His Memories Too
Brayden attended a birthday party a month ago and received a thank you card with a picture of all the kids that attended the party. He was so excited about that picture. He held onto it so tight and said, “Wow, my very own picture!”. I was so confused. There are pictures of him all over the entire house. Big pictures of him on every wall. When I asked him about it he said he’s never had his own picture before. That made me sad. I have hundreds of pictures, but he never sees them because they are boxed up and out of reach from grabby baby hands.
I made Brayden (and Kennedy too) a keepsake box from Mpix last year. I put ticket stubs, pictures, and little trinkets in it. I pulled it down from Brayden’s shelf so he can now reach it and look at it whenever he wants. It’s his own little treasure box. You can of course use a shoe box as well, but the Mpix boxes are way cuter.
By having his own little box of pictures he feels like the memories are his too. I love that. Because that is why I do what I do. That is why I document their lives. For me and for them.
August Camp Mom*tog Registration
What: Camp Mom*tog with DrewB and Julie Carson from Joy’s Hope
When: August 24 noon – whenever we are done
Where: Yorba Linda, CA
Cost: $375
There were two things we learned from the first Camp Mom*tog. 1) Take a group picture. How did we forget to take a group picture? And 2) We needed more time. 6 hours just wasn’t enough.
For this Camp Mom*tog we are going to go from 12 to whenever we are done. For those that have to leave because of nursing babies and prior obligations, we will be done with the crafting / photography around 7. But, for those that can stay we will be serving dinner and we will just have more time to chat and get to know each other. Because no one wanted that first Camp Mom*tog to end.
Please remember, this is a basic photography workshop with two awesome photography related crafts. If you are already shooting on manual this is not the workshop for you. If you are a professional photographer this is not the workshop for you. We will not be discussing any business related topics. What we will be discussing on the photographer side:
- The settings on your camera that you can set and forget.
- Aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and how they relate to one another.
- How to find the light.
- Shooting with good and bad light.
- How to tell a story with your images.
- And we will be putting all of the things we learn into practice with our real kid models. I show you both bad and good light and how I work with light to get my images to look the way they do.
In addition, you get access to both Julie and I in our private Facebook page. The Facebook page has been great for any questions that come up after you come home and start putting everything you learned into practice. And it helps us all just stay in touch 
To read reviews from past Camp Mom*tog attendees and to sign up click here! We would love to have you!
Lens Filters
A question that camp up on our private Camp Mom*tog Facebook page is “What’s a filter and why the heck do I need one?”.
If you bought a kit with your camera you may have received a few filters to go on your lens. A filter simply screws onto the front of your lens.
Some filters (like polarizing filters) will increase saturation making your blue skies really blue and your green grass really green. Warming and cooling filters will add yellow (warm) or blue (cool) to your images. I don’t use any of these filters so I can not share my experience with you. If you’d like to see examples of why you would use these filters and how they work this article explains it very well!
There are many different filters for different situations. But, the only filters I use on my lenses are UV filters. UV filters are supposed to block UV light. If you have too much UV light you could get a blue color cast on your image. However, with auto white balance that’s probably not too much of a problem with your DSLR.
I exclusively use UV filters to protect my lens. If you are like me you lost your lens cap long ago. With a UV filter on my lens my glass is always protected. Protected from scratches, protected from kids grimy hands, and protected if I were to drop it (at least the glass would be protected if I drop it).
When buying lens filters try to buy the best lens filter you can afford. You don’t want to put a $15 piece of glass over a lens that you paid much more for! My favorite brand is Hoya and I typically spend between $50 – $75 for my lens filters.
Filters come in all different sizes to fit your specific lens. It can be confusing to figure out which filter you need. What I do is go to B&H Photo and search the lens that I need a lens filter for. The UV filter will come up on the side under “filter”.
