The Three Most Important Tips For Great Family Photographs!!

I am no great photographer, but I think the following photography tips are virtually priceless, seriously! :)

Rule Number One Of Family Photography -  Remember to take lots of photos!!

There are lots of posts I'd love to do for you, especially around the theme of Christmas, which has always been big in our family.  Unfortunately though, I am hampered because I've always been absolutely terrible at taking photos of what we do - whether when we were having fun, making, laughing, playing, going, or just living, etc. - we don't have all that many photos, and I wish we did!  (For example, I've catered dozens of weddings etc. over the years, and don't have a single photo of anything I've done.  I just never thought of it. )  So my first, very important tip is: Remember to take lots of photos!!

As the years pass we look back and often only clearly remember the times we have recorded on film.  Our photographs many times virtually become our memories!  Even if we do remember more than just that ourselves, it's difficult to share those times with others when we have no images to accompany our stories.  And when we go, those memories go too.

My excuses for not taking having many family photos...

1. At first photographs were expensive enough to get developed that we always thought twice about taking too many.  (That was back in the days of non-digital cameras, so doesn't apply anymore.)
2. My second excuse is that I was always having too much fun and in the thick of things to think about taking photos as we went.  I was too busy!  (If you are like this too, then you and I both should ask someone else in the family to take photos when we are too busy or don't want to do it ourselves.)

Rule Number Two - Make an effort to take good photos

Having lots of photos won't be so very wonderful if all you have is poor photographs.  Every photograph abides by the rules of Compose and Expose.  The Compose part is all about being careful what you photograph.  A photographer is like a director, making sure that all the right things and none of the wrong things are in the frame.  The Expose part of things is about getting to know the basics of photography along with the basic functions of your camera enough to take good photographs. Photoshop programs are great, but it's better and easier to get a good shot to begin with where you can.

Rule Number Three - Store your photos safely

When we finally bought a digital camera we tried to be better about taking more photos - of big family celebrations, family activities, all the great and small stuff in our lives, (especially after having been so bad at it!).  After about four or five years of this, our computer 'blew up' and took all of our photographs with it!  Nothing is left from that time in our lives.

This could happen to you too.  Are your photographs stored safely?  Perhaps by having copies of everything on discs, on a separate hard-drive, on another computer, or on a storage site for photographs?

Also, if you print your photos out, avoid them turning brown and yellow over the years by storing them carefully in acid-free albums or boxes.

When people are asked what they would save if they had to quickly escape a burning house, the most popular response is, 'our family photographs'.  Because they are irreplaceable!

(Just like our three children in these photos.  Irreplaceable :)  At least they do 'Take lots of photos!!')