One of my 2010 goals that has now carried over into 2011 goals, is to blog more.  And blog more than just pretty pictures.  Yes, still lots of weddings and babies and kids and families and dogs but more than that too.  More of Ike, more of us, more of life, more random stuff and more photo talk.  So since we are in the heart of another Minnesota winter, I thought I would write a little bit about light.  Or maybe about the lack of light.

I photograph a lot of kids/people in their own environments which means I end up inside peoples’ homes a lot.  Inside = dark.  When I enter someone’s home, I immediately notice where the windows are which generally means where the “nice light” is.  I almost always put my back to the window and have the subject face towards the window.  Noticing where your light source is and then adjusting where you are shooting in relation to the light source is a very basic and easy way to make your photos look a million times better, even on a point and shoot camera.  This example shows the difference between having the subject face the window (on the left) versus me facing and shooting against the window (on the right).  I think it’s always best to have the subject face the window.  From the expression on this little girls face in the corresponding photos, I think she agrees with me.

And this shows just how much I love having my back to the window:

So as long as we are on the photo talk subject, was this a helpful post?  Were you like, duh that is old news?  I certainly will never claim that my way is the right way but if I can shed even a little light (pun intended) on the topic of photography to any of my blog readers (whom I love!), that would make me happy.  So if you have a burning photography question or would like to me blog about a certain topic like shooting on manual, post processing, photographing kids, etc, etc, would you leave me a comment or send a message?  I’d be thrilled to have some blogging ideas!