I haven’t been doing many phtography tutorial style posts lately because they are incredibly time consuming, but I do have a simple little tip that can make a big difference for your photos.

So you’re out somewhere, and you want to take a picture. In this situation I wanted to take a picture of my new jogging stroller for a post I’m going to do on my 5K training. As with all of my pictures, the first thing I did was figure out where the light was coming from and how I wanted the light to be hitting my subject. This is what you should be doing as well!

I was out for a run, and when I grabbed my camera out of the stroller this was my perspective. It’s okay, and it shows the path where we run, but I felt like it was a little bit cluttered.

I thought it would be a prettier picture if I walked up the hill and framed the shot with Promontory Point in the background. I like that this shot really highlights the stroller and T1 (which is what I was trying to do by taking the picture).

A nice lady walked by as I was taking these and took a picture of me post-run with T1 looking grumpy in the stroller. I’m not sure he enjoys our runs…

So I tried rewarding him with some time at the park.

Here is another example of using perspective. I squatted down to be on his level. If you shoot down on babies all the time they look like midgets.

I got down on the ground with him for this one. You’ll look kind of crazy to passers-by, but who cares about them. It’s all about the pictures.

So when you’re out with the kids at the park, or on vacation, or hanging out with your girlfriends:

1. Look at where the light is coming from

2. Decide how you want the light to be hitting your subject

3. Move your body to make it happen!

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