Boys Baptism Photo Ideas & Tips

 

Sorry I haven't been around for 3 months!  So much for doing a monthly theme! lol  Gosh, I guess I got busy.  You see, I don't feel like I have many followers, so I try not to let it stress me out if I'm not posting on the blog...especially if I've got other things to do. ;)

 

ANYWAY, I've been preparing for my almost 8-yr old to get baptized and I searched everywhere for picture ideas, because I was going to attempt his photos myself!! So now that I am finished, I decided I'd add my own ideas out there for people to use. ;)  I will make a post about my daughter's photos soon.  We did some fun things for hers 3 years ago.

 

I decided to get him a suit.  He grows so fast that I know he will grow out of it, but we found a great deal and I feel like it makes him look so handsome! It helped that the weather was still a little cool, so he didn't get too hot or anything.  I let him pick out a new tie, in which he picked his favorite color red. 

The hard part is getting him to have a more natural smile like the ones above, and NOT like the one below, and I'll tell you my secret.....

 POTTY HUMOR!! I'm sorry, but that's the only thing that would get him laughing.  So go prepared with some potty humor jokes!!! It should get that natural smile out:

 As for backgrounds, I wanted to make sure I got some shots that were a little more "boyish".  I think for that you need a little more urban-like setting.  Cool walls or stairs are always good.

I actually took this next one without him knowing...he was telling me something and looking the other way.  But I like it for some reason...not all the pictures have to be smiling to be perfect.  Let him be silly too!!

Angles from above can be fun too

 We wanted to do a photo to represent that he was turning EIGHT, but I'm not sure I love our 8 fingers one...I hope that's not some kind of gang symbol I don't know about. lol  But then after we finished I told him we could get a treat and he LOVES donuts.  So we went to dunkin donuts and I had the idea to make an 8!! Turned out fun!

 And then lastly, we live close to the Oquirrh Mtn Temple.  So we took advantage and got a couple of shots there.

If you are doing an invitation, it is fun to make sure you get a picture with a lot of open space, like the one of him against the blue wall, because then there is room to put the writing on the photo.  If you don't know how to do this in photoshop, you can put a collage like this together with text pretty easy in www.picmonkey.com.  Here's how it turned out (thought it was a good idea to blur my phone number and part of the address):

What to do with your non-digital photos

We've talked about how to organize your digital photos on your computer.  But what about all your non-digital photos that are in albums or boxes? 

 We all have them.  Printed photographs from before everything went digital.  Whether they are being kept in old, sticky photo albums, boxes or envelopes, or even nice & well kept albums, there are measures you need to take to guarantee they survive long enough to show your grandchildren.

ESPECIALLY the photos kept in those old, sticky photo albums.  You know what I'm talking about? The pictures stick into place and then there is a plastic covering to help protect the photos.  GET THEM OUT!  Look how yellow this album has become.  That stickiness is toxic enough to start eating through your precious photographs.  If they've been in there a long time, you can have a horrible time getting them out.  I've heard dental floss helps....possibly even heating the page a little with a hair blow dryer and using the dental floss.

 Even if you have a high quality album to hold your photos, you will want to at least get them scanned so that if something happens to the album, they won't be lost forever.  Plus, it's fun to be able to share them digitally, like putting one of my wedding and baby photos in this blog post!  haha

  

 

 

Here are 5 steps to help preserve your non-digital photos and get them ORGANIZED:

1.  SORT the photos and decide if any can be thrown away.  I would suggest either sorting them by person or by year.  However you think you would like them organized.

2. SCAN THEM.  Why? First, it will give you extra copies of your photos, just in case something were to happen to them.  Second, it allows you to share them digitally, whether through social media or by making a slideshow or online photo album.  I have had friends email me old photos from college and it's so fun!! A great way to share! I understand many of you will have your photos in SCRAPBOOKS.  Yes, these still need to be scanned, but instead of tearing your scrapbook apart, you can just scan the entire page. I will do another post on this later.

If you have a scanner at home, scanning your own photos can be easy....it just takes some time.  If you don't, you can invest in one or pay someone to scan them for you. 

3.  DECIDE if you want to keep the originals or throw them away. After all, if you have them on your computer you can always print them again if you ever want to. 

4.  LABEL them.  Do a quick label on the back...at least the name and year.  I don't know how many photos I've found in my grandma's house that I have no idea who is in them!  Very frustrating! If you are throwing away the originals, then you still need to keep them organized on your computer.

 

5.  DON'T LEAVE THEM IN A BOX.  It doesn't matter what you do with them, and it doesn't have to be fancy, but make sure they don't stay forgotten in boxes.  For ideas, check out my last post, "DO something with your photos".

 

4 ways to take more meaningful photographs

Yes, I just did a post on taking less photos!  haha  So this post isn't to encourage you to take MORE photos, but just to make the ones you DO take more meaningful. What "meaningful" means, will be different for each person, but I wanted to share what I found for myself:

  

I started to find that I took pictures of the SAME things every year...holidays, birthdays, pumpkin patch, the school Halloween parade, the dance festival, the sports the kids play every quarter, the summer parades, etc.  I didn't really think about it until I went to put together my books with my photos in it and I realized that each year is starting to look the same!  I found that I rarely take pictures unless there is something big going on.  And those "big things" going on are usually the same year after year.  So I decided I wanted my photos to feel more SPECIAL than that and so here are my thoughts:

1.  STOP GETTING OUT THE CAMERA JUST BECAUSE IT'S A HOLIDAY

I find that some of my most favorite photographs of my kids are ones I took at a more random time.  Like this one of my youngest and his messy face after he just had a sandwich (AND I had to take a picture of the sandwich to go with it because he wouldn't eat the crust and he put the pieces back in their spot after he was done!).  And like this other one of our family gathered around an ipad watching a funny youtube video together.  Remember to be random!

2.  YOUR PHOTO SUBJECTS DON'T ALWAYS HAVE TO BE LOOKING AT YOU AND SMILING

In fact, I LOVE these photos my sister in law took of my kids.  Landon was trying to tell us something and there was a time where he struggled with this. This photo was taken 4 years ago and I love these almost more than any I have of him smiling and looking at the camera because it reminds me of how cute it was to hear him talk! And then I love the angle of the 2nd picture.  My daughter was laying on the trampoline and I love seeing how her hair falls, her long eyelashes and sweet face. Think angles!  Take a picture from above, from below, from the side...it sure beats trying to ALWAYS get them to look at you and smile!  

3.  SAVE THE PHOTO TAKING FOR NEW EXPERIENCES!

  I tried something new this year and have an album called "Howell Adventures". 

Whenever we tried something for the first time or went somewhere new, I tried to get just a couple pictures.  Not 30...just a few...just so we can remember what we did.  And then we documented it in the album with the date, location, and a short description. Not only did this give my photos more meaning, but it gave us motivation to see what other new things we could try and to find new places we could explore!!

4. LESS POSING and MORE ACTION!

I love posed and smiling shots, but I also love the ACTION!  Seeing the looks on their faces when they are in the middle of experiencing something is priceless.