With Halloween only a few weeks away and the Halloween party season in full swing, it’s time to start snapping some shots of your little ones in the cutest costumes ever. If you’re like most folks, taking Halloween shots can be intimidating. Low light, fidgety kids, and costumes can pose a challenge that might scare the camera out of your hands! Here’s a few ideas for taking some great Halloween shots
1. Don’t Wait. Kids are usually willing to put on their costumes at the drop of a hat. My son has been wearing a Spiderman costume almost everyday for two weeks now. Take advantage of that and get some shots early. Without the stress of trick or treating, organizing, and finding gloves, you’ll find it much easier (on all of you) to have fun with the photos. At the very least, plan on taking shots well before you leave the house on candy patrol!
2. Set The Mood. You’ve gone through the effort of getting the perfect costume but you’re going to settle for a picture of it in the kitchen? Try to match the setting to the costume. Got a little cowboy? Try a shot on the lawn or against the wood wall of the shed. Astronaut? How about a shot with nothing but sky in the background? (get low and shoot up) Setting the right mood for the shot makes a world of difference.
3. Play With The Light. Don’t be scared of the dark. Shut your flash off and play. A flashlight under the chin or from the side of the face makes for very dramatic and spooky light. A twirling trick or treater with a glow stick will also make a neat light trail. Have fun and experiment.
4. Change Your Point of View. So often we take photos of our kids from the same place. Standing at our height and shooting down. Point of view makes a big difference. Got a Superman on your hands? Stand him on the patio table, crouch down, and shoot up at him. The low closeup will make you little guy look huge and powerful! Got a little ladybug? Get up high on a chair and shoot down with lots of space around her. This view will make her look small and delicate in a big world. Point of view means a lot but we often don’t think of it.
5. Have Fun! Your kids want nothing but fun on Halloween. Posing for pictures is boring. But, if you ask Superman to bend a steel bar (foam tube from the hardware store) or Buzz Lightyear to talk on his wrist radio, you’ve made it a fun game. Give you kids a reason to get into character and they’ll give you all the shots you could want!
Naturally, you can get good photos without following all or any of these but hopefully, some of these tips will help you take your best Halloween photos ever!
As an avid iPhone user I was annoying myself with the Tom Walker Portraits blog! I could open it of course but it was formatted for a standard browser. I was constantly pinching and squishing to fit what i wanted on screen. Finally, I have done something about it.
Simply head to this site on your iPhone and you will see a version of this blog (with the same content) that actually fits on your screen! As I continue to tinker we’ll make this new iPhone version even closer in looks to the regular browser version.
If you choose to save the page as a bookmark on your homescreen you’ll get a smaller version of the icon above. If you bookmark the html version of the main site, a similar icon in green will be saved.
My little guy turned 8 months old today. Two days ago he started crawling. Its not a full out, hand slapping against the hard wood, crawl yet but he’s mobile enough and fast enough so that we can’t turn our backs on him for a second. The beginning of the end of infancy.
It seems like yesterday that he was as small as “I” in the photo above. Now I’m wondering “Did I get enough photos of him?” The answer is always “no”, even for the photographer.
With Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas around the corner and closing fast there are lots of opportunities to get those shots of your little ones just the way they are now. Don’t find yourself asking…”Did I get enough?”
How many times have you worn a dress, a very nice, very expensive dress to a function just once only to see it stored in a box or hung in the back of the closet for eternity? Shouldn’t that dress be something to celebrate? Shouldn’t that beautiful gown go down in a blaze of glory?
This summer I had the good fortune to be part of the Worcester Photography Center’s “Trash the Dress” shoot in Warwick, RI. Dozens of photographers, models, makeup and hair stylists descended on Oakland Beach in Warwick to immortalize those frocks that give so much for such a short time!
The basic principal is simple. Your prom or wedding dress is something you search high and low for. Whether you spend an embarrassing amount of money or wrestle an amazing deal away from the clutches of another shopper, its an investment you feel lucky and proud to have found. It’s the topic of discussion for months. You describe it to friends and family for weeks. Its treated like a foreign dignitary and lovingly handled with every showing leading up to the big event. Finally, the day comes…and goes. In a flash the moment is gone and the dress is headed for a hanger or a box in the basement never to be seen again.
Trash the Dress is a way to do something truly special with that dress after it’s served its duty! By posing for a shoot in a dramatic locale like the beach, park , or urban jungle, you can capture unique photos that are sure to get seen a lot more than the dress! These shoots lead to photos that you usually only see in magazines and perfume adds because nearly anything goes when you don’t have to worry about your wardrobe. Trash the Dress photos add a truly original twist to your wedding or prom photos that will let you hang on to that original excitement of finding the perfect dress.
Consider a Trash the Dress shoot for your retired gowns and dresses and give them the chance at immortality one more time!
Even kids that hate the camera have a weakness. J was not at all interested in posing with his sisters and smiling pretty. But, he thought the idea of standing around with hands in pockets was fine. Of course, to get this I had to shoot a half a dozen “goofy man” poses. Totally worth it.
One of the most common things I hear from clients when we talk about photos in their yard or home is “Oh, we could never take pictures there! My yard/living room/house is a mess!”
It was more of the same when we started talking to D about taking photos of her family. She thought her yard was a mess and that we’d never find good spots for the photos. But, in the end, we’re not taking photos of the yard! Its just in the background. Besides, sometimes there’s an old busted up Caddy in the background that gets a guest starring role in the shot!
I wanted to share this shot of an adorable little newborn girl I photographed recently. Baby “S” is her parents’ third little bundle and second girl. At three weeks old (almost) baby “S” reminded me of why I like to shoot with newborns at 2 weeks old or less. She cried and fussed through most of the session! In the end she was still adorable and we got some precious looks.
Spring is here, the leaves are on the trees and, if you’re like me, you’ve been breaking the grill in already! Its a great time to start thinking about booking a portrait session for the great outdoors. Whether its in your backyard or on location in one of the beautiful parks that central MA has to offer, the great outdoors offer a wonderful backdrop for your family portraits. Of course, in New England, these spring and summer months go by pretty fast. Contact us today to schedule an outdoor portrait session for your family this spring before its time to start complaining about the cold!
Are you on Facebook? We are! If you’re a Facebook aficionado, stop on over at the Tom Walker Portraits page and become a fan. Stay tuned there for special announcements and event invitations. From time to time, Tom Walker Portraits offers special sessions, discounts, and promotions. Our page on Facebook is the best way to hear about them first!
Welcome to Tom Walker Portraits! We’ve recently changed our name from Tom Walker Photography to make it a little easier to match our name with our website. One of the challenges of a common name is finding domain names that aren’t off the wall or filled with hyphens.
The blog is a new addition to our brand new site and something we’ve done to keep in better touch with our clients. Check back here for regular updates on what’s going on with Tom Walker Portraits. We’ll post upcoming events, specials, and some of the more recent work we’ve done.
In the meantime, please have a look around the blog and around the freshly revamped website
Tips and Tricks | Tom | 
October 18, 2009 9:25 pm | 
Comments (0) 
Subscribe