Transcript: Taking Photos of Your Twins

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Twin Talks
Taking Photos of Your Twins

[00:00:00]

Please be advised, this transcription was performed from a company independent of New Mommy Media, LLC. As such, translation was required which may alter the accuracy of the transcription.

[Theme Music]

MELANIE MONROE: You’ve seen those adorable pictures of twins holding hands and smiling at each other in bright clean colours. Are they professionally done or can you get similar results on your own? What can you do to take great photos of your twins? Do you need special equipment or props? I’m Melanie Monroe, family photographer and mom to twins. I’m here to share some tips and tricks for getting great photos of your twins. This is Twin Talks.

[Theme Music/Intro]

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Welcome to Twin Talks. Broadcasting from the birth education centre of San Diego. Twin talks is your weekly online on-the-go support group for expecting and new parents of twins. I’m your host Christine Stewart-Fitzgerald. Have you heard about the twin talks club?
Our members get bonus content after each new show plus special giveaways and discounts. Subscribe to our monthly twin talks newsletter and learn about the latest episodes available. Another way for you to stay connected is by downloading our free Twin Talks app. It’s available in the Android and iTunes marketplace. And before we get started, let’s take a moment and introduce ourselves. For those of us here in the room, I’ll start with myself.

So I’ve got identical girls who are just, they just turned five and we’re just starting kindergarten which is opening up a whole new world and I get to say, my girls, they, one of them lost her front tooth. It was pretty early, they lost their bottom teeth. Both of them, two the front bottom and one of them lost her, the top. And so, thankfully the top one was before the school pictures. And it was like, or I should say it was after, it was just after I think so.

So, but I mean I got these like very toothy smiles, it’s goofy and I’m like “oh it’s just so awkward looking for all the photos” so I almost want to wait you know before we do family photos but uhm. And I do have a singleton and she is just turned two years old. Brandi, how about you?

BRANDI WALLACE: Hi, my name is Brandi Wallace. I have two sets of twins. I have identical boys that just turned five and I have boy girl fraternal that are two.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: yes, close in age.

BRANDI WALLACE: Yes and I need lots of tips because it is like herding cats to get them to pose for a picture so help!

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Cooperation, what’s that? Oh my gosh.

SUNNY GAULT: And I’m Sunny. I’m producing today’s show and I’m the owner of new mommy media which produces this show as well as Parent Savers, Preggie Pals and The Boob Group. I have four children and my oldest is four, a boy.
My middle guy is two, another boy. And then I have identical twin girls who just turned one. And photographing any of them, oh my gosh we just had family photos yesterday for the holidays. And, oh my gosh, I mean I was trying to bribe them with candy canes like I don’t even know. I don’t know what these are going to turn out.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: And I mean and can you really bribe one year olds? I mean, how do you even do that?

SUNNY GAULT: No, you just make crazy noises and then usually that gets their attention.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: And Melanie, tell us about your family.

MELANIE MONROE: I have twin girls. They are going to be eight in January. They’re in second grade. And they’re a lot of fun. And I love having big kids. We’ve taken them skiing a couple of times which is awesome. It’s like, you know life is back to normal.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Wow normal.

SUNNY GAULT: What’s that?

BRANDI WALLACE: Don’t rub it in

[Theme Music]

SUNNY GAULT: Okay before we start today’s show, there’s a news headline that we want to talk about. You guys may have seen this online. The headline is separated at birth, reunited on Facebook. Which of course, Facebook, for connecting us twin parents is pretty awesome. But this is regarding twenty six year old sisters, didn’t even, they’re adopted, had no idea each other existed. One lives in Los Angeles, the other one I believe in is it Korea? Way far away, let’s just put it that way.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: France I think.

SUNNY GAULT: Oh France, I think you’re right. I think you’re right, it’s France. So still, way far away, separate countries. And the sister from France happened to be talking with a friend, whatever, and saw a screenshot of a YouTube video. And her friend was commenting, oh my gosh, this girl looks so much like you.
And so she basically ends up emailing this girl. Does a little bit of research. Finds out both girls are adopted out from the same area. And I think that’s in Korea. And decides to reach out to her on Facebook, you know, it’s so funny, I’m lying. If you look this up, you can actually see the first email that she sent which can you imagine someone looking exactly like you contacting you. I mean like “uhm I don’t know if we’re related but we look alike, were both adopted”

They did DNA testing, found out that they are identical twins. And the article that I’m looking at didn’t have much information about why. You know, this information was disclosed but you know I mean they are twenty six years old so maybe the adoptive practices you know didn’t reveal that information back then.

I’m not really sure how it ended up. But the nice thing is that they still live in their respective countries. They’re texting back and forth now they have a movie coming out. And I think a book deal as well. But totally crazy and it’s one of those crazy things too where they like the same kind of things you know they don’t like you know certain and it’s just you know, crazy because they just live so far away.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: And isn’t it, it’s amazing I have to say I mean I saw a video and I think one of the girls is an actress.

SUNNY GAULT: Yeah, yes.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: And then the other.

SUNNY GAULT: And that’s why she was on the video.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Yeah and then the other girl, I think she’s a music or she’s in another creative field. And I just have to say, I think that’s so interesting. I mean they’re twenty six years apart and you know this whole nature versus nurture and they both obviously have these creative talents that are being expressed you know these very similar ways. And I think I heard that you know like when it comes to like food, they have certain like food aversions that are exactly the same.

MELANIE MONROE: Yeah they both don’t like cooked carrots. Isn’t that very specific?

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Yeah.

MELANIE MONROE: They eat the raw ones but they don’t like cooked ones.

SUNNY GAULT: Yeah.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: It just seems so random.

SUNNY GAULT: Yeah totally. And it has a, it has a really nice ending. They did try to reach out to their birth mother but not a lot of information was known about her or you know or whereabouts and stuff like that. But I thought it was really nice. One of the, I don’t know which set or which twin, but her adoptive parents said if we have known that you had a twin sister we would have taken her in as well. But apparently they didn’t know either. So, it’s just this crazy situation and, but they found each other you know, so nice.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: That is just amazing. I have to say, I mean, I wonder would it have happened before the use of social media.

MELANIE MONROE: No.

SUNNY GAULT: No. how would you of? How would you of? I mean, amazing.

[Theme Music]

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Well today’s topic is photographing twins, and we’re talking with photographer Melanie Monroe. And she’s giving us some tips on how to create some great looking photos. So thanks for joining us Melanie.

