June 19, 2011

Lifestyle Selfies!

I am the queen of arms-length self-portraits. Don’t believe me? Here’s but one example from a short 3-month period of time.

But I was recently given a sweet gift from dear friends: a wireless remote shutter. And I’m now trying to leave my long arms out of the equation [grin], and catch more natural, lifestyle images that include me with my family. My youngest son and I read together every day. The story on this particular day was especially cute and funny, and I wanted pictures of us cuddling and reading and giggling. So I plugged in my remote shutter and set up my camera on the arm of the couch (opposite us) – I loved the window light spilling onto my little guy. I set the exposure and the focus (tip: I then turned autofocus off in order to make sure the focus didn’t change, even if we moved). Here is the resulting photo:

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And then I hopped into the picture, tucking my end of the remote out of sight. Please ignore my fuzzy sweats and slippers and the spotty couch – this is authentic lifestyle, people!

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This picture didn’t pack the “punch” I wanted; my little guy kinda gets lost behind me. So I switched the camera to the couch arm closest to us and repeated my set-up steps. Despite the trickier, less bright light (thus a longer shutter speed, thus blurrier pictures), I L.O.V.E. the resulting images:

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And then, for kicks, I moved the camera to the table in front of us (stacked up books to get the camera at the right height), and I handed the remote to my son and told him to take a picture whenever he wanted. It completely cracked me up that he would laugh and look directly AT the camera and then click! (btw, you can see the remote antenna in his hand).

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Oooh, look! Now he’s getting all sophisticated on me and looking AWAY from the camera and snapping simultaneously. Fun times! Fun for me; fun for my son.

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The further good news is…the remote shutter is a cheap little camera toy/tool/accessory (mine cost $20ish). And it’s a super fun way to help put yourself in the picture.











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