We are all at home but that doesn’t mean that life stops.  There are still birthdays, memorable moments (baby’s first steps) and even weddings to capture! This is the second of a series of posts with the goal to help folks at home take better photos on their phone. 

There are many ways to go about capturing beautiful images and I’m sharing one tip you can easily start incorporating today!

Composition noun com·po·si·tion \ˌkäm-pə-ˈzi-shən\ : the nature of something’s ingredients or constituents; the way in which a whole or mixture is made up.

In photography composition can be made up of a variety of elements including where the subject is in a photograph relative to everything else around it.  To keep it simple, my little nugget of information is this:

use composition to tell a story!

First let’s answer this question, what does good composition look like?

Here is my oversimplified answer.  When you look at the image do your eyes go right to your subject (the person or object who is the focus of your image)?  Does the image portray the subject as you viewed and felt it in that moment?  If so, then you are doing well!

Basic composition 101.  If you are taking a picture of someone, fill the frame with him or her!  Here is a basic example:

I love these images of my girls because I can really capture the emotions on those sweet faces and see their eyes, keeping other distractions in the image to a minimum.

Let’s consider another way to compose an image so we might tell a story!  My children are currently all under the age of five.  Sometimes when I look out to see the girls playing from a distance I take note of how small they are right now, especially in a larger space like a field for example.  To capture that emotion in an image I shoot with my subject small, not filling the frame but leaving lots of space.  Imagine, their tiny figures against the contrast of a large field or open sky which illustrates just how little they are.  By simply changing how the image is composed the images don’t just show you what something looked like but also share how you felt, transporting you back to a moment!

Here is an example in our bathroom, this current season of life is filled with baths, curiosity, pretend and play.  Notice how some images are close up to capture those details of little fingers, while others focus on the eyes (oh dear, with food on her face #reallife), or an expression with big arms in the air during play.  Each image alone is wonderful but the power of these images together tells a story!

I hope these images provide you with a little insight on ways you can get creative and capture life not just as it appears but as it feels, telling a story that transports you back to the moments that make up life!

Bonus: Styling a Session

How much should you style a shoot?  Well, that is up to you and how true to life you want something to feel vs. how editorial you want it to look!  For these images I did take down some art we had hung on the walls near the tub to provide a cleaner looking background but left the towel on the floor to help capture the essence of bath time with the kids!