QuickStart Guide to Documenting Your Family: Task 5 - Reportage
There are some family events we always capture in a reportage mode: birthday parties, vacations, Christmas days. The less you personally participate in the event, the easier it is to capture it in a nice way. That is why most people hire photographers or ask friends to document some really important events, for example weddings.
Reportage is a very nice genre it combines action and portrait photography. The main idea of the reportage that everything and everyone is captured in a natural and spontaneous way. The story of your life per se!
So it is really worth it to start making family reportage or to master it if you have already started. The best way to practice is to make pictures of very common family events – for example Sunday breakfasts. You can chose something else but these should be activities in which all family members are taking part. In this way you can capture those events from different perspectives. And at some point the reportage itself will become a family activity!
There are really no strict rules. You just take the camera and go and capture what you see. With time you will learn to see some patterns of events, some cute little things everyone is doing in their very special way (licking sticky fingers, making knights out of crumbles, hanging spoons on the nose etc).
The best part of the reportage is that this is your real chance to get into picture, because in order to capture the chosen event in its full glory everyone should be captured. You can ask your partner or your children who are 4+ to take a couple of pictures of you, when you are doing something (having breakfast).
You do not have to take many pictures at once. When you take them regularly you will have plenty of them and they will tell a wonderful story of the time you spent together.
This is the last part of my small guideline! I hope it was helpful and that you managed to take some nice pictures. I will be contacting you for feedback and I will be answering your questions.
I wish you great time taking pictures of your family!
We will stay in touch!
Reportage is a very nice genre it combines action and portrait photography. The main idea of the reportage that everything and everyone is captured in a natural and spontaneous way. The story of your life per se!
So it is really worth it to start making family reportage or to master it if you have already started. The best way to practice is to make pictures of very common family events – for example Sunday breakfasts. You can chose something else but these should be activities in which all family members are taking part. In this way you can capture those events from different perspectives. And at some point the reportage itself will become a family activity!
There are really no strict rules. You just take the camera and go and capture what you see. With time you will learn to see some patterns of events, some cute little things everyone is doing in their very special way (licking sticky fingers, making knights out of crumbles, hanging spoons on the nose etc).
The best part of the reportage is that this is your real chance to get into picture, because in order to capture the chosen event in its full glory everyone should be captured. You can ask your partner or your children who are 4+ to take a couple of pictures of you, when you are doing something (having breakfast).
You do not have to take many pictures at once. When you take them regularly you will have plenty of them and they will tell a wonderful story of the time you spent together.
This is the last part of my small guideline! I hope it was helpful and that you managed to take some nice pictures. I will be contacting you for feedback and I will be answering your questions.
I wish you great time taking pictures of your family!
We will stay in touch!
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based in Geneva, working in Switzerland
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