Category — Guest Blog post

Name: Clair Bremner.

Position: Photographer, See Be Art Photography.

Clair is a natural light photographer specializing in candid, relaxed lifestyle portraits on location. Kids portraits, baby portraits, newborn portraits, toddler portraits, families portraits.
Based in Kilsyth but will travel Melbourne wide including all areas within one hour of CBD.

Hi, My name is Clair Bremner and I’m the owner of See Be Art in Melbourne.

I have been a professional photographer for over five years now and a scrap-booker for about four years. I’ve been asked to talk about the importance of photography in Scrapbooking and to also give a few tips on how to take better shots of your kids/family.

Unfortunately that is not an easy topic to cover in just a blog post LOL!! Photography is such a complex art form with so many different aspects that need to be taken into consideration. But that doesn’t mean you need to be a professional to create professional looking images. It’s more about what you photograph than how you photograph when it comes to scrapping.

Obviously I just adore the art of photography (otherwise I would bother making it my career), but what I love most is the ability to catch moments that happen in my own family on a day to day basis. I use to love sitting and looking through my childhood photo albums, and I think it is so important to capture these moments of childhood before they disappear and life becomes too serious.

The photos I like to scrap the most are the everyday moments. Sure it’s great to have a few perfect shots of your children looking adorable, but it is just as important to get shots of them looking not-so-perfect. Or even just chilling out doing the mundane things that make up every day life. And it’s those types of images that you don’t need a professional for. You can achieve them yourself by just stopping and looking around at your life and discovering what needs to be captured.

Don’t be afraid to step back and involve more of the surroundings when taking photos. It’s great to compare how small your child is against certain backdrops around your home or the location you happen to be in, like a door frame, on the couch or in their bed. I took on a project at the beginning of the year to take a photo a day for 30 days. It was a great challenge that really forced me o open my eyes and utilize what I had around me to help capture my children doing their own thing.

When composing your photos it is important to remember the rule of thirds (divide your image up into 9 squares and always compose the main subject into the division of one of those squares). However rules are meant to be broken. Try to alter the angle of your camera. Get down to their level or shoot them from above. Use the surroundings to frame the image and take the photo in an unexpected way. And if your game hand over the camera to your child and let them take the photos (obviously not recommended for expensive Digital SLR’s LOL).

The last point I’d like to make is that when photographing your own children, try not to put too much pressure on them. If you try to “set up” a shot too much or force them into a certain position or emotion you will all just walk away feeling frustrated and disappointed. Taking photos shouldn’t be about achieving the “perfect moment”. It should be about capturing your child’s real personality. If they are more shy and moody than outgoing then there is no point forcing them into doing something that they don’t normally do for the sake of a good photo. If you relax and let them do their own thing then the right moments will just happen on their own.

Thanks Clair!!

To see more of Clair’s scrapbooking head to her blog.

Name: Cassie Bellemore

Position: Assistant Editor Scrapbooking Memories, Australian Editor Creating Keepsakes

Coffee. Weet-bix. Cardstock. Articles. Blogs. Emails. What do all these have in common? They are all a part of my daily morning routine at Scrapbooking Memories magazine. Working for a scrapbooking magazine is fun, and very inspiring!

Being a part of Scrapbooking Memories means that I’m lucky enough to see hundreds of new layouts, products and techniques every week, so a lot of my personal inspiration comes from my work! I see what I like and don’t like and I try to incorporate these into my scrapping. I’ve always been a creative person and like to think that this comes through continually. Each day I am influenced by so many techniques, colours, designs and I can’t wait to get home and scrap.

My role varies from day to day administration tasks to writing and editing copy for the magazine, researching and writing editorial and features for magazine, organising photography shoots, writing media and press releases, organising monthly reader giveaway competitions with major clients and writing promotional copy for magazines. As well as coordinating monthly website updates and writing monthly e-newsletters for Scrapbooking Memorise, liaising and corresponding with corporate clients for relationship management, working closely with our sales and design team for the magazines to coordinate publicity campaigns, and liaising with clients, contributors and readers.

I am fortunate enough to represent Express Publications at national craft events, interacting with readers and being the face of the magazines. I also raise sponsorship dollars for annual Masters competition within Scrapbooking Memories, manage writing of advertising intros and business profiles, check proofs as they are designed by our graphic designer, undertake ad placement and assist in training new team members – phew! Then there is my role as Australian Editor of Creating Keepsakes which keeps me very busy!

Another fun thing I get to do is help coordinate our subscription campaigns. I love selecting packs that I know you are all going to love! Check them out at www.magstore.com.au! What I also love about working for Scrapbooking Memories is getting you readers into the mag! We’re always interested to hear from you; with any ideas, article suggestions or just your stories and happy snaps for our Community Scraps page! Make sure you drop us a line at editorial@scrapbookingmemories.com.au and chat to us!

I’m very lucky that I get to work with great people;

Above: SBM Staff; Me, Kristy and Sharryn

I’m also lucky I get to attend fun launches;

Above: Carrie Graham from HP at their heavenly launch (check out the view!)

And I get to let my hair down with my scrapping buddies;

Above: Cass (Glass), Mel (Kennedy), Lu (Benson), me, Leanne (Stamatellos) and Kristy (Evans) at dinner after the 2008 Australasian Scrapbook and Papercraft Convention.

And I’m lucky I get to meet international scrapping celebrities!

Above: Melissa Frances and I at our Scrapbooking Memories/PIXMA party 2008

All in all, I have a very good job and I’m so lucky to have it! Thanks to Kaisercraft for letting me tell you all a little about my day-to-day at SBM magazine, and happy scrapping! xxx