In my journey with my camera and my family one thing I have come to understand is that with any frame worthy moment there is usually more then one story going on at any given time. Take for instance, a simple Saturday morning snuggle session with my biggest girl and her daddy. I looked over from my computer to the scene of my Chloë Yoshe cuddled up with her daddy looking so small and sweet and knew immediately it was picture worthy! But once I grabbed my camera I realized that there were many stories here to tell.

The story of my dear husband taking a break from his busy morning to just be a daddy while sneaking a glimpse of his wife. 

The story of my biggest girl taking advantage of the rare quiet moment while her sister napped to watch a cartoon. 

The story of a daddy's big strong hand holding his tiny daughter close. 

Or The story of the cuddle itself and my daughter's sweet expression. 

You always have options, so when you pick up your camera with each snap of the shutter think about what story you are going to tell!

Snap to it!

TO MY CHILDREN

The tweet read, "RT @kirtsy: I've watched this 100 times. And I want to send it to every mom I know. http://bit.ly/cgZCwZ Thank you, @katherinecenter" I had a few spare minutes (ever looking for a diversion from what I SHOULD be doing) and after all, I am a mom... My heart stopped inside my chest and after several moments I realized that I wasn't breathing. I hadn't connected with anything this way in a very long time. It was the best spent 2 minutes and 41 seconds online ever. Thank you twitter!

I've watched this video now more times then I care to admit and shed a number of tears that only another mom could understand or guess. And you know what, I'm ok with that. It made me think of all the things I have wanted to say, If only I knew how. This is something that I have struggled with in my own journey as a mother. I have journals that were started with all the best intentions, that are still waiting for their pages to be filled. And there in lies my problem so many things I want to say, but am never quite sure how to say them. Whenever I write them down I feel like it's only part of the story, but doesn't paint the whole picture. I want them to know the whole picture, I want them to see themselves the way I did. Then I realized, It's through my images that I can tell the rest of the story. My camera is an extension of my heart, my mind, my hand, and my mouth. It tells my story in way that I never could before. I am so grateful to have found my voice through my lens, because now I can tell them the whole story, I can show them, and they can know.

Momtographers, this community is in it's infancy, but I hope that now as we lay the framework, it's built with the spirit of empowering every mom to find a voice to tell her story. To show her children all the things she want's them to know. We want to empower you so that you can use your camera in a way that brings you joy and satisfaction. If you are like me and find that sometimes words escape you, I hope that you feel powerful now knowing there is another way.

To my children:

Since the moment I felt you flutter in my belly I've loved you with a love that I never could have imagined. From your funny faces, to your sad ones, tears and giggles, first steps and first bites, you are beautiful, and sensitive, funny, clever, and a little naughty. The way you love each other amazes me more and more every day! I love you my sweet girls. And when words aren't enough or don't flow the way they should, there are the images...

We couldn't be prouder in our premier edition of  "Help A Momtographer Out!" to introduce you to Los Angeles Photographer, Christa Meola. In fact, left on it's surface, describing Christa with just the term photographer is a little misleading. Treat yourself to a few minutes going through her portfolio, and you'll understand what we mean. She's an artist that truly captures the spirit of family with her unique voice - life, sung in the key of happy.  Every image radiates a joy and warmth, clearly infused with her sunny perspective.

So before we go trying to change her business cards to something like "Purveyor of Photographic Sunshine", let's ask her a few questions:

f+ss+ISO = exposure

Now that you know what the three main parts of a camera are, the next step is to begin to understand how they work together. This is where the magic happens! It's up to you, Miss Momotographer, to find the combination of these three numbers (f-stop, shutter speed and ISO) that equals the most pleasing exposure in any given situation. Sounds scary, we know, but we have full faith that if you've read this far, you are up for the challenge!

To get you going in manual, we want you to try out this method that works great for us when we turn on the camera and try to find our happy exposure place!

