How to Buy a Book on Baby Photography from Amazon

A Comprehensive Guide

1. Make sure both boys are taking naps and sleeping at the same time (please do not skip this step).
2. Follow the link on the ILP homepage on "Baby Portrait Photography" to http://www.amazon.com/
3. Quickly acess there are 195 results and start reading the titles at the top.
4. Click on several of the titles; read some of the customer reviews, peek inside the books, and read Amazon's suggestions for other related books.
5. Repeat step 4 ad nauseum (spend at least 1/2 hour doing so, as circumstances permit).
6. Return to the top and sort your 195 results on Baby Portrait Photography by "Bestselling".
7. Repeat step 4.
8. Return to the top and sort your 195 results by "Avg. Customer Review".
9. Repeat step 4.
10. Place 2 or 3 titles in the shopping cart, due to time constraints (you can hear younger boy stirring awake).
11. Click on your title selections, read some customer reviews and peek inside the books, just to make sure.
12. Save your selections in the shopping cart for later (younger boy now awake).

Editor's note: You may find Amazon's feature "Most Helpful Customer Reviews" will slightly add to your confusion and indecision as to which title to buy, as did the author.

Study in Black & White

I've been trying to be more creative with composition since my photos are all starting to look the same. Sometimes I find my 50mm 1.8 Nikkor lens a bit tight to get some angles, but I think the reason lies with our house being so small- it's hard to have the room to back up and get the shot.
I'm also making an effort to 'embrace the background' instead of resorting to the stand and seamless paper.

About the shot: it was taken on Sunday, the 27th, and it was merely for practice. The sun was setting fast and R. wanted to play with Lego's. I did manage to get this one, but I didn't like it in color. After reading the tutorial on black&white conversions on ilovephotography (ILP for short), I decide to give it a try. ILP also had instructions for a 'chocolate' conversion, and I think I like this one better, it has a very vintage, almost timeless, feeling.

My Little Girl

(Jan. 14)


(Jan. 25)

Yes, I know, she's not so little anymore. She'll be 9 in May, and she's growing up too fast.

She's a willing model and likes to sit for me, so what more can I ask?

Just an Ordinary Morning

I love this photo of J. I took it on the 9th of this month, just an ordinary day, like most of our days.

Technically, it's not a good photo, and I had to correct the color (and not very successfully), but it shows him as he is right now: 2 years and 3 months old (so independent!), eating his favorite breakfast (a bowl of grits), using his favorite spoon (an old orange measuring spoon), with his favorite place mat (dinosaurs), wearing the bib that we dragged everywhere during our Portugal trip in '06.

The Knit Hat

When I have some time, I visit ilovephotography.com. For me, it's a good way to learn from reading other people's posts and photographic mistakes.

I noticed some photos with babies and children wearing these knit hats with ear flaps, some really cute. I even contemplated buying one for I. and one for J. And then I decided to save the money because I actually knit.

In the past few years I've only knit when pregnant. First with J., in the summer of '05, and then with I., last summer. I usually don't have a lot of patience to knit big projects so I make hats and sweaters. I especially like to knit hats since they have a way to be done so fast.

Ironically, these baby boys of mine don't like to wear the hats that their mom so lovingly knit, but that didn't deter me from wanting to take a photo of I. wearing a knit hat.

I rummaged through my knitting containers and found this little blue hat I knit before I. was born. I bought the yarn at a local store, a very soft and plump chenille that I could not resist despite the price tag.

This past Monday I tried it on him and it fit snugly so I added the ear flaps. It took me a couple of tries to get them looking right, and they instantly transformed a boring little hat to something with a lot more personality.

Then I envisioned the perfect photo set up with I. wearing this cute ear-flap hat.

Today the light through the front window was bright enough when I picked up M. and R. from school so I enlisted their help (R. held I. so he wouldn't slide, and M. held the black felt) and this is what I got:

Sweet Little I.

Just a quick post to share this one:

(taken this morning)


(Same photo, tighter crop)

Isn't he so sweet?

A Brief History of the Cameras that I have owned, or How the Journey Began

Growing up, I remember that my parents owned cameras, fact attested by the pictures in the family albums. Being the typical Portuguese family that we were, we only took the camera out for family vacations, holidays and birthdays. The mundane was not worth photographing.
As I got older, I borrowed the camera more often, and so did my siblings.

I bought my first camera in July of 1990 in Madrid, España. I was there for the month with a scholarship, courtesy of my Spanish teacher. The camera cost me 2,000 PTAS. It was a Vivitar, black and compact, with a red shutter release button. It took surprisingly good pictures. I used it well during university and then on my mission.
I went looking for it, and much to my chagrin, I couldn't find it. I know I had it last year, tucked away in the back of my top dresser drawer, for sentimental reasons only. J kept taking it out to play so he either lost it, or I put it in a "safe" place, meaning it's as good as lost.

In 1998, when I returned from Portugal with M from visiting my family and friends, D had bought this little gem:

Fuji Advanced PhotoSystem: 3 photo sizes, zoom, red eye reduction, among other features, made it very appealing and easy to use. Of course, the main feature was the drop in cartridge- no more fussing with the film loading. It was also small and lightweight so I always carried it in the diaper bag, just in case.

In 2000 or 2001 (memory fails us, I'm afraid), D bought himself a new camera:


A real digital camera, with 2.0 megapixels! Very impressive!

I must confess I was intimidated and stubborn, and quite resisted this new technology, so I politely declined D's offers to use it for quite a while.

Eventually, I saw the advantages and started using it in 2004. Photo by photo, the Fuji was packed away.

In September of 2006 D and I had our 10th anniversary. He told me I was to choose a gift: a diamond ring or a digital slr camera (of which I had been talking about for some time).

A diamond ring? What am I to do with a diamond ring? It's not like I frequent places posh enough to strut it about; most likely will be shining the interior of my jewelery box, with an occasional trip to church.

You can guess what I chose.

First Photos

Here are some recent ones of the kids who are my only subjects for the time being.


Jan. 10th.



Jan. 12th.



Jan. 8th.


The following were taken yesterday, Jan. 19th. On Friday I went to Inkley's Camera and bought a Savage Port-a-Stand with a roll of 53" white seamless paper included (with the birthday money that my mom sent- Obrigada, Mãe!).

For the ones with the white background I used the white paper and for the ones with the black I clamped my black felt piece of fabric, just long enough to serve as backdrop. All with natural light from the front window and a reflector angled at their faces.

First time

I started this yesterday and I think it will still take me several more days until I have all this figured out.

My goal is to post a few pictures every week as I improve my photography skills. I also intend to get better at post processing with Adobe Photoshop CS. Of course, this will be as time permitting. I can't predict the unpredictable.

Sometimes I may feel the urge to post in Português, and it will be all right.