Photo Tip Friday - Documenting Life

Welcome back to Photo Tip Friday! 

Today's tips are designed to help you help you see how to photograph your daily life for special events. 

Let's get started. 

On a beach trip to the Outer Banks, we took our kids to the Lost Colony. First, we participated in a demonstration of how to pack "gunpowder" like the settlers did.  With this picture, I made sure to get all the cousins in the shot along with the instructor.  

I stood behind the National Park Ranger and got the faces of my kids and nieces and nephews. 

Here's another angle. It has a different feel to it. 

I took this one more on the level of the kids. 

Notice how I framed this one?

I got the entire Ranger and all the kids, but cut out as much clutter as I could. 

But I took this photograph while I was standing. Compare it to the one above. Notice the different feel of the shot? 

Here are some closeups of the kids. 

This shot is above, looking down. I like the perspective this angle provides. 

You can see the young man working hard to roll the paper on the stick. 

Here, I bent down and once again took a shot on level with the kids. While you don't see all the "gunpowder" and supplies in this photo, you do see his face and hands at work!

Try different perspectives with photography!!

Here are the supplies each child had to use.

I wanted to document that since all the parts would be hard to remember without a list!

They had a good time making the shots for the weapons.

After the demonstration, we went out to explore. On the way back in, my son pulled out a flat piece of metal and said, "Mom, doesn't this look like the letter Z?" I looked and agreed it did. He also showed me a piece of old brick.


But then I said, "Sweetie, this is a National Park, we need to give that to the Rangers. We can't take it home."






This is the happy Ranger. When we showed him the finds, he wanted to see where they came from because they were definitely man-made.

He was so excited to find metal fragments.

We all pitched in and found him lots more.

He couldn't wait to show it to the archeologists for identification!

So, once back in the Ranger Station, one of my nieces explored the metal. 

I took this shot up close, with all the treasures we found in the foreground. 

I love how she's looking so closely at the metal shards. 

So as you go through life, take your camera along and document life as it happens. 

Take overall shots like the first ones above. 

But then go in closer and take shots of the details. 

You'll be glad when you're looking back. 

So which shot is your favorite of these? 

Hope this tip helps! 

Keep on clicking! 

Mary