Make It Snow in Your Pictures

Do you love the look of winter? Here is a few creative ways to capture the beauty of snow in your pictures.

It was my daughter Lily's first time out in the snow and she loved it. We put two snow suits on her that day because it was so cold outside. She couldn't move so when we would lay her in the snow she would look like a star fish. As she was lying there I wrote her name in the snow and took her picture. Her name is going across the top of the picture with Lily lying there in the snow. You could use this same idea with sand, chalk, paper and crayons and many other ways too.

Try to get some action shots. I wanted to always remember Lily being pulled around in her tiny sled by her Daddy, Justin. So I set my camera to sports, which lets you take many pictures at one time and I chose the photo that showed that he was pulling her.I think it came out looking like a Christmas card.

Lily always loves looking out the window at the snow. She reaches out and touches the window as if she could catch the falling flakes. This is a good way to capture the snow even while staying in your warm house.

If you are not the kind of person who wants to go brave the snow to get these pictures, open your window and get them that way. Make sure to put up your screen to get a clear picture. Night time snow pictures are always cool. Try setting your camera on a TriPod or steady surface to get them nice and clear. I did this for my grandmothers house. She lives right next door to me so I opened the window and got a great picture.

If you don't have snow where you live? Make it. I hung a sparkly blue cloth for my background then put down some white Christmas lights. I then put some fake snow on top of those lights. I say lily in them with her favorite winter hat and the picture came out looking great. Its one of my all time favorites of her.

Catching the Christmas Spirit In Your Pictures

When you are taking pictures on Christmas day make sure to capture the candid moments, those are the ones that pass so quickly but make the holidays so special. In this article I'll tell you how I caught the moments that are precious to me.

Justin and I have two great nephews and one awesome niece. Justin would spend so much time playing with all of them and they all really love him. Now that Lily is here he can't spend too much time with them. I captured the moment when all of them are looking up at him and Lily is looking down at her cousins. I think the picture shows how much the kids love there Uncle Justin and how much Justin and Lily love them.

I tried so hard to keep Lily away from grabbing the Christmas tree ornaments this year. She really wanted to eat the small gold bells. Even when I took them off the tree she would grab my leg and try to climb me for them. I thought It was adorable so I asked Justin to take our picture. I love how little she looks in it and she is obviously mesmerized by the small bell. You can tell I'm getting a kick out of it kind of like fishing for a baby.

Lily's cousin Elizabeth is two years older than her but they still love to play together. On Christmas they were unwrapping gifts together and Lily was crawling around after Elizabeth. They had so many new toys to play with even a new kids play house but what did they show the most interest in? My Sister in law's new candle box. They sat there for so long just touching the plastic ruby and label on the top of the box . It was very cute.

My nephew Elijah is a great artist and was given some coloring books for Christmas this year. We we're all sitting around the dining room table tired and stuffed from dinner and there was Elijah so happy, just sitting there coloring his picture. I wanted to remember how dedicated he was to finishing that picture of a space ship and it came out great. These pictures were all taken with a Nikon D90.

Using A Simple Prop

Look up, look down and look all around. Chances are that there are props right in front of you that if included into your photos they could really make them pop.

My birthday is July 5th and because July 4th is a national holiday my family is almost always able to get together to celebrate. One year I was playing Frisbee with my niece and nephews. While trying to take a picture of my older brother he used the Frisbee as a face shield. That gave me the idea of getting a shot of everyone holding the Frisbee up as a mask.



I try to bring my daughter Lily outside at least twice a day. On a sunny day I had an umbrella to block her from the sun. My mom had the idea to use the rainbow umbrella as a background for the photo. So she helped me by holding the umbrella while I took some pictures. They came really out really cool.

On the day of my first practice photo shoot of a couple of friends. I had bought some roses for them to hold to add some romance to the pictures. When we were through we decided to have some fun with Lily. My friend Jill had her lie down in grass and then sprinkled the petals from the roses all around her. The contrast of the grass and all the colors of the rose petals really make her blue eyes pop.

The day finally came when I got my new camera, the Nikon D90. I was so excited I just had to go somewhere to try it out. My friend Daren suggested this small park that he knew about. At the park there was a green storage building where someone had spray painted "memories" on the side of it. I don't condone graffiti in any way but in this case it worked for my picture.