THREE EASY STEPS:

1 - Assess the light.  Is it bright and sunny? Dark and cloudy? Are you indoors or out? Based on these answers, set your ISO first. Let's assume it's a bright sunny morning out in the backyard - so set your ISO to 100.

2 - Next, look at your lens. What focal length are you shooting at? (You can either look at the numbers on the lens to figure this out - or some cameras will tell you in the viewfinder). Okay, whatever the focal length is, double it and set your shutter speed one notch above that number. Let's say you're using a nifty fifty (a 50mm prime lens).  Set your shutter speed to 125.

3 - Lastly, ask yourself what it is you want to capture. Just your tot sititng in the flowerbed eating soil? Or the whole yard - dog and child in it. Once you've decided, set your aperture accordingly. Let's say you want the whole shebang in clear focus - pick a "safe" closed down aperture like 7.2.

Now CLICK!  What do you see? A perfectly exposed picture? A bright blob of nothing?  A dark abyss of black? It's likely something in between.

Above we picked our ideal settings, but now we need to work with our environment from that starting place. If it's too dark, either bump up your ISO or open up your aperture.  Then try again. Keep doing this until you are pleased with the result. It's hard at first and you will lose a LOT of shots - so spend plenty time practicing on things that it's okay to miss. TRUST US - over time this becomes easier and easier to gauge and you will be able to adjust settings in seconds to get the shot you desire!

TAKE A DEEP BREATH!

We can hear you now - "WHAT?!? I thought this was supposed to be photography made easy."  It is, it's just going to take some time to get you there. The reality is this - when shooting in manual or half-manual, every location and situation will require a different set of settings depending on the light available and what you're trying to accomplish creatively. That's why we offer our Learn By Looking section, so you can begin to absorb what kind of settings may work in different situations. Shooting on the kitchen floor? Take note of the settings on THIS SHOT and see if they work for you.  You may be just an ISO or shutter adjustment away from the same look.

Hey you photo buff (or aspiring one!)...

This section is for you! It’s the meat. The comprehensive pieces of the puzzle that will help you harness the power of your camera and turn it into some serious snap.

Photography, at its core, is the science of capturing light.  When that light is interpreted by your camera’s sensor, it becomes an image. In order to understand how to capture that light, there are some things we have to break down that end up looking and sounding more like a science lesson than your regularly scheduled Momtography program.

But we know that you care infinitely more about the end product than the equations and technicalities that get you there. We just want to take great pictures of our kids! So we've taken the advanced side of photography and stripped it down to the nuggets you must know to achieve your goal.

We call it The Momtographer's Methodology. It's where we take out the irrelevant, break down the jargon and tell you what it all means to a time-crunched mom. If you keep searching beyond our site, you will see that all of this stuff has much broader implications then what we are presenting, but do you really care? We didn’t think so!

So go hide in a corner with a delicious beverage of choice and dig in, it won’t take long and you can go back to doing what you love best, USING your camera to capture all those things that make you smile.

If, you haven't already, switch your camera dial to "M" (manual), grab the camera manual that you probably banished to the basement and dig in!

If you are reading this it means it's real! It means we launched this thing... HOL"EEEE"Y COW... Seriously somebody pinch me (insert a long squeal here)!

I'm not sure if I'm more nervous or excited, but one emotion I am sure about is relief, well, that and pride! I feel like we are sending our first born off to school for the first time, you know they will be fine but wow talk about anxiety! I hope people like her, and I hope she makes friends and I hope she learns a lot and I hope she contributes to the classroom etc. etc. etc. So many hopes and also fears, but so glad to be finally experiencing it instead of theorizing about it!