MELANIE MONROE: Thank you for having me.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Yeah. Well you know, I know everybody starts out thinking okay, I’ve got twins, we’re going to make this grand announcement. So they think about new born photography. So, if they’re starting to plan it and we know sometimes twins come early. When should you start thinking about setting up a new born photography?

MELANIE MONROE: I’d say some time in your second trimester would be a good time to start looking at websites and seeing what photographer’s style matches your vision for what your pictures should look like. The best thing to do is to pick a photographer that matches that vision rather than choosing somebody even if they’re highly recommended too by a friend. It’s best to choose somebody who’s, whose style matches what you want. So it does take a little bit of research to find that.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: So look on websites and just think “oh you know, hey I really like this sort of very, you know, fun cosy feeling” or maybe you know you just like to, the colours or just the way that families are you know, together and see there’s a lot of different styles out there.

MELANIE MONROE: Definitely. And you know, the worst thing from a photographers perspective is to show up for a session and have a client ask for a bunch of stuff that you don’t feel comfortable doing. It’s not usually your thing. And so, you know, as far as I’m concerned I would be happy to give a referral to somebody that had a style different than my own. Rather than shoot the session myself. And you now, all the photographers know a lot of different people and everybody’s really nice and usually really willing to give referrals to other people.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: That’s good to know. So, aside from you know creating the registry and you know, all the other list, think about photography. Also, when new born, so when they do arrive, you know, what’s the sort of time frame when you know to get those nice new born shots? I mean, can you do it within the first month or...

MELANIE MONROE: I usually tell clients to contact me as soon as they can after the baby’s born. Because I like to do new born photos between three and ten days old.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Oh so very young.

MELANIE MONROE: Really, really early. Yeah, and obviously sometimes that’s not possible with twins if they spend some time in the NICU or anything like that but. That’s just the ideal. During that time period babies are less alert and sleepier. And after two weeks for sure they become much more alert.
So, just all of the stuff that’s going on during a new born session, they’ll be looking around and they just won’t sleep as soundly. The other thing is, you’ve seen all the cute poses of you know, new-born’s are in look like little froggies [inaudible] those are almost always very, very new babies. They’re bendier when they’re first born.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Bendier, I like that.

MELANIE MONROE: They are more flexible when they’re first born. And so, some of those poses simply are not possible with a baby that’s a month old. So, you know if you, if you’re going for more of those posed looks if that’s what you like, earlier is definitely better. So, but then there’s some people that like more of the, the lifestyle type session where it’s just pictures in your home of your family together on your couch and things like that.

You can definitely do those later. And so, if you do end up having you babies stay in the NICU for a little while, sometimes it’s necessary to adjust your vision for what you want because that lifestyle session, you might get a lot better results and a lot less headache.

If you, if you decide to go with something like that. And there’s photographers that are wonderful at those and they can be really touching images that you know include older siblings, you know, pets, anything like that.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: That’s kind of what we think is a lifestyle and I think of like kind of the photo journalism where it’s more kind of just documenting kind of you know with the everyday living as opposed to you know, I heard of like Anne [inaudible] with you know she’s got the cute little, the peas in the pod and they look like little peas, or little you know, flower, you know, sun flowers in a pot.

MELANIE MONROE: And see if you hired a lifestyle photographer and then they got to your house and you ask them to put your babies in a pea pod, they would be like “what?” so it’s definitely good to pick somebody whose style matches what you want.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Yeah. And you know, from a creative standpoint so what makes for good new born pictures I mean maybe you know we just mentioned Anne [inaudible] and you know we think of “hey, two peas in a pod” or are there things that we can do at home if we want to have sort of a, just a fun you know theme. Or create that intimacy in the picture.

MELANIE MONROE: The main tips I would give for successful new born photography is number one, heat. Your house needs to be really, really hot and that helps babies feel a lot cozier since, you know the style right now is for the babies to usually be just in a diaper or naked. They get cold easy when they’re brand new. And so, I usually ask clients to heat their house up to at least eighty, preferably eighty-five.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Wow.

MELANIE MONROE: Yes. Most people will bring a space heater with them but it’s just not enough to really heat up a room as hot as you want it. You should be sweating. If you’re not sweating it’s not hot enough.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Wow

MELANIE MONROE: And, and if, if it’s cold in there, the babies just can’t sleep quite as well. So, and you know if that’s something you’re not really willing to do then you could choose somebody that has their own studio to do your new born photos, because that way you can deal with the heating [inaudible].

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Yeah.

MELANIE MONROE: The next thing I would say is a lot of patience, I usually spend two to three hours for a new born session, closer to three if it’s twins because you do need them to be really, really deep into sleep to get some of those pose shots. So lots of breaks.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: And getting twins into sleep, so between the feedings and sleep. So, it sounded we have to have a lot of flexibility on when that actually happens. And hopefully if we’re you know finding a new born photographer, someone who’s flexible and.

MELANIE MONROE: Yeah. And new born photographers are, that’s kind of part of the job. You know most of the sessions are scheduled with, you know week of notice or even less. And, and they’re used to spending a long period of time. I’ve gone to sessions where I even take a single picture for an hour and a half because it took that long to get the baby to sleep because they are feeling fuzzy or whatever.

And so, and that’s just kind of how it works. It’s pretty normal. And so that would be my next thing is patience. And if you’re doing it yourself and you haven’t hired a photographer, one thing that’s really important to remember is a lot of these poses you see on pinterest or on Facebook are composite shots which means that they’ve taken two pictures and merge them together and Photoshop.

And the reason that I say that it’s important to know this is because unfortunately there’ve actually been babies that have been injured because people have tried to do certain poses that they’ve seen not realizing that they were composite shots and they’re actually unsafe to do in any way but a composite. So, it is very, very important to understand that and put your baby’s safety first if you’re going to try to do it on your own.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: That, you know I had no idea. So, there, so babies I mean, so when we see them like maybe curled up in a, you know really small space or wrapped up a certain way or I don’t know, I mean they could be

MELANIE MONROE: Mostly those kind, not so much but you have a picture on your wall of a baby on a dad’s arm? Holding on to the dad’s arm? That basically it looks like a little Koala, you know, lying on a tree branch or something. That is probably composite shot. There is probably a nice fluffy bean bag about an inch under that baby’s head that was photoshoped out.

And the dad even may have had his arm on the baby’s back and then they could have had another one where the dad was holding on to the baby’s arm. And then you merge those together. So, most likely that baby was not just balancing over a bean bag, it was probably being held on to with both hands [inaudible].

