Flower Child Photos
Throughout July here at Nature For Kids I encouraged all of you to send in flower child photos. In response I got some great photos! All those who participated will receive a free Nature For Kids logo sticker. Take a look!
Sent in by Jennie / Pictured: Megan near Island Park, Idaho
Sent in by Kris / Pictured: Rosie in SLC, Utah
Sent in by Kris / Pictured: Rosie in SLC, Utah
Thanks for participating everyone! If you’re in the Utah area you might want to check out the Fish Creek/ Scofield area. There are some awesome flower field photo opportunities right off the side of the road. We went up there yesterday and were blown away by the fields of purple.
Directions:
If you’re heading south on Hwy 6 turn off at the rest stop that is about 30 miles from Spanish Fork. Stay on the dirt road that goes up behind the rest stop. This road will take you to the fish creek national recreation trail and then it loops around to Scofield reservoir. You’ll see the purple fields at spots along the way. It’s gorgeous!
If you have flower child photos to share it’s not too late. Send them in to shawna@natureforkids.net and I’ll post them here.
sticker, kids, flowers, children, flower child, photos
Photo Tips Part III
Lighting:
Understanding and using light in a photograph is difficult. I have three tips that I know of to make the light in your pictures look the most natural. Keep in mind, I’m still learning! 
Use Reflective Light: A good natural light to use that isn’t too overpowering is reflective light. Try to find an area where the sun is reflecting off of something like a wall. This picture was taken in an alleyway. The sun was not shining directly on me. It was being reflected from the opposite wall. Some photographers have large reflective boards that they use to manipulate the light where they want it. Keep an eye out for natural reflective light when taking pictures outside.
Open Shade: If you cannot find reflective light, open shade is second best. Open shade means you are in a shadow but very near open sky and light. It’s not so dark that your flash provides the only light. It’s just enough natural light to still have a great picture.
Sunrise/Sunset: As I mentioned in Part I of my outdoor photography tips, the light during the hours surrounding sunrise and sunset are the best.
Now get out there and take some pictures! You can submit your outdoor pictures to Nature For Kids and we’ll post them on the Your Stories page! Email me at shawna@natureforkids.net.
Photo Tips, Part II
In Part I of Outdoor Photography I talked about outdoor portraits. Now I’m going to talk about creative ways to arrange an outdoor subject in a photograph. There are 5 compositions we will cover. Quickly and Easily…I promise.
1. Leading Lines: Use a natural line to draw the eye to your subject. Some examples are bridges, stairs or rock walls. Trust me, when you start looking for these they’ll start popping out to you.
2. Natural Framing: This is kind of like the leading lines. You don’t notice them unless you’re looking for them. It can be anything from a big hat framing a face, an archway or a simple tree like I used here.
3. Bright colors: This is easy. Use a bright color to draw the eye straight to your subject. But be careful that the bright color doesn’t over-power the subject of the picture.
4. Unusual angle: Anyone can take a picture standing up. Get down…get DIRTY! 
Or get high. Or just angle your camera a different way. You can also take a subject and capture it a different way than usually expected…like I did here with Skadi’s shadow.
LAST ONE!
5. Rule of thirds: When looking through your lens, in your mind divide the image in the frame into three parts, horizontally and vertically. Where the lines intersect, that is where you should place your subject.
That’s it! Now that wasn’t so hard, now was it? I’ll be posting Part III (different types of light) tomorrow on Nature For Kids so keep an eye out!
Filed under education | Comment (0)Outdoor Photography Tips
Outdoor Portraits
Want to take better summer vacation pictures of your kids outdoors?! I just finished an outdoor photography class through the continuing education here at a local college. Here’s some quick tips.
Okay I’ll start out with the simple things I learned that are super effective!
*When taking a portrait shot (where your subject of the picture is a person) take the picture vertically instead of horizontally. This eliminates a lot of empty useless space from the picture.
Horizontal 
Vertical
*Photographers say there are two perfect times during the day to take a picture. They call it the “golden hours”. They are the hour before the sun comes up and an hour before the sun goes down. The lighting is perfect during these times.
*When taking a portrait picture outside have your subject between you and the sun. Use an on-camera flash (which all cameras have) 
to brighten the subjects face so there are no shadows. 
Angle the camera so the sun is not in the picture but so that it’s shining on the back of the subject, allowing a line of bright light to outline your subject. (Notice the line on the shoulders, top and side of head)
*Never take pictures during the middle of the day. Shadows are ugly and unflattering. The sun shines straight down casting shadows from brows, nose and chin.
Now if you think these were simple enough tips stay tuned for Part II at Nature For Kids. They are all really easy and will improve your photography skills …allowing family and friends to actually enjoy looking at this summer’s vacation pictures!
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