If you want to take some great family photographs this Christmas, why not try something a little different to the very standard ‘grinning-child-with-present’ shots that most people will capture with their ‘point-&-shoot’ cameras.

After all, how many times have we seen the harsh camera flash making people looked shocked and (let’s face it) quite unhealthy!

Here’s one idea for something a little more hand-made. The ‘recipe’ is below. :)

Recipe for the photo above…

Lighting:
- There’s no flash with this and it’s relying purely on the ambient in the room. This also means positioning them both where they’re not in the shade from the main light.
- The benefit of no flash is letting all the background light come through from the fire and Christmas tree to add to the scene.
- The ‘white balance’ setting on the camera allows a very warm kind of light to come through which matches the flavours of Christmas.

Composition:
- Obviously, the children are both positioned to allow the tree-lights and open-fire to set the background.
- A wide aperture (low ‘f’ number) was used to create that mushy out-of-focus background. This shallow ‘depth-of-field’ is important for the photograph but you don’t want it too out-of-focus back there or the colours merge into one and you’ll lose Christmas (shock!) :)
- To make the shot more interesting, they’re both looking straight to the camera with no smiles. This is a good way to encourage slightly older children into a photograph; you can tell them to look more like a rock-star and they’re more likely to buy into your ideas!

Why it’s different (summary):
1. No flash
2. Yummy out-of-focus background
3. ‘Cool’ expressions for kids

So this Christmas why not use some of that spare time to try some new styles of photographs. If nothing else, you’ll have lots of fun with it!

For more information on getting better photographs with your camera, visit www.bonjourphotography.com/training or email simon@bonjourphotography.com.

Being a wedding, portrait and event photographer in London and Hampshire means I have the chance to take some excellent photographs at some amazing venues such as St Martin-in-the-Fields in London, the Lanesborough Hotel on Hyde Park Corner and the University of Oxford.

But it also gives me the chance to photograph some incredible countries such as Singapore and India (two of my favourites from 2011) and capture some fantastic photographs with both colour and black and white photography.

So this year I want to know which photographs are your favourites. That’s why I’m asking you to give a rating to the photographs below which were all taken throughout 2011 – except for one which sneaked it from the end of 2010 (see if you can guess which one!)

What to do
Simple. Just look through the photographs below and give the ones you really like a 5-star rating. You can score each image between one and five stars, and you can choose to score as many (or as few) as you like.

Then just enter your name and email address in the two boxes underneath the set of photos for the chance to win a free portrait shoot.

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Now that you’ve scored your favourite images, just enter you name and email address in the boxes below to be entered into the draw to win a free portrait shoot.

The winning entry for the competition will be pulled from a hat and broadcast here on this blog so you can see who the winner is.

Will it be you?!

Good luck with the competition!

I sent an email to friends and family last Friday which contained updates on being a photographer in Hampshire and London etc., but I included something quite fun. Right at the bottom of the email was a small section for people who made it all the way to the bottom.

It was called, ‘Congratulations for making it all the way,’ and I invited people to enter a competition by emailing me saying they’d done just that.

All that was needed was an email saying, “I made it all the way” and their entry in the competition was secure.

So last night, I threw all the names into a hat (literally) and pulled out a winner. On camera.

Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQJ53Wt9DDs

I was chuffed to bits when Gill asked me to photograph her birthday party in Yateley, but I was even more chuffed when she told me she wanted ‘photobooth’ style photography with her guests being a little, well, daft!

So that’s exactly what we did! Bring on the studio lights and funky backdrop and simply insert slightly whacky guests who are prepared to show how much fun the party was. Interesting that people were increasingly whacky as the evening wore on. Must have been a good bar!

Here’s a small selection. ## The whole set is can be viewed (and downloaded for free!) by clicking here: Photographs online here ##

Ta ta for now!