Gaëlle is 1!

A SWEET BIRTHDAY PARTY AND A FEW PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS… 

On April 1, my little Gaëlle turned 1! What an incredible little person she’s becoming…  yes, she is as sweet as she looks, by the way!

Before family arrived to celebrate, Maïan and I had fun putting together a little photography session.  I am in no way a professional photographer,  but I do love how these photos turned out.

Here are a couple of tips that I learned from trial and error:

1. Natural light:  Park your subject next to a window and wait for the light to beam in!  The last picture at the bottom was taken at night and you can see the difference (although Gaëlle was so cute that I couldn’t pass up on posting it!)

2.  Off-centre: We’re so trained to centre our subjects within the picture.  And that’s not always bad.  But really interesting images can be created by having the subject in focus, yet being offset in the image.  See first pic above, taken by 10 year old Maïan.

3.  Zoom in:  Unless you’re standing in front of the Eiffel tower, you probably don’t need to capture the entire background in all of your photos.  What we do want to see are the details, such as facial expressions.

My cakepops were not the prettiest but they look kind of yummy when shot up close, no?

4.  Keep snapping:  If baby is moving, you should be snapping.  As much as I tried to place Gaëlle in a perfect pose below (sitting on the chair), she just wouldn’t have it.  So I quickly realized that it was best to let her move about as she pleased while I kept snapping pics at a rapid rate.

5.  Accept the imperfections:  Look at the picture of Gaëlle and I below.  See the shade that my head created on Gaëlle’s face?  Sigh.  I realized too late that all the pics in that sequence were like that.  But the picture is still extra special for me so it’s a keeper! Of course, I’ll have that in mind next time I snap photos.  Live and learn baby!

5.  And finally, use a photo editing software package.  I use GIMP.  I’m still learning how to use it but so far, I find that it rocks.

One of my favourite pics.  Maïan is not a fan of this shot… she finds Gaëlle looks sad.  I find that she looks pensive.  But I really love how you can see the tenderness that Maïan displays towards her little sister.

And finally, the must have pic for any 1 year old… the sign of a successful birthday party!!!

Avec amour,
Natalie
XXX

P.S.  All photos taken with my trusty Nikon D40 and using gulp! automatic (and that little tulip symbol!).