Guest Blogger....Mish Mashed Mama!

Today's guest blogger is Jess from Mish Mashed Mama. I always love taking a look at her projects and her photography. She has an amazing way of making you feel like you are right there with her subject and I find myself smiling right along with them. I'm so happy she decided to stop by today!

Hi!! I'm Jess, the blogger behind Mish Mashed Mama :) In addition to many other things, I am a mama to a 16 month old little big boy named Ezekiel (Zeke for short) & a photographer. I'm glad to be posting here while Carmella takes a well deserved break with her newest sweet one.

I specialize in natural light portrait photography. The usual suspects: happy families, adorable kiddos, glowing pregnant women, sleepy newborns, & people in looooooove.

BUT, I also love documenting the everyday life of my son in a creative way....turning the "ordinary" into something fun. Because I could talk all day and you probably don't want to listen to me ramble, I'll get to the point: Today I am here to share a few tips with you on how to improve the turnout of your everyday kid's photography.


1.Remember you don't need a fancy camera to take good pictures. The picture below was taken with my cell phone (later on I added the b&w effects). I know it sounds crazy but I don't feel like having my DSLR camera attached to my hip at all times and some pictures just can't wait.



2. Try different angles. Get on the floor, climb on a bench/chair/stool, use reflections. Step out of the box. ;)



3. Check your background. If you trying to take a nice portrait of your kiddo, a hundred cars or mass of buildings in the background are going to be a big distraction. Try an area of trees or a grassy open spot. Not much of an option? Try the "Portrait" mode on your camera, this should blur the background while focusing on your subject.



4. Improvise. See the pictures below? I randomly decided to take a mini session of Zeke one afternoon. You wanna know my secret? You know...how I did it? I set up a black fleece blanket over two kitchen chairs in front of our picture window. It worked so well, I did it a couple other times, too.



5. Play with effects. Sometimes they can give a photo just the right feel. My favorite website for photo editing? Picnik and there are several apps for phones such as Instagram & Little Photo.



6. Document the details. I don't mean just the little hands & feet of babies. I mean summer popsicles, leaf bottoms, & babies with dirty knees in diapers. These are the things that will trigger the memories down the road.

Thanks for stopping by!! I hope you find these tips helpful & inspiring to capture more of your little ones as they grow! :)

Thanks so much Jess! I really did learn so much and will putting all these tips to good use :) And, how cute is that sweet boy of yours?! Tell him we said thank you too!