Your Child in Pictures by Me Ra Koh

Dominique Book Review, Parenting and Kids Photography

Book Cover

Your Child in Pictures: The Parents’ Guide to Photographing Your Toddler and Child from Age One to Ten by Me Ra Koh is the 2nd photography book which I have read this month.

One of my goals this year is to improve on my photo taking skills and one of the areas in photography which I am concentrating on is taking portraits of the kids. This book certainly came in handy.

Divided into six chapters Me Ra goes through step by step what to look for and focus on while photographing kids in the specific age group. There are tip sheets based on how you should adjust your camera to get the best shot in the particular setting.

For each shot shown in the book Me Ra gives information about

1) When to take the shot

2) What preparation to do before taking the photo

3) The settings you should use on your Point & Shoot or DSLR camera

4) How to compose the picture

5) What to focus on while taking the picture.

My thoughts

My kids are currently 3, 7 and 9 so I zoomed in and focused on those chapters while reading the book. I love how easy reading this book is and that very practical and useful tips are given.

The photos that Me Ra takes look very natural and not over “posed” like those you see taken in a photo studio. She is able to capture the subjects in their element. I can see the timelessness in each shot and the shots featured in the book would certainly make great centerpieces in the family living room.

Reading her book gave me lots of ideas on how I should approach photographing my kids to capture their growing up years. I would certainly be in-cooperating what I learned from her book in my photography and improve on it.

With the photos that I will be taking my kids will be able to catch a better glimpse of how they spent their childhood and recall all the happy and memorable moments that they had experienced in time to come. This would certainly make the snapshots that I take all the more precious to them.

Grab your copy of Your Child in Pictures: The Parents’ Guide to Photographing Your Toddler and Child from Age One to Ten today.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review purposes. All opinions are 100% my own. This post has a compensation level of 3. Please visit Dominique’s Disclosure page for more information.

February 20, 2014

Writer’s Workshop: No Fuss Vacationing

Dominique Parenting and Kids, Thoughts mama kat's writers workshop, talkative thursday, travelling fuss free

A cool winter day in Japan on our last vacation

Going on vacations is something which I love to do. It is a great opportunity to explore new countries and soak in their language and culture. Getting away from city life here in Singapore and visiting the countryside is a great way of De-stressing and taking time off to relax and have fun. The best if that the holiday itinerary has been planned in advance and I need to do minimal to prepare for it (including the packing).

The kids and I are blessed as we are able to travel to many different places a year. Sometimes if time and finances permit we even go to several different places a year.

I embrace changes and new experiences and try to give my kids a chance to experience many different experiences. These experiences create memories and knowledge which they will carry through their live time.

Going on a vacation is much more then having fun and enjoying oneself. It is an opportunity that you give yourself and your child to deal with ad-hoc situations and tap on his/her ingenuity given the limited resources on hand while bonding with them.

Bring the kids overseas on vacation gives me a chance to let them experience first hand how different or similar their current lifestyle is as compared to kids living in that particular country we are visiting. It is also a chance for them to practice patience, understanding and learn more about themselves and other family members.

Before our trip to Japan last December, the boys and I borrowed a couple of books on Japan. We also surfed the internet to preview the places that we were visiting and planned our itinerary together.

I feel that it is absolutely important for the kids to be in-cooperated into the trip planning, execution and debriefing. It is a good opportunity for them to pick up different skills and learn more about teamwork.

I’m sure that every trip that you bring the kids along there is certainly a lot of planning to be done. This time around nearly 90% of the planning was done by the boys themselves while we adults only supervised them and gave minimal help along the way.

As we were traveling with the extended family the activities which the boys chose had to be suitable for the whole family. This itself posed quite a challenge for them.

They were given the following tasks to complete

1) Plan the day activities at the theme parks we were visiting.

They were to choose which ride to go on and which part of the theme park the most time effective way of going about so that we could cover the most ground and rides given the limited time we had. There had to be rides which everyone in the family can go on to or if we were going on different rides due to height or age restrictions alternative activities had to be planned for the party which had to sit out on the rides. The boys had to come up with a wet weather alternative plan too in anticipation of changes in weather.

(Skills covered- Time management, planning ahead, reasoning, map reading)

2) Pack their own bags

Each boy was given his own suitcase to bring along and they themselves were responsible for what they wanted or should bring along. A checklist was issued so that they could tick off the items while packing.

(skills learned- planning ahead, folding and packing, setting priorities)

3) Documenting our trip

Each boy was given his own camera and journal to record down his daily reflections while on holidays. He had to write down what he enjoyed/ disliked about the day’s activities with pictures that were taken. What had worked and what failed was noted so we could be better prepared for future trips.

(skills learned- composition writing, self-assessment, analysing)