Photography Tips: try something different

Remember when I used to give photography tips every week? - well, I know it's been a while.  I think I've told you about all I know, so it's just a matter of practice.  Are you getting that blurry background you want (here's the tip on blurry background) and are you off of the green square and using "P" (here's what that's all about).  Well, family photo season is upon us - I have been doing TONS of sessions - and so I came up with another tip for you: Try Something Different.

When you're taking family pictures for your Christmas Cards, do the traditional sit-and-smile in a group shot, but don't be afraid to try something different.  Here are some of my favorites from sessions I've done in the past few days - and none of them are the traditional shot.  Don't be afraid to try something different - worst case, you'll just delete it later.  Some ideas I use:

Feet pictures - I always take a picture with feet only - there's just something I love about it.  This family all wore Converse shoes, so it was all the more fun.

Pose pictures - this works great with a plain background, like this wall - I love how everyone gets to show their personalities.

Use your surroundings - I love this phone booth picture - -

Jumping Picture - I almost always do a jumping picture - it's a good one to give the kids a break from sit-and-smile pictures.  A hint is to tell every to kick their bottoms instead of just jumping up - it makes you look higher.  And this will take a few shots - and even little kids who can't jump still look cute trying.

Now, after you take your family pictures, remember you can take advantage of the free canvas deal - you have to pay $15 shipping, but still, $15 for a canvas is a pretty good deal - here's the link to Canvas People.   You can be sure I'll blog about my canvas - I hope to do our family pictures next weekend and then I'll be ordering it (and I'll probably go bigger than 8x10, because what's $10 more bucks in the great scheme of things...)
If you order a canvas and take a picture of it and send it to me, I'll feature you too when I feature mine....(email me at mandybeez at gmail)

OH, stay tuned later today to see who won the planner from Much Ado About You (if you haven't entered the giveaway yet, do that before noon today!)