focal length: 58 mm
shutter speed: 1/30
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 640
flash: none

When photographing children in their everyday element, don’t be afraid to get a little trigger-happy. To get the money shot, sometimes you need to shoot 38 shots in a 2 minute time frame like I did for these. Granted, I didn’t really get a money shot this time around but to illustrate my point, sometimes you need to take a slew of photos. That’s one of the benefits of shooting with a DLSR. There is almost no shutter lag, allowing you to take many frames within seconds. Although I don’t shoot in continuous burst mode, I’m pretty fast with the shutter release button. My brother was surprised to see that I was on single shot mode after listening to me shoot. Now, I’m not bragging that I’m a fast shooter. I’m just saying that when shooting unposed, fast-moving kids, it sure helps when the camera can handle it.

Okay, I’m going to be completely honest with you. When I’m reviewing my files, even if the shot isn’t that great, as long as it’s actually in focus and somewhat decent, I’ll flag it as a “keeper”. The only reason being, while sifting through blurry shot after blurry shot, the sharp ones look really good! My husband was standing behind me while I was going through this series and as soon as a sharp one showed up, he quipped “Oh, that’s a good one!”. We’re so the same. I wonder if you’ve ever done that too?

Here’s a blurry one to show you what I mean.

Don’t you love those glasses? They’re those play ones with the freaky looking eyes that have peep holes to see through them. Thankfully, she popped those out. Now she’s stylin’.

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.

focal length: 24 mm
shutter speed: 1/50
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 640
flash: none

Last night, we attended a dinner banquet and I was able to get in a few shots. It’s challenging to shoot in a busy restaurant with crowds of people. Luckily I was able to catch a few during a quiet moment while our little munchkin interacted with a younger baby. To cut out some of the clutter, I shot while standing over her. Unfortunately, there was no room to compose the image a bit better but I’ll take it anyway. I desaturated the photo a bit and added a texture layer just for something different. As you may have noticed, I don’t usually spend much time processing my images but I’m trying to make myself try different things and get away from my usual style.

She was an angel tonight, even during the ride home. Four-hour banquets are tough for the young ones. What a trooper! The night before was a nightmare though.

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.

focal length: 70 mm
shutter speed: 1/320
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 200
flash: none

We went out for a walk in the neighbourhood this morning, enjoying the beautiful weather. And of course, I had my camera in hand. I saw this feather lying in the grass surrounded by maroon coloured leaves that fell from the tree above it. The colours were so nice together so I shot it from bird’s eye view, enhanced it in post processing and cropped it just a bit.

I wish I could have joined the Shutter Sisters on their photowalk in San Fransisco today but here’s a little “Wish I could be there” from Vancouver!

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.

focal length: 5.8 mm
shutter speed: 1/200
aperture: f/5.6
ISO: —
flash: none

I was looking through my many files and folders for today’s daily pic and found this one hidden among shots I took with my point and shoot (Canon SD300) at the water park. I didn’t take my SLR because I didn’t want to leave it in the stroller while I chased my little one around the water park. Not to mention that taking your big camera with a big lens to a public place with lots of kids running around might not gel too well with other parents. You know, safety issues and all. I thought I was sacrificing getting some great shots that day but then I saw this one. It’s not fantastic but it’s one of the best ones I’ve taken with my little point and shoot. I don’t think I even bothered to look through my shots after transferring the photos to my hard drive so this was a nice surprise.

The original image was flat and lifeless straight out of the camera:

I did some processing in Lightroom, exported to Photoshop where I added a layer with a slight gaussian blur to soften the sharpness in her hair but I erased the blur out of her eyes so they’d remain sharp. The richness and depth isn’t quite there due to the small sensor size, but it’s not a bad image.

I’ve seen many photos taken with a point and shoot that are fantastic! Do you have any you’d like to share? Inspire us with your work and I’ll be sure to break out my P&S more often!

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.

I saw this floating around the internet today and it looks like it’s getting viral. Why not? It’s kinda cool! Go here and create your own word cloud by either copying and pasting some text or just enter your blog’s URL and you’ll get a compilation of words that make up your site. You can change the font, colours and layout as well. I was interested to find out which words show up the most on my site. Here’s mine:

*click to enlarge

I know it’s not a photography related article, but I thought maybe you’d want to check it out too. Seems like I talk a lot about aperture, ISO, one, photos, focal, f/2.8, and none.

But the best part about this particular configuration is the little tiny “BOOM” at the bottom of the structure seemingly holding up all the words. Small yet powerful and kinda funny.

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.