what I would change

Real quick since so many asked yesterday….places to find cute tape:

Craft sections at most stores now. I’ve seen tape in the dollar bins at Micheals, at Hobby Lobby, the Dollar store, etc. You can also find it by searching etsy and google. The more you buy at once online the better – saves shipping costs. This type of tape usually isn’t in the ‘tape’ section of stores. I tend to find it with the scrapbooking embellishments. A sweet reader living in China sent me some beautiful floral tape. I hope to find a little shop when we travel this summer. Maybe I’ll bring an extra suitcase to fill just with great tape!

Last week my boys found piles of ‘helicopters’ at my sister’s house. Well, most were actually in the road in front of her house. They filled a butterfly cage to the very top and we brought all those crazy things home. When they were ready, they set them soaring. This was a shot I got with my phone:

Two things about that shot drive me crazy.

1. My oldest’s hand cropped out.

2. My daughter’s hand cropped out.

In the SnapShop course, some students choose to share photos with me for a bit of feedback. Critiquing photos is both easy and hard for me. I can spot things I’d change, but I hate giving the idea that every photo I take follows all the things I teach those taking the course. The fact is many of my pictures have plenty of room for improvement. Though I share photo tips here and in the course, my own photos can always use tweaks too. I am a mom before I am a photographer. I get caught up in the moment and don’t think through all the little things that make a great photo. And just because the photo isn’t ‘technically’ great, I still keep them and share them here.

Sometimes it is easier to learn from others mistakes, so I thought I’d share a few things I would change on some of the following pictures if I could take them again.

I’d wait until he was not talking before I snapped this photo.

I like this one.

I would NOT crop out his feet.

Again with cropping the feet. There is no good reason to crop them out. They should be included.

I’d move my angle to either include more of her or crop her out completely.

I’d make sure she was in focus, he was cropped out or all the way in and I would not crop off her hand & feet.

I like this one. Some would say that is a bad crop on her, but I like it.

Again with cropping the feet. I’m not sure what I was thinking on all of this. I kind of like the younger brother only halfway in.

And again…I cropped the feet. I’d like the younger brother a bit more included or all the way out.

Lesley, we’ll need to come get more helicopters so I can try again!

So…a different kind of photo tip post….helpful for anyone?