SUNNY GAULT: So that would have been dangerous because the baby could have, you know, if you just literally took that, that picture, the baby could fall right off the arm.

MELANIE MONROE: Yeah and if you didn’t have a bean, you know, if that baby tumbled one inch on to a bean bag obviously that wouldn’t be that dangerous. But, but if you try that over your kitchen floor obviously that’s not a good idea so.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: and of course we’re talking about twins, so, times two balancing.

SUNNY GAULT: How would you even do that?

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Yeah.

MELANIE MONROE: Yeah. If you’ve seen pictures of twins in little bunk beds, have you seen those before? Where they’ll have twins or triplets in a little baby size bunk beds, those usually composite shots too. And even the ones where the baby has their arm crossed and their head is on their arms and you know they were facing forward, usually you have a parent that’s holding the baby’s head up with a finger, and then they hold from the other side. That way the baby’s not flopping back and forth all crazy.

BRANDI WALLACE: That totally makes sense now.

SUNNY GAULT: It does. Like, how did they do this? My new born can’t do that.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Yeah.

MELANIE MONROE: So a lot of them really are composite shots that are just for because it’s easier that way and because it’s safer for the baby. So that’s something that I definitely wanted to mention.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: No that is great. I mean so it sounds like, I mean if we have this idea in our head of this very creative photography, then it would probably be smart to just to talk to photographer ahead of time and A do you do this, and you know how is this done and you know what are sort of the safety precautions.

MELANIE MONROE: And certainly if you hire somebody and they’re ever doing anything with your baby that you don’t think is safe just say “I think we’ll skip that pose, you know let’s try something else” that’s fine. Just speak up, you know if you don’t feel like what they’re doing is safe. Certainly if you hire a photographer and they don’t know what a composite shot is, I would consider that a red flag.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Definitely. Well we’re going to take a break and when we come back, we’re going to talk about other stages which are ideal to photograph twins

[Theme Music]

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Welcome back and today we’re talking with Melanie Monroe about the secrets to getting some great photos. And we’re talking about new born photography. What are some other occasions? What are some of the other ages in which we might want to get some nice formal shots of the twins?

MELANIE MONROE: I always tell clients to instead of looking at a specific age to instead look at developmental milestones because baby’s do things at different ages. And one great time to do pictures after new born is when a baby can support themselves on their elbows and lift their head up, hold their head up because you can get great smiling shots and the baby can actually look at the camera.

They don’t have their face planted in a blanket or on their tummy. So, that’s a great time and you know that’s different for different babies. So that’s a good developmental milestone to shoot for. The next one, and this is probably my favourite one is when a baby first learns to sit up but they’re not yet crawling.

SUNNY GAULT: [laughing] so they stay put.

MELANIE MONROE: Yes. So they stay put.

BRANDI WALLACE: some of us that faces shorter than others.

MELANIE MONROE: That is very, very true. So sometimes, you know, you need to be on the phone with your photographer like that day. You know because it does happen, the crawling happens very quickly for sure for some babies. A lot of babies it’s around six months, mine were seven months, if they’re born really early it could be eight or nine or ten or who knows. If you have twins hopefully they do it at the same time but.

BRANDI WALLACE: Or you could do a composite shot.

MELANIE MONROE: That will be interesting. So that’s a great time period and then after that I would say when they learned to stand up on their own, even if they’re still holding on to something but before they’re running. They could be walking not running. Once they learned to run it does become more difficult, still definitely doable but if you can, if you can get another photo shoot once they’re standing up and not running yet, that’s a great time.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Wow and how about Brandi, so when did you time your, you know more formal photography shoots.

BRANDI WALLACE: So with my first set of children I obviously have more time and money back then before the second set came along. So I actually committed to photographing my, my older twins every four months.

So for the first year of their life because every three months I had four photo sessions that first year to try and catch those windows that Melanie is talking about. I mean we didn’t know ahead of time when that would be. We just roughly tried to get that first year in the books.

So we have some of what she was just talking about. And then after they turned one it really went downhill from there. It was very hard to photograph them even now they’re pre-school. And they make these horrible faces.

SUNNY GAULT: I know what is up with that.

BRANDI WALLACE: when people teach their children to say cheese, don’t do it. It’s awful, they scrunch their nose and squint their eyes.

SUNNY GAULT: I know it’s horrible.

BRANDI WALLACE: Yes.

MELANIE MONROE: Yeah, during that, that stage, my goal is always to get them to laugh and frequently the parents are way funnier than I am because it’s mommy and daddy, but that’s always the goal because that way you get that, that real smile. That’s the only way you can do it because the pre-school are [inaudible] it’s harsh.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Now Sunny how do you do it? I mean especially I’m thinking like the boys probably play off of each other.

SUNNY GAULT: They do. It’s hard to photograph all four of them at once. But I actually just tell them our family photographer yesterday when we had our holidays stuffed on. That was the first time since the girls were born.

We did new born photos and it was one of those more natural thing, she came out to the house because I was like my life is just crazy right now you just kind of need to capture the craziness. I can’t really do structured poses right now. But we hadn’t had any other professional photos and it was literally just because it’s just my house is just kind of chaos.

What I did do is last year as a Christmas gift my parents got me and I know were going to talk about this but a nice professional, what I consider a professional, camera that was much different than the iPhone photos we was taking. But I have to confess, I haven’t had a lot of time to get to know the camera and figure it out. And shutter speed is everything and I still don’t really know what I’m doing because as you know kids just move really fast. So, I’m excited to hear some tips on DIY photography as well

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: So yeah, what kind of equipment would you recommend for someone that wants to do a lot of photography on their own?

MELANIE MONROE: Photographing those moments every day is super important I mean that’s why I do what I do. That’s what made me interested in photography. And I started out with just kind of a bottom line dslr. I had a Canon [inaudible], that was my first camera and it’s definitely something that’s great to start with.

The one thing that I tend to recommend to people that already have a dslr and are looking to have even better pictures, is to get a fifty millimetre lens. They have a fifty millimetre, one point eight and a fifty millimetre one point four. Both of which are pretty affordable. The Canon fifty millimetres I bought a hundred bucks on one point eight. And it’s a great indoor lens.

The one point eight means how much light it lets in. And the smaller number means it lets in more light. So it’s kind of opposite. But the lenses that usually come with your camera if you get a dslr, don’t let in as much light. And so they’re harder to use indoors. And you have that shutter speed issue because the only way to get enough light is to lower your shutter speed or raise your ISO.

