Holidays are the time of year we celebrate with family and friends. It is a tradition, and photography can help everyone enjoy them more for the years to come, but someone will have to take some photos for that to happen.

I have enjoyed my wife’s family tradition of Forget Me Not cookies.

Recipe FORGET Me Not – MERINGUE COOKIES

My sister makes rainbow cookies every year and a few other special cookies. So, as you can see, you can easily photograph many of these family traditions, add the family recipes, and then maybe create a book of the family memories and traditions for everyone in the family to get a copy of.

Most of my friends have a party mix made with Chex cereal. Well, in our family, we call it Scrabble. Scrabble is what my Nana “B” called it. She was my grandmother. Maybe it is they ate a lot of it when they played scrabble.

Here are a few tips to improve these holiday photos for you this year.

First, remove all the photos from your camera’s memory card and place them safely. I would have at least one more memory card. There are a few reasons for you having a second memory card. Of course, if you fill up one, you want a second, but believe it or not, these things can fail, and having a second card with you is essential to capture those fleeting moments with family.

Our family tradition for the past six years has been to attend the Fellowship of Christian Athlete breakfast at the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Here is my daughter and her friend Dan Cathy.

Second, charge your multiple camera batteries. For the same reason, you need a second memory card and a second camera battery.

Third, keep that camera with you all the time through the holidays. Take lots of photos.

Fourth, use available light as much as you can. Do your best to custom white balance your photos. I carry the ExpoDisc and get a custom white balance every chance to get the best possible color in every situation. I wrote about using this over presets in the camera in an earlier blog [click here]

Fifth, buy a tripod and use it. The tripod is most likely the one thing that will improve people’s photos the most over anything else. The reason is camera shake is the number one reason for poor pictures. There is motion in the image, making the subject look soft and out of focus. However, they are not so much out of focus as the camera moves while taking the photo. In an earlier blog post, I wrote about how I use a tripod to photograph the ornaments on the tree [click here].

Sixth, think about everything you are doing this holiday before you do anything. Take a moment and reminisce on years. What are the traditions that you look forward to each year? Take a moment and write out an outline. I wrote an earlier blog to help you with this if you need some tips. [click here]

Be prepared this Christmas to document some of the family traditions you have and help capture the visuals and the reasons these traditions are in writing. Post a photo book after the holidays and share this with your family and friends. Maybe include some family recipes with photos of the cooks as they are making them.

Here is a great place to make that book for about $30 or more if you have a lot to include. Check out Blurb.

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.