First Day of School

First day of First and Second Grade!!!

Every year on the first day of school I photograph a day in our life- not just my kids getting ready for the bus, but the whole day really. Because I still have kids at home during the day, and it’s their first day, too!

Looking through last year’s photos I got a little sad- not just because are amazingly A WHOLE YEAR OLDER- but also because even though I was home with the kids all day, you don’t see me in any of the photos. At all.

This year I was determined to remedy this!

(YUP, I took that picture MYSELF!!)

Taking a selfie with a fancy camera (in my case, a DSLR) is not easy, but it’s totally do-able.

1. First off, you need an intervalometer. Some cameras come with an intervalometer built in, but I had to purchase one (the one at the link). Basically this thing plugs into your camera and you set it up so that your camera takes pictures every X seconds for Y period of time.
2. Next, you need a sturdy tripod. Or any level tabletop would do, really. Because your camera needs to sit somewhere level and protected while taking pictures.
3. Set your camera’s exposure (or let it pick its own if you like) and switch focus into manual mode (unless you’ll be moving around and want to let your camera do this). Set your focus point.
4. Start the intervalometer and wait for it to start taking pictures!

Some cameras you can trigger with an app or external trigger button (like this), my own included. This allows you to trigger the photograph whenever you want, by pressing the button. But I find that the trigger is quirky; the camera might not fire if it isn’t pointing clearly at the infrared reader on your camera. And sometimes the button itself can become too obvious in the photograph. More importantly, it’s hard to be in the moment when you’re thinking about the best time to take a picture! So much easier to let the camera fire every few seconds and you can pick out the best couple of photos later.

Oh yeah, there’s one more way to get yourself in the photos… hand the camera off to your partner!!! 🙂

Anyway, on to my favorite photos from the day…