Hey Dads ... How do you manage ... ?

[HOCL]

Hey guys

I've seen some of your photos and really admire those of you daddies who can have outings with your family+kids and still able to come back with wonderful pics with excellent exposures and compositions.

My experience was that our outings always ended with the daddy and mommy exhausted at the end of the day, and only snapshots which I consider just so-so.

Before our kid arrived, I used to bring along my film SLR+tripod during travel/outings and had returned with quite satisfied photos. Now, with kids, I began to wonder whether I should keep my SLR/prosumer DC at home (so heavy and leh-chay!) and instead buy a small P&S DC instead. May be I shd just forget abt the photography technicalities and just enjoy the time with the family ...

How do you guys manage? Any tips to share?

 

[chngpe01]

hahaha easy

Wait for them to grow up and get tired of your presence

Give up golf and take up photography, they will be happier

 

[sfhuang]

HOCL, I have my DSLR with me most of the time when I go out with my wife and daughter. But I do not bring it with me when we go on shopping trips because I do not like to leave the camera in the car, or lug it around.

Yes carrying the camera with me is hard work, especially when we go on outings to the zoo for example. But at the end of the day, the pictures make for such great keepsakes in future and are definitely worth the effort.

Here are some tips that you might want to adopt for your own family picture taking.

1. Keep equipment weight to a minimum. If the family is going for weekly visits etc, I will just bring the camera mounted with a 50mm f/1.4 lens. Having a bright lens eliminates the need to bring flash and tripod etc. Can take spontaneous impromptu shots of your child too. For outings outdoors, I will sometimes use a normal range zoom lens but this tires me out fast. It's a balance between how long the trip is going to be and how fast you get tired ...

2. Visualise - Anticipate - Shoot. That's what I do to get interesting pictures of my family. Even the most mundane of situations (e.g. walking home from the carpark) can become interesting pictures. (See my gallery )

3. Get your wife and child interested. It is so much easier to take photos of them when they know the end results. I often show my wife the other good pictures I have taken and tell her that our family portraits could look just as good, if they 'co-operate' with the photographer aka me ... hee.

4. Most importantly, don't be occupied just with taking pictures. It's after all a family outing ...

cheers,
sfhuang

 

[HOCL]

Hi sfhuang

Visited your galleries. Wonderful shots!

Thanks for your tips! I agree with your tips and I believe I am already doing 1, 3 and 4. Nowadays, instead of SLR, I only bring my S602Z DC around. My wife and son really enjoy all the moments captured in the images. And yes, I do try to enjoy the occasions.

The one that I find difficulty in doing is to "Visualise - Anticipate - Shoot" ... find it so difficult to do so while juggling all the dad's role in a typical outing, which includes

-attend to son and wife's physical, emotional and other needs,
-make decisions on changes to itenary/plan
-navigate and find the way around

I mean, how to "anticipate" when you are carrying your child and he is not really interested in cooperating with you when you want to shoot?

Just curious whether besides yourself and your wife, do you have other family members/friends/maid to help during those outings?

BTW, your daughter and my son are born only few days apart. She's really cute!

 

[sfhuang]

Originally posted by HOCL
Hi sfhuang

Visited your galleries. Wonderful shots!

Thanks for your tips! I agree with your tips and I believe I am already doing 1, 3 and 4. Nowadays, instead of SLR, I only bring my S602Z DC around. My wife and son really enjoy all the moments captured in the images. And yes, I do try to enjoy the occasions.

The one that I find difficulty in doing is to "Visualise - Anticipate - Shoot" ... find it so difficult to do so while juggling all the dad's role in a typical outing, which includes

-attend to son and wife's physical, emotional and other needs,
-make decisions on changes to itenary/plan
-navigate and find the way around

I mean, how to "anticipate" when you are carrying your child and he is not really interested in cooperating with you when you want to shoot?

Just curious whether besides yourself and your wife, do you have other family members/friends/maid to help during those outings?

BTW, your daughter and my son are born only few days apart. She's really cute!

Yep, it's really tough doing all those stuff and taking pictures at the same time. That's why I can only take pictures when they are resting, walking and not when I am carrying too much stuff or taking care of my daughter. During outings, it's just the three of us, so far still alright but requires co-operation between me and my wife.

There's another 'tip' I forgot to mention in my previous post. I always 'shoot for the moment' and sometimes do not think too much about composing the picture before pressing the shutter button, especially when my daughter is running about. Just follow rule of thirds and 'click!'. Some of the prettiest portraits of my daughter were taken this way. Maybe you can try it out when taking pics of your son too.

Do you have any of your family pics online? Would like to see pictures of your handsome son too!

cheers,
sfhuang

 

[StreetShooter]

Well, you start with marrying a beautiful woman who will bear you beautiful kids. Then you train her to carry your equipment, look after the kids when you go out, pose them and hold the reflector for you when necessary.

OK, back to reality.

No big deal, really. Enjoy the outing, take photos when you feel like it. My wife complains that we hardly get any "Pose and say-cheese" shots - she's the best at getting those. The shots I take are mostly candids. It often becomes a game, with the kids trying to escape being photographed by Dad - I get my best shots that way, and best of all I'm interacting with them.

There was once I went to Sentosa with my daughter only, and we have only 2 pictures of that outing (and lousy ones at that), because I decided to enjoy the outing itself, which we did.

Many other times, the kids are too busy playing with each other or their friends, to bother with Mum and Dad. It helps to have more than one kid.

 

[sfhuang]

Originally posted by StreetShooter
Well, you start with marrying a beautiful woman who will bear you beautiful kids. Then you train her to carry your equipment, look after the kids when you go out, pose them and hold the reflector for you when necessary.

Hahahaha ... I wish! :angel: ;p

 

[glchua]

I have two kids, one 1.5 and another 3+. We have no maid and no car and outings are tiring. Sometimes I would not even bring a camera as it distracts from what I need to do as a father. When I do bring one, I'll just bring the smallest setup I can find (my Canon S45 was stolen in a family outing), which is a manual SLR with a 50/1.4 or a 28/2.8 and stick negatives in (mainly XP2 now) and shoot away, no worries about exposure, just concentrate on the moment.

Such photography is very enjoyable and it had trained me and interested me to do street photography (after years of macro and landscape). Contrary to popular believe, family life can enhance photography life too!

 

[HOCL]

Hey! Thanks for all your responses. I do enjoy candids more than posed shots too! Get all the most natural looks in all the faces.

I was planning for an upgrade perhaps to DSLR sometime later. I could get wonderful pics at home with my current gear. However, during outings, I was too distracted by all the other matters and couldn't seem to get quality shots. This is making me having second thoughts abt investing further in "heavy" gear which wears me down in family outings.

During the recent Sentosa trip, I took abt 70 shots but hardly 5 are good shots. I was starting to think whether it is wise to bring along a full size DC. Some of you (streetshooter?) have smaller P&S DCs. Wonder when you bring along your DSLR/SLRs and when you just bring along the P&S DCs?