You see those beautiful and bright pictures on Pinterest (there are a lot of nice ones here), but have you ever thought about who takes them? How do they take them? What else is on that kitchen table where the craft lays? Did you ever wonder about the decor of the room that the picture was taken?
If you are a blogger you will relate to me and if you are my follower (thank you! ) you will get a totally different perspective of what really is going on while we take pictures. I tell you, it's not all smiles and clean clothes.
MYTHS AND FACTS about taking pictures for blog posts
Myth 1: You have a professional photography set/studio in your house. You always go there to take pictures of the kids doing crafts and activities.
Fact: Well definitely not me. The only one semi professional thing I have is my camera. I use white house wall as my backdrop most of the time, also, if it's a craft I will use a white message board and for smaller items I have used dinner napkins (the colorful ones), cutting boards, bed sheets. Oh, and if I need a picture with more "exotic looking view", I just find a picture in the magazine, tape that page to the wall and take my picture with my object in front of it.
Voila. Our sail boat craft is sailing in the black see near Istanbul, Turkey.
Myth: All kids love to pose, because when you look at the pictures it's obvious they are enjoying it.
Fact: My 5 year old loves posing for pictures (actually, she loves it too much), but it's really a challenge to get my 2 year old in the picture. He thinks it's funny when he starts running and I am chasing him with the camera in my hand (sometimes it's attached to the tripod). Well, at least they are natural shots, right?
Myth: Your kids always wear clothes (why wouldn’t they?). Without holes and no stains. Their finger nails are clean and their faces aren’t covered in boogers (sorry, we've had some bad cold lately) or chocolate (because I may or may not gave it to them so they would pose for the picture.)
Fact: I don't know if it's just me... but I have the worst luck with my kids staying 'picture perfect' ALL THE TIME. I must be doing something wrong.
Myth: You take photos of the post that you will publish today, latest - by tomorrow.
FACT: For some it may be the case. I guess I belong to the “get your Christmas post ready by the end of October” group of bloggers. So imagine the view in my front yard, decorating Christmas Tree when my neighbors don't even know what Christmas IS, not to mention why I am putting shiny things on the some tree.
But I like it, we get to sit at dinner table decorated for Christmas during Halloween.
Myth: When you take pictures (in your professional photography studio at home), kids are patiently watching or playing independently.
Fact. Yeah. Let me tell you about thaaaat. My toddler is into horses lately (what he isn’t into), so he thinks when I bend to take a picture it’s horsy time. eyahhh!
And then there were times (not too long ago) when my son was still into breastfeeding a lot. So believe me, I have taken photos while nursing my son. (it's called acrobatic breasfeeding, you guys. This thing is real). You see, I didn't want to miss the golden hour shots and of course didn't want to starve my child. I am thankful we don’t have close neighbors.
This is what happened after "independent activity" while mommy was taking pictures. "Modern art on lawn chairs".
Myth: After you took the pictures you immediately make them appear on your computer. Boom! Then you make sure all your photos are as you expected them to be and upload them to the blog post with one click.
Fact: If only I would upload my pictures straight to the post… I would not have any pinterest followers at all. And you know you need them.
Wouldn’t know what would I do without PicMonkey (online editing program). I think my blog would just be one dark place.
In fact, it takes me 2-3 hours working on the pictures for the single post. A lot of decisions to make there: which picture is for Pinterest, which one for FB, should I write on this one? Should I make this brighter…Does this font go with the flow? No, maybe this one. How about underline?
Oh shoot. I didn’t press save and left the editing page.
You may have noticed by now that I am not a professional photographer by any means, but I am pretty darn good at one thing - it's hiding dirty nails, boogers and naked bottoms of children in the pictures (sorry, the last part sounded weird, but it's true).
For that matter I had a chat with my blogging friend Jamie from Hand Made Kids Art and we had so much fun we decided to turn into a hangout for everybody to listen. She has also wrote a post about her top tips on photography and how she handles it while keeping the blog up and having 3 (!) children.
No matter the struggles with blogging I go every day, I love love love LOVE what I do. In fact, at this time of my live I don't know what would I do without it. It became such a big part of me. I am still very new at all of this so I try to take those daily challenges and turn them into fun memories (most times).
Nicolette Roux says
HEHE!!
Great read. I too crop off bare butts and clone over holes in pants (cause you know kids..)
Birute Efe says
Thanks Nicolette. This makes me feel so much better. To know that I am not alone 🙂