Newspapers / The Echo (Pisgah Forest, … / May 1, 1953, edition 1 / Page 12
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Your baby in pictures is such an important part of family life that he deserves frequent use of your V'fry best snapshooting skills. To do justice to baby, you have to keep the camera busy, especially in the first two years. They change so rapidly that you can’t let much time pass without taking pictures or you will miss some of the things you'd like most to remember. Pictures of baby propped up against a pillow or in the corner of a chair are all right once in awhile, but if the pose is repeated too often the picture record is going to be one of how baby looked when having his picture taken at different ages. Make your baby pictures a record of the things baby does. Each newly acquired skill is worth a snapshot that’s fun to have now and wonderful for remembering in the years to come. Baby eating, bathing, crawling, laughing, cry ing, and playing all make good pictures. When he’s very young, he’s naturally dependent so you can very logically work mother or another adult into the picture. As he grows older, and does more things for himself, he’ll star more often in a solo role. The best way to take baby pictures indoors is with photoflash since practically all modern cam eras, even the most simple ones, are equipped for flash attachments. This means that you can shoot any time of day, any place in the house, and on the spur of the moment. As an extra advantage, the speed of flash is fast enough to stop any nor mal movement. Thus, if baby suddenly waves at you, the hand will be "stopped” in midair, not blurred. Baby isn’t tired by waiting for you to set up lights, and you aren’t running the risk of missing the picture when it’s happening. Babies are given to many moods, and they change rapid ly, whether you’re ready or not. Carriages, play pens, blankets on the lawn are familiar settings for outdoor picture taking. On YOUR BABY IN PICTURES the whole you proceed just as you would for any outdoor snapshooting, but it is a good idea to give special attention to the angle from which you are shooting and the distance. Baby is a rather small subject and it is easy to lose him in a maze of background. With a close-up attachment, you can move in to within 42 inches of the baby with even the simplest camera. Otherwise, just move in as close as your camera permits. Then if the baby seems too small, you can have your photo finisher enlarge just that part of the picture. Check your camera angle carefully. A high cam era position represents an adult point of view; a low camera position shows things the way baby sees them. Don’t be afraid to get down on your knees, if necessary. Looking down on baby tends to minimize him and that’s certainly the last thing you want to do. When it comes to backgrounds, indoors or out, simplicity is the best rule. So, look behind the baby as well as at him when composing your pic ture. That way you can avoid distracting elements which would take attention from your important subject. If circumstances make this difficult, cre ate a simple background by draping a blanket or sheet over the edge of a table or the back of a chair. Many times two people are better than one when baby pictures are being made. You need one to take the picture, the other to amuse and entertain the subject. The second person can make noises to attract baby’s smile in the direction of the camera or present a favorite toy at the ap propriate time to bring a happy, expectant ex pression. A trick you might borrow from professional photographers is giving baby a piece of sticky cellophane tape. This almost inevitably repro duces an interested study of fingers which imme diately become entangled, and the result is a good picture. 10
The Echo (Pisgah Forest, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
May 1, 1953, edition 1
12
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