Last week at Play! in Anaheim, I had the pleasure of listening to Tracey Clark talk about fun photography. She said a lot of good things, but the one thing that really stuck with me was her encouragement to get out of "snapshot mode."
"Snapshot mode," according to Tracey, is standing up straight, facing your subject and pulling your camera up in front of your face to take a picture. The result is an image of course, but not necessarily the "best" one possible and for sure not the most interesting. I had never heard such a catchy phrase for it, I know this in theory. When I am taking photos at my house I'm constantly getting out of snapshot mode. I'm standing on table or a chair. I'm laying on the floor looking up. I'm crouching to get on Ellerie's level. I'm holding my camera over my head or balancing it on a table. Or balancing it on the ground.
Yep. I'm super comfortable shooting my stuff and my people in my space. I know where the light is best and the ideal rooms for morning shots, afternoon shots and evening shots. I know which backgrounds are clean and what angles to work around. It's become second nature and I love the moments and memories that I capture in my space.
But outside the house, I need a lot of practice. I'm not nearly as comfortable as I would like to be getting my camera out and getting myself into different positions to take more interesting photos. Because I know the images I "want" aren't going to happen because it's awkward and feels like a hassle, I tend to keep my camera (even my iPhone!) stored when we're out and about.
Since January 20th feels like as good a day as any to set a resolution so I'm committing to less snapshot mode in the great outdoors starting now.
Thanks Tracey, for the motivation.
p.s. the photo at the top of this post was taken with the timercam app on my iPhone. My sweet subject, per usual, was more interested in the ticking countdown coming from the phone than her mama.
enJOY it 
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