When I was in high school, my grandma took my prom photo with her to China. There she had someone paint a portrait of me based on that picture. It was a pretty good representation, and I was reminded of it when I read Tiny Talker Lea’s previous post and I saw portraits from Paintyourlife.com. Take a look at some of their portraits, which are artistic takes on everyday photos. They can portray anything from your family to your pets, and the artists can do them in a variety of mediums such as oil, watercolor, pastel and pencil. A great idea would be to take the digital image of your new painting and use them in your child’s photo birthday invitation. The results look like a work of art!

By guest blogger: Rick Bucich

This is the third installment of brief tips which will help you take better photographs of babies. Seek out catch light in your baby’s eyes. Nothing makes a portrait come alive more than that sparkle. Take a close look at any good portraiture; you will likely see light reflected in their eyes. It is so important that professional photographers set up artificial lighting to achieve a small glimmer. Next time you’re visiting Carter’s website or store, check out their models, they do an exceptional job.

There are a few easy ways to achieve catch light in your photos. The easiest would be to have a natural light source. For my son Jack, I propped him up facing a large window that receives indirect sunlight and then get between him and the window. The light from the window illuminates his face, avoiding harsh shadows and provides that extra sparkle that sets the photo apart; see the sample photo of my son.

An alternative would be to use the flash on your camera. Even in a well lit room, a flash may be helpful. By turning down the power of the flash using the manual setting of the camera, you can create catch light and have the added benefit of eliminating some harsh shadows. If you have ventured into the realm of the external flash, you can really get creative; many have a bounce and/or swivel feature that allows you to aim the flash away from your subject. This allows the light to bounce and scatter throughout the room, creating a more natural effect.

I hope you have found some of this information useful. We really enjoy seeing your baby pictures improve with practice and technique!