We are going to chat about the setting of your photographs. The 'setting' for most people will be their home and all the rooms overflowing with warm memories and bursting with life. Now anyone that has children, especially toddlers, will understand the whirlwind of life. Some days (ahem most days) feel chaotic, a beautiful beautiful chaos! I'm a strong believer in capturing real, raw, authentic memories. So embrace that chaos! And the mess ;)

If you are creating a moment, and you have time up your sleeve, it can be handy to spend a moment clearing that mess so in your photographs the scene is uncluttered and the focus is on your people, no distractions. So move the brightly coloured waterbottle, clear the laundry pile off the bed, tidy up the kitchen bench.

But sometimes, we don't have the luxury of time, and we want to capture a moment unfolding before our eyes. If you want that uncluttered photo, play around the cropping in. This can be done when you are taking the photo by moving yourself closer or by zooming. Or by editing afterwards. One thing to keep in mind, zooming and cropping afterwards will reduce the image quality. I have popped an example above of the kitchen - see the difference when we are cropped in closer to mama and her babes? (I also used the flowers to sneakily hide the toys!)

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Our second part today is all about people! When photographing others we need to tune into them, their emotions and how they feel in that moment. We want them to be comfortable and confident, which we can assist with by interacting and connecting with them and encouraging them to do so with you and anyone else in the photographs. There's some tips below to help with fostering warm connection.

By interacting and connecting, you can also illicit feeling into your photographs - but more on this in week 4!

But what about when you see a moment unfolding that you want to capture but you don't want to interrupt? Maybe mama is snuggling babe in the rocking chair or the kids are playing blocks in the playroom. This is an exception to the above guide around interacting and connecting directly with them. We can pull out our phones and capture the magic as it is, without communicating with the kids or mama. Sometimes those candid moments will develop into interaction though, as you gently encourage movement and connection between them and with you/the camera. Like prompting mama to tuck the hair behind her ear and breathe in the newborn smell. Or asking the children to build the tower higher to see who can get the highest before it topples over.