Articles
Your child's first smile, laugh, and step only happen once. Capturing them on film can help you relive those first moments for years to come. Mozy teamed with expert photographer Graham Gardner of Kidsshots Photography to share insider tips on how to get the best photo of your little ones so you can forever remember those unmissable moments.
- Get down to the same level as the baby; standing over a baby can be intimidating for them.
- Focus on the baby’s eyes and tilt the camera either direction by about 15 degrees so the eyes are no longer horizontal. This will make the shot more dynamic.
- Don’t try to get the child’s head in the centre of the photograph; "dead centre" can be "dead boring". Try to position your camera so that his or her head is to one side of the frame.
- Portrait-format photographs suit the shape of toddlers better than landscape.
- Never say “watch the birdie” or “say cheese”. You are after a natural shot to capture the essence of the child, not a self-conscious "grinning gargoyle"!
- Demonstrate poses to older children rather than telling them how to turn. For example, left is confusing—whose left, and by how much? If you strike the pose yourself, it'll probably make them laugh, so be ready to capture it.
- Don’t use your flash when photographing babies; it hardly ever looks natural and can upset the child. Instead use daylight wherever possible to light your picture naturally.
- Use plain, simple backgrounds. Messy, busy backgrounds distract from the beauty of the baby and can confuse the viewer’s eyes.
- Use a long lens if possible; a 200mm lens is far more flattering and the background will be out of focus.
- If you are photographing friends’ babies, get the parents involved and have plenty of toys at the ready to attract the baby's attention.
Most of all, remember to relax, have fun, and enjoy this wonderful experience with your child!
Outsourcing business processes is a growing trend, where many small businesses are choosing to place business-critical operations in the hands of third-party vendors. While the benefits of outsourcing operations such as accounting, marketing, and customer databases are many, caution must be taken to ensure the potential supplier is well prepared for the responsibility of handling such a task. Shockingly, our survey of UK businesses revealed that 80 per cent of respondents don’t take the time to check out their suppliers before they entrust them with their business-critical information and processes. If you are enlisting or are considering enlisting the help of a third party vendor, we recommend you research these ten items before handing over your business-critical operations.
- Is the company sufficiently insured? Ask to see a certificate of professional indemnity insurance.
- What’s the company’s credit rating? If the banks don’t trust them with credit, you might not want to trust them with your data, either.
- Who owns the information that you’re passing to the company? What rights do they have to use that information?
- What sort of security systems do they have in place to protect your information? Ask to see an information security policy.
- What are the chances of the company going bankrupt? Do they have sufficient backing to ensure they can ride out a rough patch? You don’t want a supplier going under and leaving you without the support you need.
- Does the company rely on the intellectual assets of a small group of employees and, if so, how do they manage the retention of this intelligence? If only one person understands your business, what happens if they decide to leave?
- Does the company rely on third parties to fulfill any part of its commitment to you? If so, make sure they carried out due diligence on their suppliers, too.
- Where is the company storing the data that it’s creating or using on your behalf? Be aware that, if it’s stored outside of the EU it may be subject to different laws and access rights.
- Does the company have a disaster-recovery plan? Floods and fires not only devastate lives, they destroy businesses too. Make sure that a natural disaster won’t pull the rug from under your company.
- Does the company have a data backup strategy that works? 60% of companies would go bankrupt in 48 hours if they lost their data. If you rely on services and information from a supplier, make sure they have up-to-date copies of your data stored offsite.
