Family Photography How To

Time to hit the Reset Button and put your notions of Image Quality on Pause. In our everyday lives as photographers we prize sharpness, saturation, acutance and absence of aberration when we idealize the images we want to capture. Now it’s time to recognize that images that are blurred, smeared, warped and otherwise traumatized can be beautiful.

Lensbaby lenses produce images that are intentionally unsharp, because optical aberrations can be beautiful. In a word, a Lensbaby turns blur into bliss.

There are stories we tell to explain ourselves, to clarify who we are, and to account for why we are who we are. And no matter what the apparent subject of these stories, what they are always really about is the past. “The past is never dead,” William Faulkner said. “It’s not even past.”

Here are some tips for making the most of the fall color change, including five fun filters (the physical, screw-in kind). Scientifically, the leaves of deciduous trees lose their chlorophyll and reveal the reds, oranges and yellows that were hiding beneath the green. For me it’s like a kindergarten kid getting their first box of 64-color Crayolas—so many new colors and so little time.

The wife of photographer Phillip Haumesser had a simple request: “Take some more photos of our kids.” As you can see from these gorgeous images, Haumesser complied in grand fashion.

All Photos © Stacy Bratton

There's more to taking kid pictures than meets the eye--just ask Stacy Bratton. A sought-after photographer from Dallas, Texas, she specializes in photographing children ranging in age from newborns up to 12-year-olds. "My goal is to capture the magic of childhood," she says. Her portraits highlight children's...

Lynne Eodice is an accomplished writer/photographer and a popular contributor to Photographic magazine.

Pets are often important members of the family, and it's not unusual for a portrait to include the family dog, cat or parrot. Most animals have a very brief attention span, so plan to shoot for 10 minutes at a time, with breaks in between. Like children, pets are...