Remember being a kid and watching a big, soapy bubble descend on you? The shifting colors of pink and blue would move around the bubble as it floated closer and closer to you. And you hoped, you prayed, that you would be the one to pop it before anyone else did.

Bubble blowing brings the kid out in all of us. It is one of those activities that creates wonder and enchantment every time. And whether your baby is 9 months old or great grandma is playing too, wonder fills our eyes when that big bubble floats within our reach.

Here is a fun photo exercise to try with your kids or clients! All you need is a 99cent bottle of bubbles. Depending on how old your kids are you can either have them create the bubbles, or you can have a friend stand off to the side and blow them for you.

So many great variables for picture taking come into place when bubble blowing! Babies lift up their gaze, sometimes their hands, trying to touch the bubbles. Therefore you get this great light that fills their eyes. And for those of us who have older kids who are a little on the…well let’s call it…high energy, enthusiastic, don’t want to sit still side of life…bubble blowing/creating magically gets them to stand still. It’s amazing. The kids become so focused on creating the perfect bubble, you can finally catch a picture of them face on instead of their back end running away.

There are so many fun things to discuss with this image, and I get so excited, it’s hard to know where to start!

Let’s start with the choice of Shutter Speed. Sometimes the action, the movement of what’s happening, is the story I’m trying to tell. Freezing the action of kids playing with bubbles, babies learning to walk, your daughter running down a soccer field..these are all stories of movement. Having a faster shutter speed helps freeze the movement.

For the image above, my Shutter Speed was at 320th of a second. So that’s not super fast like 1000th of a second, but it’s fast enough to freeze the action. If you want to experiment with Shutter Speed try turning your dial to the Running Man icon. This setting is all about freezing a moment of action. Take a couple shots in different lighting situations like; the beach (your camera will probably shoot a really fast Shutter Speed b/c if it let’s too much light in, the image will be overexposed), the late afternoon (shutter speed will probably be slower than at the beach), and then sunset like the image above. Building an awareness of why your camera is picking the Shutter Speed that it is helps you understand what you want from an image.

Let’s talk about composition! As many of you know, I love, love, love the buttery blurred backgrounds. But sometimes a blurry background doesn’t enhance the story. If a blurry background isn’t enhancing my story, I consider giving the background more detail. Blurred backgrounds or detailed backgrounds have a little to do with aperture/fstops and also composition.

The yellow sunset over the water at my parent’s house was an irresistible background. I wanted to compose a shot where Pascaline and her bubbles were the focus of the story but the yellow sunset accentuated the story (along with her yellow dress). You would think that we had pre-planned this! But I promise we didn’t.

I was thinking about the thirds principle when I composed these shots. What third of my frame should the sunset be? What third should Pascaline be? What third should the bubbles fall into? There isn’t a right answer. It’s all about experimenting with different ways to compose and frame an image, and how the composition you choose shifts the story. Even choosing to make your image vertical shifts the story.

To have the detailed trees, island and water in the background, I bumped my aperture/fstop to a 6.3.

Pop quiz! Can anyone tell me what could have happened to the background if I brought my aperture/fstop way down to a 2.0?

I especially like this next one because Blaze came running through the background. You have to love it when life gives you those free bonuses!

The above shot also reveals another trick I used for these images. When I decided to make the sunset a part of the story for these pictures, I realized I needed Pascaline to be taller. So I had here stand on top of the plastic slide in grammie’s backyard. Getting some added height on her helped me position her body where I wanted it with the water and setting sun. It also got her above the tree line below. Remember, don’t be afraid to set yourself up for success if you have an idea that might make the shot even better. It’s about being creative, getting out of the box, having fun and trying all kinds of different things (before the kids catch on–of course ).

I especially love this one. I like how the composition turned out with Pascaline in the left third of the frame, her smile, her poise, and the sunset in the right third. Even the choice to clip the tree branches so that they poke in from the upper right hand corner makes the whole image more circular–pointing me back to her joy.

