Capturing those Spooky Halloween Moments!

Whether your child is a scary ghoul, athletic player, princess, or superhero for Halloween, capturing all those Halloween moments is a must for any momarazzi!  Below are a few tips to help make the most of the photos you take.

When photographing your children in front of lighted Halloween decorations, consider NOT using your flash!  This way you will accurately capture the colors of the night with the decorative lights! Not enough light to truly capture your ghost or goblin's face? Then try a diffused light--an easy homemade way to do this is to simply hold an umbrella so the inside is angled towards your subjects and then shine a flashlight into the umbrella. The result should be to cast a soft glow towards the subjects--but the inside color of your umbrella can affect this.  Try it and see how it works for you.

In order to truly capture your child's face, try to avoid having him or her face the sunshine.  While we'd all like a beautiful, sunny day this weekend, cloudy days do tend to photograph our subjects the best!  Placing your child in the shade can do wonders!

Finally, consider carrying your camera while your children trick-or-treat and capture the moments while they are at your neighbors' doors.  Some may turn around and show you their amazement with the "treats" they've received--a magical moment that tells an amazing story of their experience!  In addition, look for those candid moments when your child is interacting with other children in costume--they may just act their part more fully to their friends!

Halloween party at my son's school in 4th grade...the last
party I was able to capture costumes in!

As my boys are now teens, they no longer enjoy the "trick-or-treat" experience--and I long for those memories of watching them excited about dressing up and heading out for their candy!  Capture your moments now, so you have stories to tell when they grown up!

Momarazzi vs. Professional

Technically, if you are a Momarazzi, you may not necessarily be a professional.  Your goal may be to make the most of the camera you have, to capture and preserve the memories of your young athlete, dancer, actor, etc.  As such, you may not have the technical knowledge a professional has...and yet, you want to own the right equipment to make your photos really stand out!

This momarazzi is always on the lookout for great resources--and recently I've found a fabulous website/blog that provides constant useful information for the non-technical photographer.  The topics vary from photographing food, patterns, action, and equipment--and there is always something interesting to learn!  For that reason, I am recommending PictureCorrect.  From his website/blog, Editor and Founder Richard Schneider states:
Hi, my name is Richard Schneider and I manage the day to day operations of this site. I became a photography enthusiast when I received my first digital camera and for many years I was constantly taking photos. I originally launched PictureCorrect back in 2003 as a photo editing service. With only a few customers, I decided to change the structure of the site into a blog full of tips and tutorials for photographers. Needless to say, it has come a long way since then…
[http://www.picturecorrect.com/about/]

The site's most recent post is "How To Choose a Digital SLR Lens", and author Ricky Davies has done a great job of really breaking down the SLR lens decision making process. I couldn't have provided better information than this...so please visit the post to learn more!!

You can subscribe to PictureCorrect, as well as follow it on Twitter!  Check them out--you will not be disappointed!!