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How I shot my kids strapped to a rocket

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A few days ago I submitted a photo to the new DIYPhotography facebook group, it was picked to be featured on DIYP. I am excited!

Do you remember the things you used to fantasize about when you were a child? Those fun conversations you used to have with your friends or sibling about the adventures you would want to have? I remember clearly mine, and to be honest, I had a great childhood filled with adventures and fun.

I grew up in a big family, and my cousins and I were always playing outdoors and having way too much fun. We had a big house on a tree, we jumped down roofs with umbrellas pretending we were Mary Poppins, we used to spend lots of time on a creek throwing rocks, our family had a big construction company and my cousins, and I used to go around driving bulldozers, we had so much freedom! There’s even a story about “some kids” spraying bug repellent in their mouth because somehow they believed that that way, they would become superheroes. That story ended up with those kids in the hospital, and no, they didn’t become superheroes, but thankfully, everybody was fine after a couple of days…

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10 tips for getting kids to smile naturally in photos – secrets from a children’s photographer

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Everyone has been taught from birth how to get a kid to smile.  You just tell them to say “cheese” and they respond with a nice big natural smile, right?  Well, anyone that’s actually tried this can testify to how well it works (if you didn’t catch my sarcasm… it doesn’t).  You end up with a photo of a kid with clenched teeth, a scrunched nose, and raised eyebrows. In this article, I’m going to give away all of my secrets that I’ve picked up as a professional children’s photographer for getting nice, natural smiles out of children.

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Photographer shares posing and editing tips for this gorgeous candid photo of children

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You know those moments when you aimlessly scroll through Facebook feed, and all of a sudden, a gorgeous photo captures your attention? It happened to me with this beautiful photo by Amy Weiblinger of Lainey Lou Photography. It got me smiling and I was curious to learn how she got it. So, I contacted Amy, and she shared her settings with us, along with some valuable tips for directing and editing photos of children.

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Photographer turns bullied kids into Avengers in this empowering project

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We’ve seen photographer Josh Rossi turn kids into superheroes before. When his three-year-old daughter received hateful comments after he photographed her as Wonder Woman, the photographer decided to use his creativity to send a message against bullying. He gathered fifteen kids who have been bullied and turned them into Avengers for a photo shoot. This project hasn’t only resulted in epic images, but it has also empowered the kids who have been facing bullying and hatred on a daily basis.

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Photographer dad composites his kids into the most hilarious scenarios

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Usually, it’s a gradual transition, you go from zero kids to one kid to two. Gives you time to get used to the havoc. But sometimes, God blesses you with twins, going from zero to two (or rather zero to hundred) in a split of a second. You can either get buried under the mess or… or transform your kids lives into a roller coaster of impossible scenarios. This is exactly what Guy Vainer did when he got two adorable kids.

DIYP got Guy on the line to asked him what the duck?

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Photographer creates quirky monsters that will bring out your inner child

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When it comes to monsters, cartoons, and movies, I believe my mind and heart are still stuck somewhere in the childhood. And this is why I loved the latest project by photographer Jan von Holleben. Monster Heroes is a set of quirky super-creatures, made from the strangest subjects like cuddly toys, toilet paper, cardboard boxes or even furniture. The models are kids, who transformed into these monster heroes for the photo shoot, and Jan eternalized them in his photos.

As Jan points out, these monsters were created for kids all ages, between 4 and 104. It’s a series made by kids, with kids, and for kids. So if you are a kid between 4 and 104 – take a peek. Let your inner child have some fun.

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Pixlplay casing turns your smartphone into 35mm-style camera for your kids

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Do you have a smartphone (or maybe more than just one) lying somewhere around the house? There is an interesting project on Kickstarter aimed at repurposing a smartphone and introducing your kids to photography. Pixlplay is a smartphone housing designed as a classic 35mm camera. It combines hardware and software, so you can connect it to your smartphone, access a Pixlplay photo app and let your kids bring out their inner photographer.

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Baby girl stars in a series of cosplay photos while sleeping ‘like a baby’

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What if you could be anything you ever dreamed of. Actually, what if you could do it in your sleep. Photographer Laura Izumikawa is doing just this for her baby girl Joey, and the best thing is… when she gets older she’ll be able to look back on so many adventures.

The concept is very easy, when Joey’s asleep, her photographer mom, Laura, dresses her up as if she is in a wild adventure. Then she takes a photo. Those photos are posted to Laura’s Instagram account for the world to enjoy. And enjoy they shall. Or at least give a big smile.

Ever since she started the account it grew to have over 306,000 followers and rapidly growing with recent exposure from Huffington Post and other media outlets.

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Here is how to register the bride and groom to have a Sony automatically focus on them in a crowd

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Wedding photographers, this the feature you’ve all been waiting for. The new cameras from Sony have a nifty feature that allows you to register a face and then tell the camera to look for a specific face and then try and find them in the frame and force focus on them.

This feature works by first shooting the persons you want to have priority with (say the bride and the groom), and then telling the camera to look for those faces. You can also set the priority in which the camera looks for each of the persons.

So you can, for example have the camera look for the bride, and if the bride is not found, to look for the groom, the mothers, fathers and so on, up to eight different face.

Gary Fong has a quick primer on how to set this on a Sony a6300, but I have done the same with my A7ii, and face registration is listed as a feature with many other new Sony mirrorless cameras which are becoming more popular with wedding photographers.

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Elena Shumilova A.K.A Photographer Mom Shares Her Techniques For Photographing Kids

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Russian Photographer and mom Elena Shumilova became kinda famous when photos of her kids and family went viral in early 2014.  In total her photos were views over 60,000,000 times (and I guess they were viewed outside her profile some 60 million more).

Something about her photography struck a chord with almost everyone, photographers, mothers, father, young and old. I guess the innocence and feeling of childhood that projected from her photos were just irresistible.

Elena shared some great advice on photographing kids with the crew at Smugmug and agreed to share them with DIYP readers.

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