for being my best friend, josh. the years with you just keep getting better and better and better and….

i love you. happy six years!

book reading!

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josh and i had a lot of fun last saturday reading a few of our favorite children’s books at strand bookstore. it was also so much fun meeting many of you and your cute kids! thank you for coming out! it always means a lot to me to have the chance to meet readers or ‘online friends’ in person.

for those looking for a few new children’s book recommendations, josh read “i’m a duck!” and “day out with daddy” (we always change the ‘daddy’ part to ‘papa’) and i read “i love it when you smile” and “we’re going on a bear hunt!”.   these four books seem to be on constant rotation at our house with eleanor and samson but fortunately we really enjoy them too, so we don’t mind.

thank you for inviting us out, strand! and hopefully we’ll see you all again later in the year at another reading!

(photos provided by strand.)

a few photos from the weekend (the weekend before last…)

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^^^papa said, “point and smile at mama!” and eleanor of course points to the ice cream truck just out of frame. i have a feeling it’s partly why she smiled at all. ^^^

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^^^i have been dying for months now to happen upon a street fair that is happening on a saturday (instead of a sunday). this one near union square was just perfect. perfect in the over priced and terribly crowded kind of way where the food smells so good and the atmosphere was so wonderful it doesn’t even matter.^^^

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^^^my kids and their obsession with corn on the cob! i swear it’s all we eat at the house these days. ^^^

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^^^he is my cuddle bug and i love him for it.^^^

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^^^watermelon in a cup! and somehow, none of it on her shirt! a saturday miracle, for sure.^^^

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^^^trying out the new citibikes! or…actually just sitting on them for a while, which is just as exciting.^^^

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^^^i love this picture because it sums up both my kids on the playground so well. eleanor wanting someone to help her down the itty bitty kiddie slide, and samson just going for it. it’s interesting to see how their personalities differ.^^^

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^^^we grabbed sandwiches and pasta from one of our favorite italian spots in soho, pepe rosso. always delicious.^^^

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^^^and this would be my daughter thinking the diana mini camera has a self timer app. she totally stepped back a few paces and posed for the photo which she set up. we were dying.^^^

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and a few things not photographed but worth noting:

eleanor has 5 or 6 tiny freckles forming on her nose and cheeks! my sun kissed baby girl, welcome to the freckle club! it is the best club. no question.

the other night over dinner, josh said to me, “i feel like there could come a time in your life where you could be a “runner.”  he must have forgotten how that one time in our marriage where i tried to go running with him, i only made it half a block.

and, it’s my birthday today. 27! i’m so excited!

happy father’s day!

FATHERSDAY

between my own loving father, my father in law, and the father of my children, i am grateful to have such great men in my life who understand the importance of their roles as fathers and, by doing so, are blessing the lives of those around them every single day.

i love you all very very much! happy father’s day!