Warning: Kid Friendly Zone

Some people just don't have a knack for getting kids to sit still for a perfect picture. I don't believe this is something that would work for me. I'm a big guy. Kids are always wary around me for the first couple of days. Sit down shots are not going to work. So I rely on subterfuge and reverse psychology to make nice photos happen when I'm around kids. I never stoop to bribery. But if someone else has already loosened them up with a well timed treat I will be there to swoop in.


One of my favorite MOs is to walk outside and find a place to review and cull through my recent shots away from the kids. After a few minutes they will come find you. The silly things they do when they think you are busy make some of the best pictures. Especially if they are unaware you had the camera switched on. These two little girls avoided the camera all morning then were curious where it went.


Another is playing with the child and seeing what kind of mischief they can get into when they don't know the camera is on and ready to shoot. This only works well with one on one situations because you can steer the kid away from real trouble easier than trying to calm down three or four after they are wound up. It also works better with boys. Here is an example of a young man who thought it would be fun to splash water from a rain barrel and didn't know how cold it was going to be.


A good example of a way to get great photos with a group of kids is Hide & Seek. You can either follow the children around, or play as 'IT' yourself. Both ways give you all kinds of opportunity to catch them at their giddiest. Be prepared with an extra battery because they will want to see the pictures after each round to make sure you caught them.


And finally, the all time greatest way to get candid shots of kids in a group situation: The Kids Table. Hey, it gets them laughing, thinking you have been banished from the adult realm. It gives their parents a chance to get plates ready in peace and builds trust with the children. Just don't try stealing anybody's juice. they take this stuff seriously nowadays.


All of the above photos were taken with the Kodak DX6490.

The Relaunch

This page had fallen victim to the oldest blog pitfalls in the book – lack of direction and questionable motives. So, instead of looking out for the things that I find wrong with this fair city and province that I choose to call home, I have decided to turn it around and explore some of the stuff that are unique and beautiful about Lower Canada – with a camera.

I will first drop the two great footnotes that will define the new page. 1) I am a hobby shot. This is my learning curve with a camera. I’ve been taking pictures for years and finally got around to learning something about it. 2) I am a man without wheels. The stuff I visit and find to shoot will be decided by who I got where with. Most of the subject matter will be Montreal based. That doesn’t mean it will get boring. I promise to work hard to bring new and vibrant things to these pages.

Even though I take photos every day, I won’t necessarily be posting a new daily shot. Probably more like day off safaris spread out over the week. I will keep a stable of horses to trot out in an orderly fashion and try and spread out shots taken on the same outing even if they are not of the same subject matter.

For this first post I want to discuss some of the cameras I have owned. Like most teenagers, beer money was way more important than photography equipment. I bought a Vivitar snap shooter when I was 17. Flashy and blue. It was small and great for bringing along to punk rock shows and parties. It lasted me a couple of years before giving out. The only actual metal on the camera was the ring that held the wrist strap on.

After that came a Kodak Advantix T60. One of the APS rigs with the panoramic function. Went through about 50 rolls of film and did not have a lot of wasted shots because of focus problems. It had a flip up flash, so red eye was well under control also.

In 2004 I got a great deal on a Kodak DX6490 digital camera. It was a 4mp that had 10x optical zoom. I used it through until Christmas 2010 and it served me well over the years. By this time I was taking pictures every day. Pictures of the family. The dogs. Clouds. Out taking pictures in snow storms. In six years and two months I took 25,493 shots with that camera. I still keep it in my camera bag as a back up and if I need to shoot video. The realization that I would have to upgrade came one day when I bought a 4GB SD card and the camera would not recognize it. When it was built 128 MB and 256 MB cards were the craze.

For Christmas I got a Canon Rebel 1000D (XS) with the included 18-55 mm EFS lens. Since then I have added a kit that included an EFS 55–250mm lens, a lens hood, a UV, Polarizing and FLD filter kit, and a tripod. After six months of studying the manual and religiously reading online resources (the best of which I found to be Geoff Lawrence’s dot com Tutorials and Tips), I am ready to start sharing my learning adventures. Here we go!