Hello to you all, Henriëtte here with the October photo challenge.
This months photo challenge will be a wee bit different than before; we had the challenge name changed to: A Matter of Snap and we have a guest photographer for the first time to give us some tips and explain our first challenge.  A big thank you to Ashley (One Happy Mama) for helping me out on this one! She chose to do “close ups”.
So without further ado here is Ashley:
Hey everyone! Ashley here (One Happy Mama) and I am totally honored to be a guest for the photo challenge at Scrap Matters this month!! I LOVE photography and was so excited when ScrapMatters asked me to do this!! I hope that I can share a little of what I’ve learned to help you make your own photos even better!!

My main interest and experience is in family portrait photography. I have a small side business that I love, but I get the most fulfillment from taking photos of my own children and being able to use them for my layouts!! One thing I can say about photography is that the ONLY way to improve is to take photos everyday!! My best friend and I started a photo-a-day blog and we talk regularly about how much we have improved just from forcing ourselves to pull out our cameras and do something! I take my point and shoot with me everywhere…to capture the things that I might otherwise miss. It has saved me on more than one occasion. The camera I use most often is a Canon Rebel xTi. It’s an excellent starter SLR and is now quite reasonably priced!! (Wish it was when I bought it!! LOL!) To say I love it is an understatement. I have such fun learning more about photography each day. I totally recommend the book Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson if you are interested in learning more about manual settings and the workings of a digital SLR. It’s an amazing book! I want to touch on just one aspect of photography for the challenge this month. Get close. That’s it. Look at these two photos. One is documenting the moment (a) and one is telling a story (b).

The difference is that in one I got up close. It really changes the look of a photo. You are able to focus more on the subject and less on the chaos in the background! It also gives a chance to catch bits and pieces of a subject that you might otherwise miss. Some of my most favorite photos are ones that are just part of a subject.

1. Don’t rely completely on your zoom lens. My point and shoot has a certain point in the zoom where I start losing quality in my photo. I prefer to use my feet and actually move closer than using the zoom. My favorite lens for my xTi is my fixed 50mm. The clarity is amazing. But it doesn’t zoom. So I move my body to zoom. It’s a good habit to be in. AND I’m always right in the action!

2. Get down low or stand directly above. Different angles create more drama and interest in a photo. I love to stand right over my kids, focus on their eyes and let the rest of their bodies fade out of focus. And I can almost always get some fun facial expressions!! Getting down on the ground (I routinely lay on my stomach in the grass or on the pavement to get the shot) creates images that tell a new story because we aren’t down that low on a regular basis. But kids are!!

3. Don’t feel like you have to get someone’s face in the photo to still have a good photo. I love the stories that I am able to tell, even when I only capture part of my subject’s body. The sample of my daughter’s legs in the pink skirt show her excitement, without seeing her face. It’s one of my top 10 images…

I hope that these ideas will help you to create beautiful photographs that will make your scrap pages even more fun! I can’t wait to see everyone’s photos of your subject up close!! And the main thing you must remember is that photography is meant to be enjoyable! Get out of your comfort zone and have a good time…your photos will show the energy and excitement you have!
Thank you so much Ashley and I love your pictures, just gorgeous! If you’d like to see some more of Ashley’s beautiful pictures be sure to visit her blog at: http://hopeandbelieve.blogspot.com/ .

Not only do we have a new name for the challenge; we also have some new rules and a new system for all challenges; it’s called “Matter of Scrap Challenges” and [URL=www.scrapmatters.com/forums/showthread.php?t=657)]here[/URL] you can read on how it will work.

How to play:
- Make a photo that has something to do with the subject, you can be as creative as you want. But the photo has to be a NEW photo taken specifically for this challenge.  Don’t just find a photo that will work - actually go out and TAKE a new photo for this challenge and put those tips to use ;)!
- There are three (!) points possible in the photo challenge:
1point for taking and posting the photo
1point if you scrap your photo and post your layout in the gallery
at the end of the month I will choose the winner; my personal favorite; out of all the entries and that winner gets an exta point
- You can submit as many pictures as you like, but there is still just one point to earn (so multiple photo’s don’t give multiple points)! This also count for LO’s.
- Be sure to post your photos and LO’s in the appropiate Matter of Snap gallery as well as make a post linking the photo to the forumpost.

Here is my go on the challenge:

And here are the fabelous entries from the ScrapMatters creative team:

littlehiccup (Mary)

sahlink (Krista)

Britt-ish Designs (Brittney)

And last but certainly not least the winner of last months challenge is Chel with this fabulous photo:

I love the bright pink and how it looks like sails on a ship.
Congrats Chel!!

Thanks for playing and keep those pictures coming!