Raising your ISO makes grainy pictures and lowering your shutter speed it makes blurry pictures. So it’s definitely a huge investment to make. The other thing that I would recommend, if you already have a dslr is to learn how to toggle your focal points.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: I’ll say that again, learn how to toggle your focal points.

MELANIE MONROE: It’s huge, I like, I can’t even really express to you how big of a difference this will make in your photography because if you’re shooting in auto, the camera, which is just like a computer is guessing where you wanted to focus. So when you see pictures of your kids smiling beautifully at the camera but the bush behind them is in focus and their face is not. We’ve all gotten those rights?

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Yes. Yes.

MELANIE MONROE: That’s because your camera guessed wrong. But you can actually tell it where you want it to focus. There’s these little focal points in your view finder you’ll see them. And you can toggle through them with a button on the back of your camera and tell it where you want it to focus. And then if you’re taking a picture of a person, the most important thing to have them focus is their eyeballs.

So you want to put that little red dot right on their eyeball and so that you’re getting that in focus. It will improve your picture quality dramatically. So, for you that hasn’t really gotten to learn your camera, look that up. And you could probably I mean they’ll be in your manual for sure but you could probably, you can look up anything on YouTube these days. So, you can look it up there, ask a friend or whenever. But that’s a huge thing.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: So, good lenses just let it lots of light and probably just a little bit of learning. Because you know I can relate too. My first camera was a Canon [inaudible] as well. And I think, I mean I think it’s a great camera because it’s good for beginners in learning like all the bells and whistles. And then you can kind of add on to it and then when you sort of need the next thing your lenses will work with the next camera which is a nice thing.

MELANIE MONROE: Yes. Most people will, yes.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Yeah. Now how about, even okay for phone I mean we can’t you know, ignore that, I mean the phone cameras have you know, come, increased greatly with all, lots of bells and whistles in the last few years. And you know I have to laugh, it think my current phone actually in terms of just mega pixels resolution, it actually has more than my dslr.

MELANIE MONROE: I just got my iPhone six literally like two days ago. And I am so excited about the camera. It’s amazingly better than my iPhone 5 camera was. So, I’m excited about that. I took pictures on my camera phone all the time because I don’t carry my expensive camera with me everywhere so. So yeah it’s definitely good to have a phone with a good camera.

The app that I used the most is called Pictapgo and it has a lot of great filters. One thing that I like about it is if you use instagram it can connect with instagram. And if you, you know how instagram crops everything to a square, well if you don’t want that there’s actually a button you can push in Pictapgo to export your picture with a right border on the top and the bottom.

So that it’ll be full size in instagram which is nice. So that’s how people do that when you see pictures like that.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Now how about we talked a little bit earlier about lighting. Okay now if you’re using a dslr camera, I mean you have a lot more control over the lighting by having you know a lens that opens everything up. But how about if you’re outdoors or if you’re indoors, what are some other means that you can kind of get some good lighting?

MELANIE MONROE: Take a class. There’s actually a continuing ed-class that you can take for you know thirteen bucks or something through the community college district that teaches you the basics of how a camera works and how your shutters speed or ISO and your aperture all work together.

And as far as good lighting, I would say, if you’re still shooting on auto, you’re going to get the best results if you put your subjects in full shade. So not like the shade of a tree that’s all blotchy like a shade from a structure. So, put your people in full shade, that’s going to give you your best results with a dslr.

I usually do all of my sessions in the late afternoon, I like to backlight people. It gives that glowy, sunny effect. You really can’t do that in auto with a dslr because it’s going to expose your subject too dark because it’s going to expose for the sun shining in your lens in the background and stuff. So for those, you have to shoot and you will be able to understand how your camera works.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: And so it won’t work for the camera phone either so.

MELANIE MONROE: Not really.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: So you really have to just time things and think about where you are shade wise and look at your outdoor environment.

MELANIE MONROE: Yeah look at your surroundings and if you need to move people over then definitely do it because you’ll get much better results in the shade.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: That’s great. Well thanks so much to everybody for joining us today. And for more information about photographing twins or for more information about any of our speakers and panellist, visit our episode page on our website. This conversation continues for members of our twin talks club, and after the show, Melanie’s going to talk about some cute photo ideas that result in major photo fail. So for more information about the twin talks club visit our website www.newmommymedia.com

[Theme Music]

SUNNY GAULT: Okay it’s time for one of our favourite segments on the show it’s called “We’re expecting what??” and that’s where you guys get a chance to tell us about your funny stories of when you found out you’re pregnant with twins. This story comes from Krista and Krista says: I am eighteen and a mother to be of two baby girls. We found out I was pregnant at six weeks and we were excited.

I talked with my sister-in-law because she was pregnant with her third. She refereed me to her doctor. My brother jokes saying, I’m going to have two. After going to the doctor a couple of times he told me that I was bigger than he thinks I should be. Say “do you think there’s twins?” me and my boyfriend laughed. He then scheduled an ultrasound to check for twins. We were in shock, we couldn’t wait two weeks to find out.

The ultrasound showed two babies and I’ll never forget the feeling I got when I saw them both. My heart melted. I was excited and scared at the same time. I’m now twenty one weeks and very used to the thought of twins. I’m very excited but I’m also very nervous about having them early and their health, what kind of health they’re going to be in and all the things that can go wrong.

All I can do is hope and pray they are healthy. Well Krista we certainly hope that you have a fantastic rest of your pregnancy. You’re about way or more than halfway there. So hopefully things are still going really well for you and we’ll just kind of keep you in our thoughts. And thanks for writing this in.

[Theme Music]

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: That wraps up our show for today. We appreciate you listening to Twin Talks.
Don’t forget to check our sister shows:
• Preggie Pals for expecting parents
• The Boob Group for moms who breastfeed their babies
• Parent Savers, your parenting resource on the go.

This is Twin Talks, parenting times two or times two, times two. However many you have.

[Disclaimer]
This has been a New Mommy Media production. Information and material contained in this episode are presented for educational purposes only. Statements and opinions expressed in this episode are not necessarily those of New Mommy Media and should not be considered facts. Though information in which areas are related to be accurate, it is not intended to replace or substitute for professional, Medical or advisor care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating health care problem or disease or prescribing any medications. If you have questions or concerns regarding your physical or mental health or the health of your baby, please seek assistance from a qualified health care provider.

SUNNY GAULT: New Mommy Media is expanding our line up of shows for new and expecting parents. If you have an idea for a new series or if you’re a business or organization interested in joining our network of shows through a co-branded podcast, visit www.NewMommyMedia.com

[00:30:28]
[End of Audio]

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Episode Transcript

Twin Talks
Taking Photos of Your Twins

[00:00:00]

Please be advised, this transcription was performed from a company independent of New Mommy Media, LLC. As such, translation was required which may alter the accuracy of the transcription.

