I have to say, having twins people often say to me “I don’t know how you do it”.  Well, I take my hat off to this mom!  4 kids 5 and under, including a set of 9mo old twins.  I REALLY don’t know how they do it. But, they were such a fun family, and dad hung in there without griping even with the HIGH humidity heat.

Thank you Liz and Scott for allowing me to photograph your family!

Today I had the distinct pleasure of photographing a new little boy.  He is the sweetest thing…unless he is hungry (aren’t we all).  His mom (from my last maternity post) is adjusting well to having a little boy in the house, and his big sisters love him lots.  Thank you, Deborah, for allowing me to photograph your little boy.  He is just precious, and congratulations to your family!

I also want to thank my good friend Margie for helping me with this shoot.  She is visiting from Florida, and came with me.  It was nice having an extra pair of photographer eyes. Thank you Margie!  We are going to miss you when you leave tomorrow!

I hope everyone had a great 4th holiday!  We really enjoyed the day having a cookout with our neighbors, and then going to see our local fireworks.

I wanted to give you some tips on taking pictures of fireworks.

There are a couple of things you need to get good fireworks pictures.

1.  Someplace steady to set your camera

2.  A very slow shutter speed.  You will want it to stay open for several seconds. (hence the need for a steady place for the camera)

3.  If you can control the aperature on your camera, you want to set it to about f11.

If you aren’t using a tripod, find something steady to set your camera on.  This is important because with the slow shutter speed, you will get a LOT of movement if you try to hold the camera.

Once you hear the fireworks thump when it is fired, press your shutter gently.  You will need to work on the timing a little bit because you want the shutter speed to be long enough that it captures the blast of the fireworks and a bit of the trail.

With a bit of experimenting, you will be able to get some really neat shots.  Here are a few that I got last night.