So I know for my 50 1.2 lens I need a 72mm filter. Now, that filter that they suggest isn’t necessarily what I want to buy. I then search “72mm Hoya UV filter” to figure out which one I want to purchase. Make sure it is a clear filter with no color or tint.
Happy shooting!
Oklahoma – Want To Help?
*** The winner is… Wendy W! Thank you everyone for your donations! Close to $1200 was donated by very giving Mom*togs!
We had a left over swag bag from Camp Mom*tog this weekend and when I woke up this morning I knew exactly what we should do with it.
When things like this happen I have a hard time not putting myself in their shoes. It’s just unthinkable and unimaginable and makes dealing with an earthquake every once in a while no big deal. I can’t do as much as I would like to help, but if we all come together we can make all of our small donations into a big one.
Ironically we have had a business trip / vacation to Oklahoma scheduled for tomorrow. I can’t help thinking that we could have been there yesterday if we would have decided to go early. Brayden keeps asking if there are tornados where we are going (he’s been freaked out by them ever since we read The Wizard of Oz). I thought there was no chance we would be there when there was a big storm. So even though we were thousands of miles away and even though we would have been safe if we would have been there, it still hits a little close to home.
The outside of the bag is cute just by itself, right? But wait until you see what’s in side.
Lisa Leonard “You Are” necklace
The current issue of Click magazine
Gift certificate for one camera strap from Knitty Bitties
Knitted Peter Pan collar from Katy Rae Knits
Ring from Purdy Burdy Handmade
AND
Julie also wanted to donate one of the crafts we made at Camp Mom*tog. It’s a super cute 16×20 wooden sign to hang your Instagram prints. Pictures of Julie’s cute kids not included. Because that would be weird.
There are two ways to enter:
1) Donate to the Red Cross
2) Donate to the Central Oklahoma Humane Society. Please designate your donation to the OK Humane Disaster Relief Fund.
For each $5 you donate your name will be entered into the drawing. So, if you donate $20 your name will be entered in 4 times.
Please email a confirmation of your donation to hello at momtog dot com. Put “Oklahoma” in the subject line. Only donations that have been made today can be submitted. Donations made before 5/21 will not be eligible. If you texted in your donation to the Red Cross just include a screen shot from your phone. Make sure the date is visible in that shot. All donations between 5/21 and 5/26 are eligible. The contest will end on Sunday, 5/26 at midnight Pacific time. Winner will be announced on Tuesday, 5/28.
*** Those outside of the US are welcome to enter, but you will be responsible for shipping costs.
Lots of love to all of you who have been affected.
The New UNposing Guide
You know when things get quiet around here I’m up to something. That something has been working on the new version of the UNposing Guide! It’s been over 3 1/2 years since it’s had a major overhaul. And I LOVE the changes. In addition to the updated actual UNposing Guide and client information sheet, there is also a new guide called “Beyond the UNposing Guide”, which explains the way I run my shoots and how I keep my clients happy. I’m so in love with all the new changes!
In an effort to thank the close to 900 of you who have bought and supported the UNposing Guide I have sent links to download the new version for free. It’s my little way of saying thank you! You have 7 days or 3 attempts to download the link. After that it will expire and there will be a $15 upgrade charge. I know several of you have already received it and some of you have not. If you did not receive the email here’s what you can do:
1) Check your junk mail.
2) Be sure you are checking the email account that is associated with your Paypal account.
3) If you email address has changed since you bought the guide, send an email to unposing@momtog.com and include your full name.
Be sure to send the email before Monday, April 15. That will be the last day I will send out the UNposing upgrade free of charge. Please, please, please do not send me emails asking for the free upgrade after April 15. And please be patient as I have to verify each purchase.
The new UNposing Guide will be available in the shop very shortly for those of you who have not purchased it!
Thank you again for your continued support! I hope you enjoy the update!
AND if you haven’t bought one yet, use the code “new” at checkout for a 50% off discount! Good until Friday, April 12 at midnight!
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