Jen here with another First Year post, this time we are capturing baby facial expressions!

I come from a long line of facially expressive people.  It’s in my genes.  When I talk, my whole face tells the story.  My facial expressions have come in handy, such as during my years of performing on stage.  But other times, I find my facial expressions have gotten me in trouble.  I remember when I was in grade school and my mom would tell me to do the dreaded dishes.  Apparently, my facial expressions would speak loud and clear, revealing exactly what I was thinking.  HA!  (Sorry, Mom!)

So when Logan immediately began making a million different facial expressions, I knew that capturing her many faces would be high on my photography priority list throughout her first year.  They are some of my family’s favorite photos!  When I look at them, I often wonder what she’s thinking while she makes some of these faces.  In fact, Jason and I have had a lot of fun coming up with captions for the photos!

Me Ra has a great photo recipe in her book, Your Baby in Pictures, that explains exactly how to go about capturing baby facial expressions.  I followed the photo recipe this week and absolutely LOVED my results!  Here’s what I did…

Set-up

Logan is happiest and most expressive in the morning, so after she was fed and her diaper was changed – two very important things that contribute to any baby’s happiness! – we were ready to begin.

The living room has great natural light in the morning.  I moved our leather armchair toward our sliding glass door.  Logan is beginning to sit up on her own but still needs some propping up, so I put a few pillows around her to help keep her upright.

Compose

Since these photos are about Logan’s facial expressions, I zoomed in so that the details of her face filled a good portion of the frame.

DSLR Settings

I turned my camera to Aperture Priority mode.  The back of the chair that serves as the backdrop has a texture to it, and I wanted to make that less noticeable.  To do so, I kept my aperture low at f/2.8, which blurred the chair’s texture.  Because it was a little cloudy outside, my ISO needed a little boost to 400.  My shutter speed ended up being between 1/160 sec (160) and 1/200 sec (200).  I also set my camera to Continuous Shooting mode to help me capture Logan’s quick changing expressions.  I focused my camera on Logan’s eyes, and the fun began!

I just love these images of my little girl of many faces…and I love this photo recipe!  I will be using it often!

Now it’s your turn to start capturing baby facial expressions!  Me Ra and I would LOVE to see the images you capture!  Try this photo recipe for yourself and post your favorite image to Me Ra’s Facebook page. We can’t wait to see your expressive little one!

First Year Cheers!

Jen