[Theme Music]

MELANIE MONROE: You’ve seen those adorable pictures of twins holding hands and smiling at each other in bright clean colours. Are they professionally done or can you get similar results on your own? What can you do to take great photos of your twins? Do you need special equipment or props? I’m Melanie Monroe, family photographer and mom to twins. I’m here to share some tips and tricks for getting great photos of your twins. This is Twin Talks.

[Theme Music/Intro]

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Welcome to Twin Talks. Broadcasting from the birth education centre of San Diego. Twin talks is your weekly online on-the-go support group for expecting and new parents of twins. I’m your host Christine Stewart-Fitzgerald. Have you heard about the twin talks club?
Our members get bonus content after each new show plus special giveaways and discounts. Subscribe to our monthly twin talks newsletter and learn about the latest episodes available. Another way for you to stay connected is by downloading our free Twin Talks app. It’s available in the Android and iTunes marketplace. And before we get started, let’s take a moment and introduce ourselves. For those of us here in the room, I’ll start with myself.

So I’ve got identical girls who are just, they just turned five and we’re just starting kindergarten which is opening up a whole new world and I get to say, my girls, they, one of them lost her front tooth. It was pretty early, they lost their bottom teeth. Both of them, two the front bottom and one of them lost her, the top. And so, thankfully the top one was before the school pictures. And it was like, or I should say it was after, it was just after I think so.

So, but I mean I got these like very toothy smiles, it’s goofy and I’m like “oh it’s just so awkward looking for all the photos” so I almost want to wait you know before we do family photos but uhm. And I do have a singleton and she is just turned two years old. Brandi, how about you?

BRANDI WALLACE: Hi, my name is Brandi Wallace. I have two sets of twins. I have identical boys that just turned five and I have boy girl fraternal that are two.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: yes, close in age.

BRANDI WALLACE: Yes and I need lots of tips because it is like herding cats to get them to pose for a picture so help!

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Cooperation, what’s that? Oh my gosh.

SUNNY GAULT: And I’m Sunny. I’m producing today’s show and I’m the owner of new mommy media which produces this show as well as Parent Savers, Preggie Pals and The Boob Group. I have four children and my oldest is four, a boy.
My middle guy is two, another boy. And then I have identical twin girls who just turned one. And photographing any of them, oh my gosh we just had family photos yesterday for the holidays. And, oh my gosh, I mean I was trying to bribe them with candy canes like I don’t even know. I don’t know what these are going to turn out.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: And I mean and can you really bribe one year olds? I mean, how do you even do that?

SUNNY GAULT: No, you just make crazy noises and then usually that gets their attention.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: And Melanie, tell us about your family.

MELANIE MONROE: I have twin girls. They are going to be eight in January. They’re in second grade. And they’re a lot of fun. And I love having big kids. We’ve taken them skiing a couple of times which is awesome. It’s like, you know life is back to normal.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Wow normal.

SUNNY GAULT: What’s that?

BRANDI WALLACE: Don’t rub it in

[Theme Music]

SUNNY GAULT: Okay before we start today’s show, there’s a news headline that we want to talk about. You guys may have seen this online. The headline is separated at birth, reunited on Facebook. Which of course, Facebook, for connecting us twin parents is pretty awesome. But this is regarding twenty six year old sisters, didn’t even, they’re adopted, had no idea each other existed. One lives in Los Angeles, the other one I believe in is it Korea? Way far away, let’s just put it that way.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: France I think.

SUNNY GAULT: Oh France, I think you’re right. I think you’re right, it’s France. So still, way far away, separate countries. And the sister from France happened to be talking with a friend, whatever, and saw a screenshot of a YouTube video. And her friend was commenting, oh my gosh, this girl looks so much like you.
And so she basically ends up emailing this girl. Does a little bit of research. Finds out both girls are adopted out from the same area. And I think that’s in Korea. And decides to reach out to her on Facebook, you know, it’s so funny, I’m lying. If you look this up, you can actually see the first email that she sent which can you imagine someone looking exactly like you contacting you. I mean like “uhm I don’t know if we’re related but we look alike, were both adopted”

They did DNA testing, found out that they are identical twins. And the article that I’m looking at didn’t have much information about why. You know, this information was disclosed but you know I mean they are twenty six years old so maybe the adoptive practices you know didn’t reveal that information back then.

I’m not really sure how it ended up. But the nice thing is that they still live in their respective countries. They’re texting back and forth now they have a movie coming out. And I think a book deal as well. But totally crazy and it’s one of those crazy things too where they like the same kind of things you know they don’t like you know certain and it’s just you know, crazy because they just live so far away.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: And isn’t it, it’s amazing I have to say I mean I saw a video and I think one of the girls is an actress.

SUNNY GAULT: Yeah, yes.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: And then the other.

SUNNY GAULT: And that’s why she was on the video.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Yeah and then the other girl, I think she’s a music or she’s in another creative field. And I just have to say, I think that’s so interesting. I mean they’re twenty six years apart and you know this whole nature versus nurture and they both obviously have these creative talents that are being expressed you know these very similar ways. And I think I heard that you know like when it comes to like food, they have certain like food aversions that are exactly the same.

MELANIE MONROE: Yeah they both don’t like cooked carrots. Isn’t that very specific?

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Yeah.

MELANIE MONROE: They eat the raw ones but they don’t like cooked ones.

SUNNY GAULT: Yeah.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: It just seems so random.

SUNNY GAULT: Yeah totally. And it has a, it has a really nice ending. They did try to reach out to their birth mother but not a lot of information was known about her or you know or whereabouts and stuff like that. But I thought it was really nice. One of the, I don’t know which set or which twin, but her adoptive parents said if we have known that you had a twin sister we would have taken her in as well. But apparently they didn’t know either. So, it’s just this crazy situation and, but they found each other you know, so nice.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: That is just amazing. I have to say, I mean, I wonder would it have happened before the use of social media.

MELANIE MONROE: No.

SUNNY GAULT: No. how would you of? How would you of? I mean, amazing.

[Theme Music]

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Well today’s topic is photographing twins, and we’re talking with photographer Melanie Monroe. And she’s giving us some tips on how to create some great looking photos. So thanks for joining us Melanie.

