Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

Brie and I were hanging out by the poolside at a friend’s condo, enjoying the nice late afternoon breeze, while the two older ones had fun in the waters.

I sat back, looked up and saw two condo buildings towering right above me.

And right at that moment, I thought ‘Hmm, how nice it’d be if I can get a shot of Brie high up in the air with those buildings in the background!’

But then, there’s no one around to help me take the shot!

So I experimented with my Canon Powershot S90 and its timer, and hey hey hey … I GOT THEM!

Well, sort of.

It would’ve been perfect if Brie’s full legs are in the frame too! Haha.
(A wider lens would definitely help!)

Anyway, if you happen to be in a similar situation and you’re thinking of experimenting with this kind of shot, this was what I did:

1) Set the timer and no. of shots

On my Canon S90, I set the timer to 5 seconds and for it to fire 5 shots. This way, I could get 5 shots each time I lifted Brie up in the air (Trust me, it helps when you have this feature because it means you don’t have to keep lifting the heavy baby up for every single shot!)

2) Lean back, bend knees, put baby against bended thighs

3) Use one hand to press the shutter half way down while it focuses on baby, then press the shutter all the way, quickly put the camera down facing up (I placed my camera on my tummy)




4) Then lift baby up with both hands as fast as you can and position baby above the camera (well, you need to roughly guess where you should position the baby =)

5) Check results, and take the shots again (hopefully better ones the next time round =)

…

I must say, it was quite tricky getting those two shots!

The first five shots I got were of Brie’s legs. Yes, only her legs up in the air!

I got Brie’s head and body in the next five, BUT not all her legs were in the frame. So I wasn’t thoroughly satisfied.

In the next five shots, she’s out of focus. Gee.

By then, I decided to stop with the experiments.

(Any more ‘baby lifting while adjusting the camera’ could result in muscle and wrist pain for my case, you see, haha)

…

Will probably do it again with a DSLR and a wider lens next time!

Um, actually, getting SOMEONE ELSE to shoot while I lift Brie up would be a better option =)