Okay, shoot-along friends, I have something fun for you to try. Have you seen this film by Jessica Yu? We saw it at the Exploratorium and I just adored it. So..

The kids have been asking to try War Heads. I told they could on one condition. They had to let me photograph them.

I loved how the portraits turned out. The right mix between posed and candid. Now I just need to shoot a portrait of Brent. But I think I need something more sour than a War Head. Any suggestions?

If you give this a try, come back and share. We want to see. And if you haven’t had a chance, peruse some of the bloggers who have entered the shoot along and see what we’ve all been up to with our cameras.

Photos from our second night of glow cones, as promised.

The kids and I picked up a few colors of Kool-Aid and made a rainbow of syrups.

We tried adding a secret ingredient to one of the syrups, but I think we’ll need to add a few more to really pack a punch.
(p.s. did you know you can buy sour spray to add to any flavor of snow cone?)

We used a different brand of glow sticks tonight, and they worked okay, but didn’t seem quite as bright. Next time, I might try something LED, like these.

Everyone picked out their glow stick color,
loaded up on ice,

and artfully drizzled on their pick of syrup colors.  Brent brought out the guitar and it made for a pretty good summer night.

I can’t believe my baby is about to turn one. We’ve been planning a big bash to celebrate, and have been trying to think of something fun to do. Preferably something that involves being outside on a summer night—do you agree with me that there’s nothing better than summer twilight?—and probably involving a movie under the stars with lots of cousins running around. Yesterday, while we were taking in the free indoor summer movie at the local theatre, my son pulled out a glow ring, and we had an idea.

We pulled out the snow cone machine.

We gathered cups, one clear plastic cup to fit inside each paper cup.

We waited until dusk.

And then it was time! (Brent did not make it home from work until late, so all photos you see are taken with a baby in one arm and a camera in the other. I’ll see if I can snap some better pictures for you tonight.)

We put a glow stick inside each paper cup and nested a plastic cup inside,

scooped in shaved ice,  and had our first ever glow cones.
(I finally told the kids to watch out for coyotes and ran inside get the tripod, baby in toe, since he’s the only one small enough to be a coyote snack.)

The perfect excuse for being outside on a summer night. Testing the different colored syrups with the different colored glow sticks was spectacular. If you get the chance, you must try. I think we’ll make more again tonight when I have a baby holder around and see if we can get some better shots.
I also think these would be the perfect snack to go with a night-time shadow puppet show.

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p.s. I know I promised you one more photo game idea for our photography shoot along, but we didn’t quite finish the project due to staying up late gorging on glowing snow cones. I have the project in the works though and promise to share soon. I also have many other fun photo ideas I plan to crank out, and Carrie has a new photography tutorial underway. Stay tuned. And if you have any burning photography questions, it’s not too late to add them.

I am a fan of family game nights.

And I love the idea of making games from pictures of all of your family’s favorite people, places, or things. Here, a few of my favorite personalized game ideas. With one more coming tomorrow.

Totally beautiful memory game by Say Yes to Hoboken. Get the full tutorial here.
Also love this bottle cap version.

I was completely blown away by the method for making these photo bean bags.

And a few favorite ideas for photo puzzles from here,

here,

and here (via here).

Since posting my son’s birthday party, I’ve had several requests for the Mario hat pattern, so I took a moment to find it (my fabric closet got a total makeover along the way) and sketch it out. If you’re interested, you can download it here, at the original birthday party post. It also makes a great beret if you leave off the bill.

How is your summer shooting coming? Have you caught any great moments after reading Carrie’s tutorial? I am starting to realize some of my favorite shots lately have been those where I’ve caught people deep in conversation. Especially my two older kids. They are working on figuring out how the world works. Here some shots I took recently. This is Brent telling the kids about the time a carnie bribed him into kissing the girl he brought to a carnival back in the day. I love the looks on their faces. Do you have any favorite summer shots, either from this week or years past?

Stay tuned. I have so much fun photo inspiration I’m bursting. I can’t wait to hear more of your ideas too.

I think this welcome to the world kit over at Made is one of the dearest things I’ve seen.

Also had to share these simple summer gifts from Blonde Designs. Matching swimsuit coveralls as a vacation welcome (how much do kids love to match?) and thank you kits sent post-vacation.

Total balloon brilliance from on hand and modern via you are my fave.

Melanie over at You Are My Fave did the sweetest thing to honor her grandfather on his big bash for turning 90, she made photo buttons for all to wear. (p.s. Don’t miss her ice cream party in a box idea over at Marta’s today).

And here, a little more personalized button inspiration.

From Cup of Joe.

Available here.

And monogram buttons from Natalie Jost, made especially for her by Emily of Orange Beautiful.

p.s.  more fun buttons available here.

Books are such an important part of who you become. Which is why I am completely in love with the idea of getting a portrait made of the books our little family is particularly fond of at the moment, which you can have done here. Thanks Letter Soup and LMNOP.

p.s. What book helped make you who you are?

Two things.

First, thanks to all of you for jumping in on the shoot-along. I loved reading all your burning photography questions. We are going to have so much fun exploring some of these things. Goody goody. I can’t wait.

Second. If you can get your hands on a home grown tomato, you must make this sandwich. It is the essence of simple summer bliss. Oh such bliss. Once my tomatoes come in, I live off of this sandwich and summertime fruit. Don’t you love simple summertime food? What do you live off of in the summertime?