MELANIE MONROE: Thank you for having me.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Yeah. Well you know, I know everybody starts out thinking okay, I’ve got twins, we’re going to make this grand announcement. So they think about new born photography. So, if they’re starting to plan it and we know sometimes twins come early. When should you start thinking about setting up a new born photography?

MELANIE MONROE: I’d say some time in your second trimester would be a good time to start looking at websites and seeing what photographer’s style matches your vision for what your pictures should look like. The best thing to do is to pick a photographer that matches that vision rather than choosing somebody even if they’re highly recommended too by a friend. It’s best to choose somebody who’s, whose style matches what you want. So it does take a little bit of research to find that.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: So look on websites and just think “oh you know, hey I really like this sort of very, you know, fun cosy feeling” or maybe you know you just like to, the colours or just the way that families are you know, together and see there’s a lot of different styles out there.

MELANIE MONROE: Definitely. And you know, the worst thing from a photographers perspective is to show up for a session and have a client ask for a bunch of stuff that you don’t feel comfortable doing. It’s not usually your thing. And so, you know, as far as I’m concerned I would be happy to give a referral to somebody that had a style different than my own. Rather than shoot the session myself. And you now, all the photographers know a lot of different people and everybody’s really nice and usually really willing to give referrals to other people.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: That’s good to know. So, aside from you know creating the registry and you know, all the other list, think about photography. Also, when new born, so when they do arrive, you know, what’s the sort of time frame when you know to get those nice new born shots? I mean, can you do it within the first month or...

MELANIE MONROE: I usually tell clients to contact me as soon as they can after the baby’s born. Because I like to do new born photos between three and ten days old.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Oh so very young.

MELANIE MONROE: Really, really early. Yeah, and obviously sometimes that’s not possible with twins if they spend some time in the NICU or anything like that but. That’s just the ideal. During that time period babies are less alert and sleepier. And after two weeks for sure they become much more alert.
So, just all of the stuff that’s going on during a new born session, they’ll be looking around and they just won’t sleep as soundly. The other thing is, you’ve seen all the cute poses of you know, new-born’s are in look like little froggies [inaudible] those are almost always very, very new babies. They’re bendier when they’re first born.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Bendier, I like that.

MELANIE MONROE: They are more flexible when they’re first born. And so, some of those poses simply are not possible with a baby that’s a month old. So, you know if you, if you’re going for more of those posed looks if that’s what you like, earlier is definitely better. So, but then there’s some people that like more of the, the lifestyle type session where it’s just pictures in your home of your family together on your couch and things like that.

You can definitely do those later. And so, if you do end up having you babies stay in the NICU for a little while, sometimes it’s necessary to adjust your vision for what you want because that lifestyle session, you might get a lot better results and a lot less headache.

If you, if you decide to go with something like that. And there’s photographers that are wonderful at those and they can be really touching images that you know include older siblings, you know, pets, anything like that.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: That’s kind of what we think is a lifestyle and I think of like kind of the photo journalism where it’s more kind of just documenting kind of you know with the everyday living as opposed to you know, I heard of like Anne [inaudible] with you know she’s got the cute little, the peas in the pod and they look like little peas, or little you know, flower, you know, sun flowers in a pot.

MELANIE MONROE: And see if you hired a lifestyle photographer and then they got to your house and you ask them to put your babies in a pea pod, they would be like “what?” so it’s definitely good to pick somebody whose style matches what you want.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Yeah. And you know, from a creative standpoint so what makes for good new born pictures I mean maybe you know we just mentioned Anne [inaudible] and you know we think of “hey, two peas in a pod” or are there things that we can do at home if we want to have sort of a, just a fun you know theme. Or create that intimacy in the picture.

MELANIE MONROE: The main tips I would give for successful new born photography is number one, heat. Your house needs to be really, really hot and that helps babies feel a lot cozier since, you know the style right now is for the babies to usually be just in a diaper or naked. They get cold easy when they’re brand new. And so, I usually ask clients to heat their house up to at least eighty, preferably eighty-five.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Wow.

MELANIE MONROE: Yes. Most people will bring a space heater with them but it’s just not enough to really heat up a room as hot as you want it. You should be sweating. If you’re not sweating it’s not hot enough.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Wow

MELANIE MONROE: And, and if, if it’s cold in there, the babies just can’t sleep quite as well. So, and you know if that’s something you’re not really willing to do then you could choose somebody that has their own studio to do your new born photos, because that way you can deal with the heating [inaudible].

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Yeah.

MELANIE MONROE: The next thing I would say is a lot of patience, I usually spend two to three hours for a new born session, closer to three if it’s twins because you do need them to be really, really deep into sleep to get some of those pose shots. So lots of breaks.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: And getting twins into sleep, so between the feedings and sleep. So, it sounded we have to have a lot of flexibility on when that actually happens. And hopefully if we’re you know finding a new born photographer, someone who’s flexible and.

MELANIE MONROE: Yeah. And new born photographers are, that’s kind of part of the job. You know most of the sessions are scheduled with, you know week of notice or even less. And, and they’re used to spending a long period of time. I’ve gone to sessions where I even take a single picture for an hour and a half because it took that long to get the baby to sleep because they are feeling fuzzy or whatever.

And so, and that’s just kind of how it works. It’s pretty normal. And so that would be my next thing is patience. And if you’re doing it yourself and you haven’t hired a photographer, one thing that’s really important to remember is a lot of these poses you see on pinterest or on Facebook are composite shots which means that they’ve taken two pictures and merge them together and Photoshop.

And the reason that I say that it’s important to know this is because unfortunately there’ve actually been babies that have been injured because people have tried to do certain poses that they’ve seen not realizing that they were composite shots and they’re actually unsafe to do in any way but a composite. So, it is very, very important to understand that and put your baby’s safety first if you’re going to try to do it on your own.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: That, you know I had no idea. So, there, so babies I mean, so when we see them like maybe curled up in a, you know really small space or wrapped up a certain way or I don’t know, I mean they could be

MELANIE MONROE: Mostly those kind, not so much but you have a picture on your wall of a baby on a dad’s arm? Holding on to the dad’s arm? That basically it looks like a little Koala, you know, lying on a tree branch or something. That is probably composite shot. There is probably a nice fluffy bean bag about an inch under that baby’s head that was photoshoped out.

And the dad even may have had his arm on the baby’s back and then they could have had another one where the dad was holding on to the baby’s arm. And then you merge those together. So, most likely that baby was not just balancing over a bean bag, it was probably being held on to with both hands [inaudible].

