Patch Pickin...

The craze that is 'visiting the pumpkin patch' seems to be a mix of the digital camera phenom, keeping up with the Facebookers, and every one's adoration for Fall.

Well whatever the reason behind it, I personally think it's GRAND.

We Mommas tend to plan all of these great adventures for our families and then get so wrapped up in trying to get great pictures that we forget to enjoy the festivities ourselves....

LIVE in the moment. Let the pictures be what you look back on years from now and be able to remember how wonderful the moment was.

This post is meant to (hopefully) give you tips, good ideas, and inspiration for your own patch pictures.

Vanzant's Fruit Farm in Lowell.

(Just google Vanzant's Fruit Farm to get directions and info.)

Not only does Van's have my absolute favorite set-ups for patch pictures, but they also have a pretty fabulous selection of apples and homemade fruit jams.. YUM (snag some while you're there.)

The above images were taken right on their front porch.

They have the cutest displays of mini gourds and pumpkins in wheel barrels and wagons.

It's personally my favorite patch if your goal is to get good pictures with good lighting.

And for you stay at home or day time Mommas, if you can go in the morning time during the week, its perfect. no crowds!

For all of you stressers out there, here is my suggestion on pumpkin patch pics...

Try setting the day up to go to two locations. First hit up somewhere like Vanzant's and concentrate specifically on pictures and getting backgrounds set just right for some great shots.

Next, head somewhere like Mcgarrah's Farms. Lots of kid activities and fun to be had there !

Take your camera or leave it behind at Mcgarrah's , either way.. but this way you can concentrate on the laughter and fun with your kiddos rather then worrying about the 'perfect' shots.

I love me some Mcgarrah's Farms but it has been my experience over the past five years that I do NOT get shots like these there...

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However, the kiddos love Mcgarrah's and that makes it worth the trip.

These are some oldies but goodies from Mcgarrah's Farms

(http://www.mcgarrahfarms.com/)

Hayrides, wheel barrel rides, cow train, corn maze etc etc ... love me some Mcgarrah's for the kid friendly activities.

You can get some fun action/candid pictures at a place like Mcgarrah's for sure. 

Kids always have natural great smiles when they are doing something fun like this, so what better time to try and snap a pic or two. My kids love to look back through scrapbooks or albums I've made and see themselves doing something fun. It's exciting to remember the fun times with them and hear their little versions of how the adventure went!

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This next little goody is located a little bit further South of the area.

(google Sequoyah United Methodist Church)

Honestly, I had not heard of this adorable little pumpkin patch until a customer of mine suggested we use it for a session for her girls. Once there I quickly realized its a little hidden gem!

For the tiny amount of space they have for this patch, they have really gone all out.

complete with adorable benches and steps for photo-ops, plenty of tiny pumpkins, rows of large pumpkins, and enough radio flyers to go around!

It wasn't crowded on this particular Sunday afternoon so we got some adorable shots of these two adorable little pumpkins.

and below, Mara is doing her thing and we're just letting her.

Just like every other toddler/big girl her age, she isn't interested in setting and posing so we

let her be active and put the pumpkins from the wagon to a stand and then back... and just tried to freeze frame her natural cuteness somewhere in between. Don't be afraid to move pumpkins around and place them where you need to in order to create your images. Not suggesting you rearrange for them, but a good patch shouldn't mind you moving a few pumpkins around to accommodate your kiddos.  

This would be a location like Vanzants.

 Pick a few pumpkins, great for pictures...

Precious little patch!

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Those are my pumpkin patch 'picks'... Just another fabulous reason to ADORE

FALL !

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If you have any ideas to go along with this feel free to comment or email us thoughts and pictures to:  mommasnaps@gmail.com

In my previous post I painted a couple of pumpkins for some fresh looking Fall pictures of my kiddo. I am still hoping to see someone take it to the extreme.

I'm waiting for it to show up on pinterest where someone has sat their baby girl in the middle of dozens of fab painted pumpkins of all colors and designs. turquoise, purple, yellow, whatever!

If I had the time and the money, oh there is no limits...

sigh

Cutie Little Pumpkin

Cutie Little Pumpkin

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Setting and thinking of our Fall decorations this year for our annual Halloween party and realized that plain orange pumpkins up against the color of hay was descriptive of Fall, yes, but bland on so many levels. That's when I pinterest searched some decorative pumpkin ideas and ran across the above picture.. (I have no idea how to give someone credit for this off of pinterest so for now I'll just copy and paste the image.) This image was one of hundreds that are available for your copy cat pleasure.... Pinterest clearly rocks!