Dear readers, I am so pleased to hand you over to the lovely Carrie Butler. I had the privilege of being part of one of Carrie’s wedding shoots this spring, and she had the entire fifty plus of us cracking up and feeling fabulous. Of course when I saw the pictures I had to call her and ask her to be a part of this. I’m so excited she said yes, and I’m excited for you to get to spend a little time with her too. Take it away, Carrie!

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Several years ago I got a fancy new camera.  I read the instruction manual from cover to cover, promptly forgot everything it said, and shot most things in the decidedly un-fancy auto mode.  I didn’t have the time or the courage to learn how to really tell a story with my pretty camera.  I would frequently get some  cool photos, however, I knew  the credit should only go to the fancy camera, not me.  If I were asked to replicate the same cool shot I would invariably thank luck and not skill.  Is this where some of you are at?  Did you get a camera that is so pretty that it turns heads everywhere you go?  Do you feel like maybe your photos could stand to be a little more interesting?

Amber Lee and I have hatched a scheme to get you past “meh” pictures and into “oh my gosh, look what I got” pictures.  So here we go,  we’ll start with the basics before moving on to the fun stuff like aperature, shutter speed and ISO.  Lets talk about composition.

Now chances are good that you got that cool camera because you have cute kiddos and you must as any good parent should, document every detail of their tiny life.  After all, they are only going to (suck their thumb, sniff their blanket, play with bugs, wear their shoes backwards, insist on combing their own hair) for at the most, six months, right?  How awesome if you had all those things documented with a great photo?

The key to this is to consider what story you are trying to tell with the photo you are taking at the time, and then, carefully composing your photo to include all the characters in that story.  Take out everything that does not contribute.  Sometimes that means you need to change the position of the camera, or maybe the angle, sometimes that means getting in really close, and sometimes it means zooming out.  A lot of times it means getting down and shooting at the same level as the child.  Or the child’s feet.

Here is an example.  One of the first things my daughters did as an activity together is chalk drawings on the back patio.  It was so sweet; they would entertain themselves for at least five to ten minutes without major mishap.  This as you mommies know, is a big deal.  I wanted to capture how it looked to me, their happy mother, so I shot them from above, I arranged the chalk basket a little closer to them, and I moved the plastic little tykes picnic table, since it had nothing to do with the story. 

It isn’t rocket science and I pretty positive that these shots aren’t going to win any awards or anything, but every time I see it, I think, “ahh, remember how great that was the first time they played together quietly?”

The next story I wanted to tell was just how dirty little Mia, whose primary mode of transportation at the time was scooting, got in all the chalk dust.  So I got down low, waited for her to move into her favorite foot position, and snapped only her feet. 

(Eek, look at her pudgy, dusty little tootsies!! I want to squeeze them!)

So, think about it, what is part of your life right now that you’ll want to remember in a couple years? If you have kids, what is your kid doing right now that he won’t be doing six months from now that you need to remember?  Does she love a special stuffed animal?  Does she read a specific book while she sits on the potty? Your homework is to get out your camera, (fancy or not) set up the story, and take the shot.  Here are some tips.

1. Clear out everything that does not contribute or will detract from the story, either by physically removing it, or changing the camera angle.
2. If you are photographing your kids, get down on your their level.  Does the photo look more or less interesting?
3. With kids and grown-ups, wait for him/her. Kids hate to be told what to do when there is a camera out, at least mine do.  I have found that if I am just a little bit patient, they will usually do whatever it is I was waiting on them for, ie, Mia crossing her feet in the above photo.
4. Place the subject to one side or another, top or bottom, or get in close and fill the frame.  See what looks best.
5. Try not to distract him/her from whatever it is they are doing, ie, don’t ask them to look at the camera.

Ok, so there is the assignment, there are the tips.  Want some accountability?  You can email me your best shots if you want to, they may be chosen to be displayed on a future photo post!  Incidentally, the next post is going to be about lighting (hooray!)  Good luck, I can’t wait to see what you get!  (carrie_butler@msn.com)

You are only moments away from hearing from the lovely Carrie Butler herself. But first, Carrie and I wanted to ask, what are your most dire questions about photography? What do you wish you could do? Shoot portraits with the sun glowing from behind? Find the perfect photo organization system? Use that big dial on the top of your DSLR?

This is your chance to make a wish list. So please, tell us, what do you wish you knew how to do with your camera? With your help, Carrie and I will hunt down the answers.

[love this photo from here]

You and your camera are cordially invited to the first ever Giver’s Log shoot along. Just to make things official, here is your formal invite.

The lovely and talented Carrie Butler and I have been plotting this for some time. Here’s how the shoot along works.

We will start right away. This week. We will all pledge to capture all those summer moments we want to last forever (or winter for my southern hemisphere friends). We pledge to start being deliberate about what we want to capture. To ask ourselves what we want from our photos, and begin shooting with the end in mind. Are you with me?

From now into the holidays, come here for photography tutorials, photo gift ideas, reader weigh-ins, and maybe even a giveaway or two surrounding all things photography. We begin tomorrow with a question I have for you and then our first ever photography tutorial. Our goal is that by the holidays, we’ll have several options for photo gifts we can create if we like, and we will see a satisfying improvement in our choice of subjects, our technique, our artistry.

Let’s get down to the fun part, taking photos. If you’re in, enter your info below. Go to “click here to enter” and enter a blog where you include photos you’ve taken yourself (at least part of the time), a flickr account, or any other place where you share your shots. This way we can peruse each other’s work and urge one another on in our quest for better photos. If you are a photographer please let us know by writing (photographer) in parenthesis after your blog name, so we can stop by and see how it’s done.

Our first reader forum will start tomorrow. Let’s begin!