SUNNY GAULT: So that would have been dangerous because the baby could have, you know, if you just literally took that, that picture, the baby could fall right off the arm.

MELANIE MONROE: Yeah and if you didn’t have a bean, you know, if that baby tumbled one inch on to a bean bag obviously that wouldn’t be that dangerous. But, but if you try that over your kitchen floor obviously that’s not a good idea so.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: and of course we’re talking about twins, so, times two balancing.

SUNNY GAULT: How would you even do that?

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Yeah.

MELANIE MONROE: Yeah. If you’ve seen pictures of twins in little bunk beds, have you seen those before? Where they’ll have twins or triplets in a little baby size bunk beds, those usually composite shots too. And even the ones where the baby has their arm crossed and their head is on their arms and you know they were facing forward, usually you have a parent that’s holding the baby’s head up with a finger, and then they hold from the other side. That way the baby’s not flopping back and forth all crazy.

BRANDI WALLACE: That totally makes sense now.

SUNNY GAULT: It does. Like, how did they do this? My new born can’t do that.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Yeah.

MELANIE MONROE: So a lot of them really are composite shots that are just for because it’s easier that way and because it’s safer for the baby. So that’s something that I definitely wanted to mention.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: No that is great. I mean so it sounds like, I mean if we have this idea in our head of this very creative photography, then it would probably be smart to just to talk to photographer ahead of time and A do you do this, and you know how is this done and you know what are sort of the safety precautions.

MELANIE MONROE: And certainly if you hire somebody and they’re ever doing anything with your baby that you don’t think is safe just say “I think we’ll skip that pose, you know let’s try something else” that’s fine. Just speak up, you know if you don’t feel like what they’re doing is safe. Certainly if you hire a photographer and they don’t know what a composite shot is, I would consider that a red flag.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Definitely. Well we’re going to take a break and when we come back, we’re going to talk about other stages which are ideal to photograph twins

[Theme Music]

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Welcome back and today we’re talking with Melanie Monroe about the secrets to getting some great photos. And we’re talking about new born photography. What are some other occasions? What are some of the other ages in which we might want to get some nice formal shots of the twins?

MELANIE MONROE: I always tell clients to instead of looking at a specific age to instead look at developmental milestones because baby’s do things at different ages. And one great time to do pictures after new born is when a baby can support themselves on their elbows and lift their head up, hold their head up because you can get great smiling shots and the baby can actually look at the camera.

They don’t have their face planted in a blanket or on their tummy. So, that’s a great time and you know that’s different for different babies. So that’s a good developmental milestone to shoot for. The next one, and this is probably my favourite one is when a baby first learns to sit up but they’re not yet crawling.

SUNNY GAULT: [laughing] so they stay put.

MELANIE MONROE: Yes. So they stay put.

BRANDI WALLACE: some of us that faces shorter than others.

MELANIE MONROE: That is very, very true. So sometimes, you know, you need to be on the phone with your photographer like that day. You know because it does happen, the crawling happens very quickly for sure for some babies. A lot of babies it’s around six months, mine were seven months, if they’re born really early it could be eight or nine or ten or who knows. If you have twins hopefully they do it at the same time but.

BRANDI WALLACE: Or you could do a composite shot.

MELANIE MONROE: That will be interesting. So that’s a great time period and then after that I would say when they learned to stand up on their own, even if they’re still holding on to something but before they’re running. They could be walking not running. Once they learned to run it does become more difficult, still definitely doable but if you can, if you can get another photo shoot once they’re standing up and not running yet, that’s a great time.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Wow and how about Brandi, so when did you time your, you know more formal photography shoots.

BRANDI WALLACE: So with my first set of children I obviously have more time and money back then before the second set came along. So I actually committed to photographing my, my older twins every four months.

So for the first year of their life because every three months I had four photo sessions that first year to try and catch those windows that Melanie is talking about. I mean we didn’t know ahead of time when that would be. We just roughly tried to get that first year in the books.

So we have some of what she was just talking about. And then after they turned one it really went downhill from there. It was very hard to photograph them even now they’re pre-school. And they make these horrible faces.

SUNNY GAULT: I know what is up with that.

BRANDI WALLACE: when people teach their children to say cheese, don’t do it. It’s awful, they scrunch their nose and squint their eyes.

SUNNY GAULT: I know it’s horrible.

BRANDI WALLACE: Yes.

MELANIE MONROE: Yeah, during that, that stage, my goal is always to get them to laugh and frequently the parents are way funnier than I am because it’s mommy and daddy, but that’s always the goal because that way you get that, that real smile. That’s the only way you can do it because the pre-school are [inaudible] it’s harsh.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Now Sunny how do you do it? I mean especially I’m thinking like the boys probably play off of each other.

SUNNY GAULT: They do. It’s hard to photograph all four of them at once. But I actually just tell them our family photographer yesterday when we had our holidays stuffed on. That was the first time since the girls were born.

We did new born photos and it was one of those more natural thing, she came out to the house because I was like my life is just crazy right now you just kind of need to capture the craziness. I can’t really do structured poses right now. But we hadn’t had any other professional photos and it was literally just because it’s just my house is just kind of chaos.

What I did do is last year as a Christmas gift my parents got me and I know were going to talk about this but a nice professional, what I consider a professional, camera that was much different than the iPhone photos we was taking. But I have to confess, I haven’t had a lot of time to get to know the camera and figure it out. And shutter speed is everything and I still don’t really know what I’m doing because as you know kids just move really fast. So, I’m excited to hear some tips on DIY photography as well

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: So yeah, what kind of equipment would you recommend for someone that wants to do a lot of photography on their own?

MELANIE MONROE: Photographing those moments every day is super important I mean that’s why I do what I do. That’s what made me interested in photography. And I started out with just kind of a bottom line dslr. I had a Canon [inaudible], that was my first camera and it’s definitely something that’s great to start with.

The one thing that I tend to recommend to people that already have a dslr and are looking to have even better pictures, is to get a fifty millimetre lens. They have a fifty millimetre, one point eight and a fifty millimetre one point four. Both of which are pretty affordable. The Canon fifty millimetres I bought a hundred bucks on one point eight. And it’s a great indoor lens.

The one point eight means how much light it lets in. And the smaller number means it lets in more light. So it’s kind of opposite. But the lenses that usually come with your camera if you get a dslr, don’t let in as much light. And so they’re harder to use indoors. And you have that shutter speed issue because the only way to get enough light is to lower your shutter speed or raise your ISO.