So, after you pinch me can I hug you? Yes, hug you, I said it! Because truth be told without YOU we couldn't have done this. We knew almost immediately after embarking on this project that we had finally landed on what we were called to do (and yes I am speaking for us both)! Nothing short of divine intervention could have gotten us through some of the obstacles we confronted along then way! There were so many moments when walking away would have been the easiest thing to do, but we couldn't, we were driven! Driven by something greater then ourselves. We thought of the millions (literally) of new mommies out there frustrated with their inability to capture their families the way they so desperately wanted to. Knowing that they were inefficiently surfing from site to site trying to piece it all together between too little sleep and too frequent feedings was all the motivation we needed! Because each of us had been her, and now knew there was a better way! So after more then a few hicups, late nights, some heartache, a whole lot of time, and a gargantuan amount of love to see this thing come to life is surreal to say the least!

So what is a good exposure? Simply put, it's an image that is an accurate and artistically satisfying recording of what you saw when you took the picture.

Every pixel that lives on your camera's image sensor records either red, green or blue, each measured in increments of 0-255.  0 = black and 255 = white with every shade inbetween.  It's those numbers that make up a digital photograph.

In fact, your images are natively recorded in a color mode that your computer understands as RGB, referring to - you guessed it - red, green and blue.  This will be important later when you bring your images into your computer... but for now, let's get back to exposure.

If too much light is let into your camera and allowed to land on the pixels that make up your image sensor, then you will get pictures that are a sea of white! Those tiny little pixels were slammed with more light than they could handle, so they recorded 255 (all white!) and BOOM - you lose important color information.  This is called an overexposed photo - your image sensor was over exposed to light!

Anyone wanna play spot the child in this overexposed picture on the left?

Clearly, so much light was let into the camera that the pixels were all "blown out" (that's cool speak for pushed to 255 or all white). Not all examples are this extreme - think of when a blue sky appears white instead of blue, or when just part of your little one's nose or cheek gets lost in a sea of white. There was too much light let into the camera for the sensor to give you an accurate representation of what your eye saw so the actual color information is lost!

Compare that photo to one taken just a few seconds later on the right - this time with different camera adjustments.

It's your job (and sometimes your camera's) to determine how much light is allowed in. This is done by adjusting your aperture, shutter and image sensor settings to prevent images like this from happening.  But before we get to how we determine what those settings should be, we need to look at what happens when not enough light gets into your image sensor.

So what happens when too little light is let in?  The pixels lose out on information too - just to the opposite end of the spectrum.  All the important information for your image gets lost in a sea of black!  Your picture becomes underexposed - your image sensor was under exposed to the amount of light it needed to make the picture!

We weren't going for a silhouette of a rocking chair in this photo!  There wasn't enough light let in the camera to accurately record these sweetie-pies' faces (or much else).  So most of the pixels on the camera's image sensor recorded 0 - or black.

How then, do you control how much light hits the sensor?  By finding the right combination of settings for the three most important parts of your camera.  Again  - aperture, shutter and image sensor.

Sounds simple right?  Well, it's not. There are an infinite number of combinations and finding the right one for your situation can be really daunting at first.

We'll get to the part where we walk you through how to find the right settings for you, but first, we've got some learnin' to do.  Specifically about aperture, shutter speed and your image sensor.

If backlighting is what happens when your subject is lit from behind while you expose for their face, then silhouettes are what happen when a subject is lit mostly from behind and you expose for the light.

Silhouettes are created in extreme lighting situations when the light behind your subject is bright and the light on and in front of your subject is low. When you expose for the bright background, you render your foreground and suject to be darker, giving you a silhouette.  It's a great storytelling trick that puts just the form or the "idea" of your subject completely in context with it's background.  Just look at this story told at the beach near sunset...

When using a point and shoot camera or shooting in automatic, turn off your flash and the camera will do the work for you - automatically exposing for the brightest part of the image (the backlight). When shooting in manual, spot meter for the background (the brightest light) by pointing your camera at the backlight and get your settings from there!

One of the best things about Silhouettes? They're easy to accomplish with just a little bit of trial and error and they go a long way to help you understand how your camera handles exposure.  Artsy and informative - what's not to love?!?

