Include candid family photos in your album

Digital cameras allow you to keep shooting until you get that precious shot that captures the real essence of those nearest and dearest to you. You don't need to worry about wasting film any more!

If you are anything like me, you always have a camera in your hand at family functions.

In fact my family are so used to seeing me with a camera that they would be surprised if I turned up anywhere without one. At my sister's wedding it was automatically assumed that I would be so equipped and on arriving I was told I was the official photographer!

But don't limit yourself to only taking group photos at family weddings, christenings and parties.
Capturing those everyday events are just as important. Looking back at these candid family photos in years to come will transport you back in time and remind you of the persons real character, that a posed professional portrait doesn't always capture.

Tips for taking natural looking candid family photos

They will make silly faces when they see you with a camera or get all self concious.

Take the picture on the left, for example, of my sister who caught me pointing my camera in her direction. Not the most flattering shot I think you will agree?

Ah, but I had a plan! The camera was out and visible, with the odd shot being taken without the expecation of getting any good pictures at this point.

I was just getting her used to the camera being there.

After a number of useless shots like this, she began to relax and ignore me and my annoying piece of equipment.

Then I started to get some more natural portraits.

On occasions I even set a small aperture and manually focused on something the same distance away, before turning the camera back in her direction.

But I didn't lift the camera to my eye to take the photos. Instead I hung it around my neck, and positioned my finger on the shutter, then looked in the opposite direction and just casually pressed the button.

For the shot above I had to straighten the photo in my photo editing software and then crop it. Allowing extra space around the subject when taking the shot is useful here, as after rotating the picture your cropped photo will be smaller and you don't want to cut off important parts!

As your subject gets more used to the camera you won't have to hide the fact that you are photographing them.

Familiarity breeds contempt as the saying goes.

They will eventually ignore the camera and act naturally enabling you to take candid family photos to be proud of.

Staying unobtrusive

In these situations you will achieve better results if you sit back from any action and use your zoom lens to get you closer.

This can be especially important when photographing your children at play. If they become aware that you are taking photographs they may stop what they were doing spoiling any chance of getting the shot.
The next photo shows my grandson being lifted in the air by his father. By standing back and observing the fun, it was possible to get a fun photo showing his wonderful expression as he got a birds eye view of the world.

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