So last weekend Jon and I bought some pumpkins and set out on our driveway and got to painting.. and Saturday morning we got up early and put our newly decorative props to work.

Other than buying the 3 orange pumpkins this photo op didn't cost a thing. We used paints we already had and the other 2 smaller pumpkins are plastic and we reuse each year.

I spray painted one yellow, and then went back over it with orange paint dots... well , those are supposed to be dots. :)

(disclaimer: drippy dots and non round circles... my trademark style when it comes to painting.)

 

We just picked a field close to our house. Makes for easy access to the location and toting the props.

We went early in the morning because our Saturday was full of other plans, but afternoon/evening lighting would be ideal for this set up.

People ask me often how I get Kellen to 'pose' for so many pictures... um, we don't.

We try hard to make it natural for him... Jon is good about getting him to laugh and sing.

Picture perfect poses would be wonderful, yes, but they are not realistic of any family or any child.

Just let the kiddo be themselves. If you take tons of pictures chances are you will get at least a few cute ones.. snap snap snap

 

And since we broke out the paints Friday night, Jon even painted this old bench for me.

I have used it a few times as a photo prop during sessions, but it needed a fun change.

(Think twice before throwing stuff out as junk.. could it be painted and used for a fun photo prop???)

ha

We decided why not mix the two.. after I got these home and went through them I realized how adorable this would be with even more colored pumpkins. some blue ones, red ones, striped blue and red ones.. Is there any limit to how over the top you can make scrapbook photo shoots ???

NOPE  

and just be mindful of tree placement if you work with a field like this one.. The trees in the back ground don't bother me at all, but I just have to make sure to use good placement so the tree trunk doesn't end up looking like a 5th limb protruding from the kiddo.. For me those are just basics of what I try to watch for in my viewfinder while shooting.

 

...and I love this picture. loved it in both color and black and white.

Natural expression on children truly is the best.

About 15 years ago I would have looked at this image and immediately critiqued the cut off feet and hand that is barely showing from the sleeve... but lets face it, rules have changed..

 this is classified as 'artsy' now 

and maybe I'm just a partial Momma to this cutie little boy but I happen to think this little pic 

ROCKS

:)

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 Nothing drives me crazier than when people have their pictures taken and you cant even see what color their eyes are because rather than seeing eye balls all you can see are black sunken in holes where eyes should be. Its caused by improper placement in sunlight or in some cases just the really tacky overuse of contrast in photo shop editing. It's a major pet peeve of mine and something I've had to work on over the years to improve in my own shooting.... now where was I going with that rant.... hmm.. lol 

The above and below pictures are from the same image taken. I always make it a point to take close-up shots on faces when I'm shooting, especially with kiddos, but they rarely set still and sometimes my close-ups don't turn out.. So in this case I cropped in to one of the images and created the close-up.

It's cropped and obviously photo shopped.

 I went a little loud on the brightness to really put the focus on his eyes and the expression on his sweet face. You do not have to have Lightroom software or the latest greatest etc etc to create fun images like this one.. I use CS5 now, but I started YEARS ago with a software I cant even remember the name of.. then it was Picasso to Photo shop Elements and now work with CS5. Whatever you have access to, just play with it. I believe there are some free photo shops online if you do a google search...

Learn to crop into your pictures. In this particular one, I cropped down and also slightly rocked it to the right a little. This helps with eye placement in pictures where the subject is not looking directly at the lens. I do this a lot with kids, like I said because they tend to move around so much that its hard to line up the background and props and placement etc etc. So rather than waste a great capture of the child, I play with it in photoshop and see what I can come up with.

The painted pumpkins are just a fun idea for kids.

My little guy is close to 2.5, but I a baby setting among some fun pumpkins clapping and smiling would be adorbs. even in your own back yard.

Who knew pumpkins could be so fun!

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Please feel free to comment or add your thoughts and ideas.

The point of this blog is to share ideas and a few tips along the way.

If you have an idea you'd like me to try or pictures you'd like to share

email them to me at mommasnaps@gmail.com

and I'll add them to the blog.

thanks for reading, have fun with your kiddos and your pictures!

:)