I thoroughly enjoy my photography workshops and the one with Nathan and his wife Anna from Arsenal, North London was no different. It is so rewarding to see my clients transfer the way they think about taking photos in only three hours!

They owned a Nikon D7000 and have a three year old daughter who they would love to take better photos off. Nathan felt that they were currently not making full use of all the functions and took all shots in automatic mode.

My workshop is perfect if you own a DSLR or bridge camera and is designed with parents in mind, so in addition to understanding your camera you will also receive lots of practical tips to photograph your children whatever their age...

Since the course was a present to Anna, I focussed most of my attention to her and after taking her through the basic settings we practised on her daughter and willing husband. There is a lot to take in, in the theory section of the course but it’s necessary to understand what ‘makes’ a good photo. Not only is it vital to understand how all the buttons work on your camera but probably even more important is how to work with the light available.

Here is a photo taken by Anna before the course of her lovely daughter and to make the comparison more fair I used one that wasn't taken with flash.

Every course participant will have that “ah ha!” moment when the theory suddenly makes sense. This often happens when practising the different settings learned and making adjustments according to the light available and surroundings of the subject. Anna was no different, she got her moment too.

Anna also came to understand the difference in taking every day snapshots and putting a little bit of preparation in to take portrait style shots. Anna is fortunate enough to have a large window in her living room giving her perfect lighting conditions, however she now also knows the limitations of her lens and knows to coach her subjects near the window to benefit from all that lovely light.

We had a walk around the house to find other ‘perfect’ areas to take photographs of her daughter, this could be the bedroom, bathroom or kitchen but in her case it was actually the hallway and stairs. Anna now knows that although there is lots of light coming into the hallway, it is ‘flat light’ which gives less texture in photos but nevertheless for children it can look beautiful and really make their eyes pop.

What Anna grasped the topic of composing a photos really well and enjoyed using composition to create a more interesting photo which can be seen by the photo send to me after the course below.

Not only did Anna crop the photo nicely in camera, she got a lovely natural smile from her daughter and found a lovely de-cluttered smooth background in her house. She also made lovely use of ‘negative space’ which has resulted in a stunning portrait.

Well done Anna and thanks for sharing this lovely photo of your daughter with me.

Since this was a private course I was able to take some quick shots of the family after the workshop was finished so mum could get in the pictures too.

If you would like to improve your photography and lean how to take beautiful photos of your family get in touch and join me on my next photography for parents workshop.

Look forward to hearing from you,

Tamara