It's one of those things. You probably nailed it on accident once or twice and had no idea how to do it again. You've certainly seen in some really jaw-dropping photos but you could never put your finger on exactly what was going on. But wow, once you understand how backlighting works you can reap it's benefits and rock it in your own photos!

Backlighting is easy to describe. It's that beautiful light that shines from behind your subject, illuminating them to the point where they quite literally glow! It can truly take your breath away when done well. But it's not always the easiest effect to acheive - it's one of those lighting opportunities you have to be on the lookout for, and then know how to take advantage of it!

Generally, backlighting works when the light behind your subject is far brighter than the light in front of them. Momtographers will likely find when the late afternoon sun is low in the sky, there's plenty of opportunity for backlighting. Just position your tot facing away from the sun (look for that glowing rim around their hair!) get infront of them, and snap away.  They don't have to be directly between your lens and the sun, in fact, it's better if the sun hits them more at an angle. And you'll have to be on the lookout for lens flare depending on how much light is directly entering your lens. It's a practice that takes, well, practice. But it's an effort that pays off in glorious images.

But once you find your backlighting - you still have to get your camera settings right. This can be tricky in and of itself. Backlighting creates a dynamic lighting situation that can be hard to meter for. Where do you meter?  The face? The hair? And what mode do you meter in? Spot? Center? (Yes, yes, we promised simple, but you said you wanted "serious snap" so it's time we start asking some of photography's harder questions).

We suggest starting with spot metering and going off your child's face. You're going to get lots of blown exposure around the hair and in the sky - but that's part of what makes this look work. In fact, you're just going to have to learn to accept that with backlit photos, you will end up with some overexposed, blown out backgrounds. Because unless your cutie is a glowing ball of brightness like your light source, chances are their skin is go ing to be darker than the background. You can try slightly underexposing thier face to maintain more detail in the background area - you can always play with it in post processing to brighten up the face or bring the background down further. This is what we've found works best most of the time. Well, that and learning to live with overexposed, blown-out backgrounds in exchange for an illuminated glowing angel child!

There's one final challenge with a backlit photo... that's getting nice light on the face and a catchlight in the eye! Why?  Well, the light's BEHIND them. But, if you have them facing a reflective source like a reflector, a body of water or a bright wall bouncing light at them, well then, voila!

We love love love window light! There is just something about it! We said it before in Brand Spankin' New - every home has at least one great pocket of light and often times it will be in front of a window, or better yet, a bunch of windows.

Window light is great for many reasons: you are almost guaranteed good catchlights, your light is lightly diffused and usually pretty even, (except for times when the sun is low in the sky shining directly through it), plus you have the added benefit of being indoors, sheltered from the elements - you never have the weather to blame for not getting GREAT pictures of your fam!

The other great thing about finding an awesome window is the predictability! Over time you will be so familiar with the light and how it come through your window, it will take little effort to create magic time and time again in your little "spot".

The key to really using good window light is to have the window behind you or to the side of you and your camera while your subject faces it. Here - sometimes it's just easier to SHOW you...

Adrienne's happy place in her Alabama neighborhood is her kitchen! As we see here, she has the window to her back and sweet Sydney directly facing the light streaming in.

And here is an example of some of that magic that Krista loves to conjure up in her living room! Krista is lucky enough to have a living room that is 3/4 covered in windows (quite the rarity in NYC!).  Needless to say, she spends a LOT of time shooting there.

She's actually sitting on her window sill with little Miss Luca directly in front of her, looking up at her.

Oh - here's actually a picture of the window Krista was sitting on... but used differently.  This picture is a whole other way to use window light - as a backdrop!  But that gets a little more complicated, so we'll save it for another lesson or we'll check it out in our learn by looking section!

Bottom line - consider window light the gift that just keeps giving to your family-documenting journey.  Even, beautiful, glowing light that will show your child in the best light!