pose

Four Tips for Shooting Awesome People Portraits

Amiyrah of 4 Hats and Frugal

In between sessions at Viewfinder Day, Serena, Amiyrah and I went outside for a quick photo shoot. I love taking portraits and every time I do, I am reminded why I love photography so much. We spent about twenty minutes shooting pictures of each other and sharing tips. When shooting other people, here are a few basic tips for capturing your subject at their best:

Catch them laughing. Do this and you know you will have a great shot. People who are laughing tend to be more relaxed and their pictures always look better. Get them laughing and you will have a great shoot.
Let them “fall into” their poses naturally. I always ask the person I am photographing to stand comfortably. When they do this, the posing does not look forced. Have them extend or slightly alter the pose for the most flattering shot.
Shoot in all kinds of light. When you have challenging lighting situations, make it work for you. The sun was at 1 p.m. when the ladies and I went out to shoot pictures. Instead of shying away from it, we embraced it. I had them stand in the shade and lots of light was coming through the tree they were standing under. I had them turn and shift their faces until the light was more of a highlight/accent before taking the picture. This gave the pictures a natural, artistic flare.
Enjoy the process. When you are shooting with other people, enjoy the process of sharing something you all enjoy. Photowalks and group shoots are a great way to learn and share what you know. After seeing how images looked with the prime lenses I was using, Serena now knows the next lens she is going to purchase for her camera. Amiyrah did not bring her big camera, but she was still able to glean information that helped her shoot great self-portraits with her smartphone.

Serena of Thrift Diving

Never stop learning or practicing your craft. It does not take a three hour shoot to create some amazing portraits. And, if you are open to learning something new, you will. Keep shooting and don’t forget to enjoy the process while capturing your moments.

Working on a Handstand, Flexibility and Fitness Update

I have a few fitness goals I would like to achieve by the end of the year.

Do a proper handstand.
Increase my flexibility.
Transform my body into a fat burning machine.

The handstand, while achievable, is a challenge, but one I am looking forward to practicing on a regular basis. On Instagram, there are numerous yoga challenges I have been participating in and each one of them offers up a different challenge daily. Some poses are easier than others and some I can not even attempt. If you are looking to start or get your yoga practice in order, you should definitely check out 30 Days of Yoga. It is one of the best things I have done for myself.

After doing my Revolt workouts, it is easier to stretch and practice the yoga poses. My body is already warm and it makes the stretches a lot easier. The handstands, on the other hand, offer one heck of a challenge for me. I remember doing handstands, cartwheels and all kinds of acrobatic moves when I was a wee girl. Now that I am older, I wonder how in the heck I did a lot of those things. I miss that flexibility big time now.

Now, for the update on the Revolt fitness plan, I am not losing pounds the way I thought I would, but I am losing fat and gaining muscle. The scale simply is not a reliable instrument for me when it comes to weight loss. Calipers and a plain measuring tape are my go to tools for taking measurements for body fat calculations.

I read something recently about it taking four weeks for you to notice changes, eight weeks for your family to notice changes and twelve weeks for everyone else to notice your weight changes. I’d say this is pretty darn accurate. Here’s to continued progress and success.