What better time of year to capture lasting memories of your family through photographs, than during the holiday season? Perfect scenes, everyone smiling, the perfect photo opportunities of all time! What, not everyone is smiling, you can’t seem to snap anything other than half of this, or part of that? Don’t worry, family photos during the holidays are not supposed to be award winning photographs. What they should be is a diary of family moments. By following a few simple steps and keeping a few things in mind as you snap these everlasting memories, you can capture some great holiday moments on film!
Frame in your mind what you want to capture on film, ‘before’ you snap the picture. If your vision is of the kids opening presents under the tree, get the kids in the picture and part of the tree, but forget about the whole tree, the mantle, and half the room. Step closer, fading out the excess, until what you see edge to edge of your viewfinder is what you want a picture of. For some reason, when it comes to taking pictures, a lot of people have what I refer to as ‘tunnel vision’. They see only what they want to see when they look through he viewfinder, they don’t even seem to realize that they also have a ton of extras that will add absolutely nothing to the photo they are trying to capture.
Holiday decorated rooms seem to have more lighting, or light sources, than a natural day to day room. Keep these extra lights in mind when snapping. Christmas tree bulbs often give back a terrible shine, as do shiny candlesticks on an elaborately decorated table for an anniversary dinner, or all those shiny balloons at your child’s birthday party. A mirror is another major faux pas when it comes to bad pictures. If a surface is shiny, or lights are glowing, keep these surfaces in mind when photographing the surrounding room. Avoid your flash unless necessary, and if you are using a camera with an automatic flash, remember to turn it off in these situations, otherwise what looks like a perfect picture may come back as just a big blur.
Get level with the action. Holidays usually mean children, and children are at a height level lower than what we are use to. Get down on their level. Get down on the floor. This will give you some of the best picture angles ever. On the subject of children, give kids at holiday celebrations their own cameras. The new disposable cameras are perfect for this. Tell them to snap whatever catches their fancy. You will usually be pleasantly surprised at what the developed photos look like. Kids often have a natural eye for taking photos.
Don’t be stingy with film at any holiday celebration. Professional photographers will tell you that they take hundreds of photos to find that ‘one’ perfect photo. Snap away and you are sure to find several lasting memories among the finished photos.
Group picture taking is one aspect of family gatherings that differs from day to day picture taking. Remember the days when you were in school and had your class picture taken and then follow these same rules. Taller people in back and shorter people up front, and babies should be held in adult’s arms. Table shots of everyone sitting down to dinner should be snapped from above. Stand up before taking your picture or you will end up with a snapshot of the table service, and the tops of everyone’s heads.
Share camera duties with another adult. Good photo memories happen when you have photos from the whole celebration, but who wants to spend their whole time snapping pictures. (Unless you are really a camera buff, and balk completely at this thought, then keep the camera to yourself and snap away!)
Know your equipment. As basic as this sounds, many people will receive a new camera for a gift and start snapping pictures with it right away, then wonder why none of their pictures turned out. Save the new camera for the next celebration and take the days pictures with a camera you are comfortable using. Practice with and get to know the new camera before using it for any major picture taking. Know and understand all features, such as zoom lens, red eye reduction features, even loading film from one camera to another can vary.
Lastly, when taking photographs at any holiday celebration, remember to smile at your subjects, and you will surely be smiled back at. No one likes having their picture taken by someone who is bossy, telling them to do this, hold that, sit here, and sit there. Keep it natural, snap away, and you will surely end up with memories to last a lifetime.