But this last one is my FAVORITE! Remember how we talked about the sense of wonder that lights up their face? Oh my goodness, this is the shot I was looking for.

I love the wonder and enchantment on her face.

Summary of the Photo Recipes are the following;

Aperture was up higher than I normally have it. My f/stop was a 6.3 for all of these shots.

Shutter Speed was 320th of a second. Not super fast, but fast enough to freeze the moment and make it crisp.

ISO was at 200. I tried to go as low as 100 (b/c the lower my ISO the better my color saturation) but I didn’t have enough light at sunset to be that low. So I bumped it up just a hair, and I had enough light.

Equipment: The camera body was the Sony A900 (my Lulu–remember, I like to name my cameras ). The lens was my workhorse lens–the 24-70mm, 2.8, Carl Zeiss.

Suggestions for taking Great Bubble Shots…

1. If your child is old enough have them blow/create the bubbles. If they aren’t old enough have someone blow bubbles behind your camera while you take the pictures.

2. Think about composition of not just the child’s face but the bubbles too. Where do you want every piece placed in your image? Don’t stress, but have fun with different angles or ideas.

3. For the sunset shots, you can do a couple different things. Most cameras have an automatic setting for shooting images at night. You could try putting your camera in that setting. Or you could try putting your camera in Shutter Speed mode and pick a Shutter Speed–anyone you want. If the child is too blurry from their movement, speed up your shutter speed. Remember, playing with it is the best way to learn. Try not to think of the Shutter Speed as numbers or fractions but instead crisp detail vs. blurred detail. If you want to jump the plank, you can try putting your camera in Manuel mode. We took these photos around 8pm. You could set your camera on the same settings I had and see what you come up with. Again, if your image is to dark/underexposed, slow down your Shutter Speed to let more light in. If your image is to bright, speed up your Shutter Speed to let less light in. It’s all about adding light and taking away light.

Here’s a random thought that might help Shutter Speed make more sense. You know how you tuck your kids in at night, and then you crack the door so a little bit of the hallway light comes in to their bedroom. Let’s make the bedroom door your Shutter Curtain. Depending on how fast you open the door to their bedroom changes how much light comes in. You can open and close the door fast and only a little light comes in. They may not even notice really and keep sleeping. Or you can slowly open their bedroom door (like Brian often does), let a whole lot of light in their room that wakes them up. That would be a slow Shutter Speed. Did that help anyone or am I on a tangent all alone?

I think Brian does the BEST job of explaining Shutter Speed as the nutty professor in our Beyond the Green Box DVD. Check it out if you haven’t already.

Okay, you better send me your results from this Bubble exercise! Email them to mera@merakoh.com!

p.s. I have to thank Brian for the first photo of that bubble with the blue sky. I was taking pictures of the kids, and he wanted the camera b/c an idea came to mind. And I gave him such a hard time b/c he was taking a picture of ONE BUBBLE?! Whatever! But then I see his shot, and I’m in love. How does he ever put up with me?

Not only does he take a great blue sky/bubble shot, but he reminds me that wonder can be captured without seeing their facial expression. He is the master at these types of shots.

Great shot babe! It’s a detail shot that captures it all.

xoxo, Me Ra

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

We are down to TWO spots left for the CONFIDENCE DC Photography Workshop for Women! CLICK HERE to read ALL the details, see the schedule and get your spot!

DEADLINE for the Vacation: Depth of Field Photo Contest is THIS FRIDAY!! July 31st! To enter your Vacation: Depth of Field image, read all the details by CLICKING HERE ! We’re excited to see what you enter! We’ve got some fun images coming in! If you’ve already read about this contest and know what type of picture to submit, go ahead and CLICK HERE so you ENTER TODAY!!!

Our Refuse to Say Cheese DVD series is continuing to grow, faster than we know what to do with! If you haven’t ordered your own copy yet, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box (They are BACK IN STOCK!! Yeah!!), our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the titles of your choice!