Take 10 Frame-Worthy Photos of My Baby Son – 30-Day Personal Challenge

Creating Meaningful Photos

Today I’ll share with you a few tips for creating beautiful portrait photography. I’ve gained some skill over the years doing photography professionally and as a hobby. My photos aren’t perfect, but they bring me a lot of joy. I hope this blog article inspires you to take some gorgeous photos of whoever is meaningful to you!

This month, I want to take 10 frame-worthy photos of my baby son, as a 30-day personal challenge. My photography tips will be based around this challenge. My son is about to turn two. He’s still a baby according to my definition (he’s under two.) But not for long! In fact, April is the last entire month of him being a one-year-old.

I’ll keep my personal challenge simple this time: just 10 really good photos. I’m setting myself up for an easy success. I’m confident taking these high-quality pictures of my baby son will have a huge payoff for relatively little effort. Time is moving fast. This little window of time is my last chance to take baby photos of my son. So that’s why I want to focus on taking some outstanding photos that will last our lifetimes and beyond.

Some of My Favorites

My son is a world-class cutie. He’s as charming and photogenic as they come, in my totally unbiased opinion.

Here are several of my favorite photos of him from the first 22 months of his life:

A Fun Challenge Ahead

These days, it’s getting trickier to take good photos of my son. He’s a moving target! I used to professionally photograph portraits, weddings, and TV new stories. But my son makes me figuratively jump through hoops to get good photos of him. It’s quite a challenge! I have to chase him around and charm him for smiles. This kid is busy as they come. Sometimes I’ll take dozens of photos in pursuit of one winning shot. So I’ve also been toying with my camera settings, in order to optimize my photos of him.

My Cameras

I’ll be using three different digital cameras:

• Nikon D200 SLR: This big, older digital camera has all the bells and whistles. It takes beautiful pictures, even with a flash. This Nikon camera allows complete manual control over settings like focus, aperture (depth of field), shutter speed, ISO (image sensor sensitivity), and color balance. It has a full-size tripod, so I’m able set up a photo and then get into the frame.
• Canon PowerShot SX720 HS: This newer point-and-shoot camera is conveniently small and easy to carry. It takes great photos, and it has some manual setting controls. But the photo quality is more hit-and-miss, compared to the Nikon. Still, the photos are quite good for a point-and-shoot. It even has a tiny six-inch tripod that fits in my purse. It can also shoot nice-looking videos.
• iPhone 6+: The simple camera built into my phone is super convenient, because I usually have it with me. But I have a bad habit of keeping the hard drive full, so the camera won’t always take new photos. Depending on lighting conditions, the iPhone takes awesome photos, but not as consistently as the other cameras.

I’ll use all three cameras during this photo challenge.

Looking Forward

I’m excited to start ramping up my photography! I know I’ll love the results no matter what, because photos of loved ones don’t have to be technically perfect to be wonderful. But I’m going to shoot for 10 exceptional images using the following techniques. These strategies were inspired by my personal challenge. But I hope you can use the following tips to do some fantastic portrait photography of your own.

Strategies for High-Quality Photos

• Focus: My son moves fast. To avoid blurry photos and freeze the action, I’ll make like a sports photographer with fast shutter speeds. When possible, I’ll try to focus the camera on my subject’s eyes, since eyes are so important in portrait photography. I’ll also experiment with selective depth of field to focus on my son and blur the background.
• Lighting: It’s so much easier to get beautiful photos in full daylight. So I’ll shoot outside and next to windows whenever possible. I’ll boost the ISO (image sensor sensitivity) in low light settings. Or I’ll use a flash in low-light settings and possibly as a fill light in shadowy environments. I’ll aim for well-lit eyes, to showcase my son’s beautiful baby blues.
• Tripod: I’ll occasionally use a tripod, when I plan to be in the picture with my son. With a tripod, I can frame the photo, choose my settings, adjust the focus, and run into the frame before the shutter clicks. I might also use a tripod when I want to go hands-free, and focus on my son, instead of the camera, to make him smile.
• Variety: I’ll try to take photos of my son in as many settings as possible. For example, I’ll take photos in our house, outdoors, and other places we might find ourselves. I’ll take closeups and wide shots. I’ll take photos that include other people or our kitty. I’ll photograph him in a variety of cute outfits.
• Creativity: Clever photo ideas go along away. They take extra effort but can result in adorable, interesting photos. It can be fun to use props like hats, signs, toys, and sidewalk chalk. I’ll indulge my spontaneous ideas and look online for inspiration.
• Humor: My son has a great sense of humor. I’d love to get some photos of his huge toothy grin. It’s challenging to simultaneously get him to laugh and to photograph him. But I’ll try get onto his wavelength, stay playful, and hopefully he’ll reward me with some big smiles.
• Spray and Pray: This is one of my favorite photography strategies. Take tons and tons of photos (spray), and you’ll increase your odds of getting some goods ones (pray.) My Nikon SLR can take up to five photos per second. Because I take so many photos, I’m notorious for filling up photo cards and hard drives. I might buy some extra memory cards this month, and also clear space on the ones I have.
• Be Ready: To take great photos, you need to have your camera close by and ready to go. I plan to do that this month, whenever I’m with my son. I’ll keep my batteries charged. I’ll make sure my memory cards have space. I’ll keep a tripod nearby too.
• Editing: I usually do minor edits to enhance my photos. The editing tools I most often use include cropping, sharpening, white balancing, and light balancing.
• Back Up Files: I always back up my favorite photos, by having files in at least two places. This could be my phone, computer, a memory card, email, or the cloud. Losing treasured photos is the absolute worst, so this is key.

So those are my strategies for creating wonderful portrait photography. It’s good to remind myself of these techniques.

I’ll Share My Results

April 1st was the first day of my photography challenge, and it’ll go through the 30th. I’ll probably take hundreds, maybe thousands, of photos of my cute little man this month. I’ll choose the 10 most frame-worthy ones, and share them with you in a blog post, along with any special settings or strategies I used.

Hopefully you’ll benefit from my photography tips and take some gorgeous portraits in the near future! If you have any photography tips for me, by all means, share! I’m always looking to improve my skills. As always, thank you for reading Thoughts on the Good Life, and have a beautiful week.

Next Week: “Tact” by Sir John Lubbock – Personal Development Booklet Review

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Photo on this page by Katie Simpson.