Raising your ISO makes grainy pictures and lowering your shutter speed it makes blurry pictures. So it’s definitely a huge investment to make. The other thing that I would recommend, if you already have a dslr is to learn how to toggle your focal points.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: I’ll say that again, learn how to toggle your focal points.

MELANIE MONROE: It’s huge, I like, I can’t even really express to you how big of a difference this will make in your photography because if you’re shooting in auto, the camera, which is just like a computer is guessing where you wanted to focus. So when you see pictures of your kids smiling beautifully at the camera but the bush behind them is in focus and their face is not. We’ve all gotten those rights?

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Yes. Yes.

MELANIE MONROE: That’s because your camera guessed wrong. But you can actually tell it where you want it to focus. There’s these little focal points in your view finder you’ll see them. And you can toggle through them with a button on the back of your camera and tell it where you want it to focus. And then if you’re taking a picture of a person, the most important thing to have them focus is their eyeballs.

So you want to put that little red dot right on their eyeball and so that you’re getting that in focus. It will improve your picture quality dramatically. So, for you that hasn’t really gotten to learn your camera, look that up. And you could probably I mean they’ll be in your manual for sure but you could probably, you can look up anything on YouTube these days. So, you can look it up there, ask a friend or whenever. But that’s a huge thing.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: So, good lenses just let it lots of light and probably just a little bit of learning. Because you know I can relate too. My first camera was a Canon [inaudible] as well. And I think, I mean I think it’s a great camera because it’s good for beginners in learning like all the bells and whistles. And then you can kind of add on to it and then when you sort of need the next thing your lenses will work with the next camera which is a nice thing.

MELANIE MONROE: Yes. Most people will, yes.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Yeah. Now how about, even okay for phone I mean we can’t you know, ignore that, I mean the phone cameras have you know, come, increased greatly with all, lots of bells and whistles in the last few years. And you know I have to laugh, it think my current phone actually in terms of just mega pixels resolution, it actually has more than my dslr.

MELANIE MONROE: I just got my iPhone six literally like two days ago. And I am so excited about the camera. It’s amazingly better than my iPhone 5 camera was. So, I’m excited about that. I took pictures on my camera phone all the time because I don’t carry my expensive camera with me everywhere so. So yeah it’s definitely good to have a phone with a good camera.

The app that I used the most is called Pictapgo and it has a lot of great filters. One thing that I like about it is if you use instagram it can connect with instagram. And if you, you know how instagram crops everything to a square, well if you don’t want that there’s actually a button you can push in Pictapgo to export your picture with a right border on the top and the bottom.

So that it’ll be full size in instagram which is nice. So that’s how people do that when you see pictures like that.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: Now how about we talked a little bit earlier about lighting. Okay now if you’re using a dslr camera, I mean you have a lot more control over the lighting by having you know a lens that opens everything up. But how about if you’re outdoors or if you’re indoors, what are some other means that you can kind of get some good lighting?

MELANIE MONROE: Take a class. There’s actually a continuing ed-class that you can take for you know thirteen bucks or something through the community college district that teaches you the basics of how a camera works and how your shutters speed or ISO and your aperture all work together.

And as far as good lighting, I would say, if you’re still shooting on auto, you’re going to get the best results if you put your subjects in full shade. So not like the shade of a tree that’s all blotchy like a shade from a structure. So, put your people in full shade, that’s going to give you your best results with a dslr.

I usually do all of my sessions in the late afternoon, I like to backlight people. It gives that glowy, sunny effect. You really can’t do that in auto with a dslr because it’s going to expose your subject too dark because it’s going to expose for the sun shining in your lens in the background and stuff. So for those, you have to shoot and you will be able to understand how your camera works.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: And so it won’t work for the camera phone either so.

MELANIE MONROE: Not really.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: So you really have to just time things and think about where you are shade wise and look at your outdoor environment.

MELANIE MONROE: Yeah look at your surroundings and if you need to move people over then definitely do it because you’ll get much better results in the shade.

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: That’s great. Well thanks so much to everybody for joining us today. And for more information about photographing twins or for more information about any of our speakers and panellist, visit our episode page on our website. This conversation continues for members of our twin talks club, and after the show, Melanie’s going to talk about some cute photo ideas that result in major photo fail. So for more information about the twin talks club visit our website www.newmommymedia.com

[Theme Music]

SUNNY GAULT: Okay it’s time for one of our favourite segments on the show it’s called “We’re expecting what??” and that’s where you guys get a chance to tell us about your funny stories of when you found out you’re pregnant with twins. This story comes from Krista and Krista says: I am eighteen and a mother to be of two baby girls. We found out I was pregnant at six weeks and we were excited.

I talked with my sister-in-law because she was pregnant with her third. She refereed me to her doctor. My brother jokes saying, I’m going to have two. After going to the doctor a couple of times he told me that I was bigger than he thinks I should be. Say “do you think there’s twins?” me and my boyfriend laughed. He then scheduled an ultrasound to check for twins. We were in shock, we couldn’t wait two weeks to find out.

The ultrasound showed two babies and I’ll never forget the feeling I got when I saw them both. My heart melted. I was excited and scared at the same time. I’m now twenty one weeks and very used to the thought of twins. I’m very excited but I’m also very nervous about having them early and their health, what kind of health they’re going to be in and all the things that can go wrong.

All I can do is hope and pray they are healthy. Well Krista we certainly hope that you have a fantastic rest of your pregnancy. You’re about way or more than halfway there. So hopefully things are still going really well for you and we’ll just kind of keep you in our thoughts. And thanks for writing this in.

[Theme Music]

CHRISTINE STEWART-FITZGERALD: That wraps up our show for today. We appreciate you listening to Twin Talks.
Don’t forget to check our sister shows:
• Preggie Pals for expecting parents
• The Boob Group for moms who breastfeed their babies
• Parent Savers, your parenting resource on the go.

This is Twin Talks, parenting times two or times two, times two. However many you have.

[Disclaimer]
This has been a New Mommy Media production. Information and material contained in this episode are presented for educational purposes only. Statements and opinions expressed in this episode are not necessarily those of New Mommy Media and should not be considered facts. Though information in which areas are related to be accurate, it is not intended to replace or substitute for professional, Medical or advisor care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating health care problem or disease or prescribing any medications. If you have questions or concerns regarding your physical or mental health or the health of your baby, please seek assistance from a qualified health care provider.

SUNNY GAULT: New Mommy Media is expanding our line up of shows for new and expecting parents. If you have an idea for a new series or if you’re a business or organization interested in joining our network of shows through a co-branded podcast, visit www.NewMommyMedia.com

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