I came across this excellent article on MCP’s blog on how to connect with children and  it’s just too good not to share.  I think there’s something in there for everyone, whether you have a point and shoot or are a photo professional – getting a baby or toddler’s attention is one of the most challenging aspects of children’s portraiture. I’m not a bubbly silly baby person by nature, so I take all the help I can get!!

Another tip I came across on a mommy photography message board recently is to get a feather duster with a long handle like this one so you or an “assistant” can tickle baby and still stay out of the frame.

Norpro 48-Inch Lambswool Duster

It’s really big! But super soft, and because it’s 100% lambswool, I wouldn’t worry about tickling even a little baby’s face with it. Mine came yesterday- I’ll let you k now how it goes.

Speaking of messageboards, I have a lot of people ask me about which ones I frequent and what the differences are.  Here are three great ones, pros and cons of each:

1 ) Ilovephotography.com – you have to register and login to read this board, but there is just TONS of information in the form of tutorials, group projects, critiques, and a the famouse “share a square” board where you can get great templates, brushes and other free designs.  They also have a buy/sell forum where you can score some great deals on used photo equipment (that’s where I got my Tamron lens and speedlite!).   The board is divided up into a “JSO” – Just Starting Out section and then two hidden sections for members who are accepted to “pre-pro” and “pro”. It’s VERY hard to get accepted even to pre-pro. Which brings me to my next point about ILP, the standards there are higher than anyone else on the internet in that the critiques are very no holds barred, which is great if you REALLY want to learn as opposed to just get a pat on the back about how great your photo is!  As one internet friend of mine put it recently “ILP exists on it’s own plane where even God himself couldn’t take a great picture” (LOL!).  Personally, I like the HHCC (hard hat constructive criticism) that I get on my photos when I post them there for critique. I feel I learned so much in a short time from all of the people there.  One negative (depending on how you look at it) is that you are not allowed to discuss ANY thing biz related on the JSO forums, so if you have not applied to prepro and been accepted, you won’t be able to get info about starting a photography biz.  Which brings me to why I joined the next board:

2) Clicknmoms –  this is a paid membership site ($8 a month via paypal) and the first couple times I saw the banner ad on other people’s sites I was kind of turned off by it because I thought it was some sort of weird multilevel marketing scheme! In fact, if you click through the link I just gave you or from the banner on the top right of my site I will get a big fat $1.60 (ka-CHING!)  But after realizing that I needed somewhere to network with other photogs and find out more about the ins and outs of actually CHARGING people and marketing etc, I decided to join for one month and see how it went.. and I’m still there! It’s a much more supportive environment than ILP, both in a good and bad way. Good if you want a bit more hand holding, but I’ve seen some things posted like “look at my new promo card, what do you think?” that looked like they were designed in microsoft word by a 6th grader and people were like “I LOVE it!”  Personally, I’d rather people told me the truth about what they think (which I can always trust ILP for) but I guess everyone is a bit different.  Overall, I really like being a member of both sites.

3) Two Peas this is the only one that you can read through all the messages without having to sign up or be a member. Between CM and ILP I have more than enough to read so I haven’t actually spent much time on this board, but I know tons of people who do which is why I wanted to include it here. Maybe any of you that frequent it can fill us in on the pros and cons.

People ask me often what book I recommend for learning about digital photography, but I have to say that I learned pretty much everything I know from these message boards!

Filed under: Photography Links by ariana
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