How to take a great photo of your kid

If before we had Oliver you told me that it would be hard to take a great photo of a 4 month old, I am not sure I would have believed you. How hard can it be. You create the scene, put Oliver in the shot and fire a couple of shots. Done.

But, it just isn’t that easy.

Both Tanya and I have tried countless times to capture the moment with a happy Oliver. Typically

• You get a great photo of Oliver, but everything else in the shot is horrible
• You get a nicely composed photo, but you missed the smile
• You capture the moment, the scene was perfect, but that lighting was so horrible that your ISO was set at 3200 and your shutter speed was so slow that everything is blury

Steps for great shots

I have figured it out, not that it is easy or reproducible, but here are the steps to taking a great shot of your kid:

1. Make sure the child is in a good mood, not hungry, but happy and ready to play
2. Make sure you have good lighting
3. Setup the photo so that the main focus is on the child in front of a non-distracting background
4. Set your camera to continuous shot (takes a shot ever 1/2 second or so)
5. Get the child excited about the toy
6. Take as many shots as you can

Like I said, I have tried this a number of times, and you don’t usually end up with too many great shots. For me, the biggest problem is dealing with light. Maybe I will have to wait for summer and take more shots outside.

Old Trestle

While hiking in Goldstream, we came across this trestle. It is very high up, at least 60 meters and there are no railings.

Still in use?

I don’t think this trestle is used much anymore. The rails looked pretty rusty and I didn’t see any trains. If there was a commuter train between the Cowichan Valley and Victoria, it would run on these tracks, so there is definitely potential there.

Another use?

I like the ideas of taking old railways and converting them into mixed use pathways. Railways are particularly good because of their nice grade. This would be a great way to get from the Cowichan Valley to Victoria via bicycle, just like the Kettle Valley Rail Tral.

Leaves at Goldstream

Decided to go for a hike at Goldstream, the leaves looked so green and amazing.