Our neighborhood, Washington Heights, is tucked up on the northern tip of Manhattan and most of the time feels like a small town in this big city. One of my favorite annual events is the neighborhood’s Harvest Festival. Held every fall in Fort Tryon Park, this is a completely free event run by volunteers and sponsored by neighborhood businesses. This year I was asked to document the event, and I am so pleased to share some of the photos below.
This is the time of year to take stock of the good things. I am grateful for this neighborhood, for dear friends, and for loving family. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
Carrie Nichols is a lifestyle family photographer in New York City. Interested in booking a session? Contact her here.
A few days ago, I found myself flipping the calendar to August in disbelief. How is it August already?! Summer has flown by, and though the stores are full of back-to-school supplies, summer is not over yet. Many of us like to plan an end of summer vacation. If you have an August trip planned, be it to grandmas house or a week at the beach, you’ll want photos to remember it. Here are some tips to capture your vacation.
On every vacation, you have moments that you know you want to pull out a camera or phone and capture – the sunset over the bay, sandy toes, an afternoon at the playground. There will be plenty. Whether you’re looking out over the bluffs at that big, beautiful ocean, taking an electric boat out on the water and letting your kid take the wheel, or snuggling on Great-Grandma’s lap for an afternoon story, you might end up with a lot of these big moment photos. Rightly so. This is the stuff that vacations are made of.
Did you often play with shapes on the floor in your downtime? Did you end every day with your husband singing an adorable tooth brushing song? Did your kid ask to push the button that turns on the car every time you piled in to go somewhere? Take a picture of it. Don’t forget to capture these little things in addition to the bigger moments, because sometimes it is the little moments that are the most cherished.
Here’s one I’m working on myself. It’s easy to be the one taking all the photos and end up with an album full of pictures that look like your family took an awesome vacation (without you). Hand over your camera to another grown up (or even set up an auto-timer), and get in the frame. No matter that your legs are cut off or that the framing isn’t perfect – you were there, and you deserve the evidence.
If you are outside, find patches of shade from an overhanging playground structure or a group of trees or shoot early in the morning or late in the day when the sun is lower in the sky.
If you are inside, turn off all the lights and shoot next to the window or use a side table lamp to get dimensional light.
If you want your viewer to feel involved in the action while it’s happening, get down on your subject’s eye level.
If you want to give the impression that you are removed from the action and an observer, shoot from above.
For larger than life shots that make your subject seem big and powerful, shoot from below.
If you’re shooting waist up, keep the hands in.
If you want a close up of their ice cream covered smiling face, don’t worry about limb chops at all.
If you do want a picture that shows their whole body, make sure those toes are in the frame too!
