Infuse your images with glowing, luminous lightFrom high-profile wedding and portrait photographer Elizabeth Messina comes this beautiful guide to shooting lush, romantic portraits exclusively in natural light. Whether you’re photographing children, weddings, maternity and boudoir, or portraits of any kind, The Luminous Portrait will inspire you with Elizabeth’s personal approach and award-wining images, sharing the art to making flattering portraits that appear “lit from within.”

Here is a book babies can really sink their gums into. Built for the way babies read, Indestructibles are printed on an amazing paperlike material that can’t be ripped, torn, or punctured. Indestructibles are 100 percent safe and nontoxic, and if they get too funky, just throw them in the washing machine or dishwasher. They’re made for baby to hold, grab, chew, pull, and bend, and are designed to create an even more special bond between reader and baby. Printed without words, the parent gets to make up the story, or just cuddle with baby while they explore together. The creators of Indestructibles are Amy Pixton, a mother of triplets, and her mother-in-law, Kaaren Pixton, an artist and children’s educator.  Jungle Rumble! is about creatures in the wild.  Kaaren Pixton’s art is bright, swirling with color, and reminiscent of Eric Carle, and it attains an almost 3D richness on the special paperlike stock of the book. 

Capture the story of your baby’s first year! The first twelve months of your child’s life are full of precious, fleeting moments, from sleepy newborn yawns to first smiles and wobbly first steps. Why entrust your memories to hastily taken snapshots—or worse yet, none at all? Let professional photographer (and mom) Me Ra Koh help you capture the moments with 40 beautiful “photo recipes” anyone can do, with any camera. Telling your baby’s story in pictures has never been easier! 

Ready to Capture Your Story with Beautiful Photos? Let professional photographers Rachel Devine and Peta Mazey show you how to use that fancy DSLR to photograph the story of your life, from falling in love and having a baby, to the everyday moments that are no less precious. You’ll learn:    • Common beginner mistakes and how to avoid them   • How to take portraits of your children, friends, pets—even yourself   • How to capture light to make your photos more dramatic   • How to make colors pop, eyes sparkle, and skin tones more realistic   • How to capture the uniqueness and wonder of your family, friends, and world After all, why trust your memories to regular snapshots when with just a little knowledge, you can create beautiful photographs? Be inspired to see the beauty around you, every day.

Calling all mamarazzis! Every camera-toting mom will want this guide!Moms, if you can't seem to take enough great photos of the children in your life, this is the book for you.  Now you can learn how to photograph children with the style, clarity, color, and beauty you see in professional photographs.  This fun guide combines humor with solid know-how to show you how to compose shots, handle cameras from basic compacts to advanced dSLRs, take portraits or candids, create prints that impress, and even work with kids! Packed with beautiful examples and written in a down-to-earth style from one mom to another, this book will help mamarazzis everywhere take better photos.Moms are one of the fastest-growing segments of the camera-toting demographic, and the blogosphere has a term for them, mamarazzisMixes information, inspiration, and fun for women who want to take better photographs of the children in their livesExplains how to set up a camera and use the controls on basic compacts up to advanced dSLR camerasCovers shot composition, determining settings, exposing images correctly, the essentials of printing images, how to process for clear and bright color, and moreIncludes stunning examples of portraits and candids of childrenBecome a better mamarazzi with this fun and informative guide! Mamarazzi: Top Tips for Getting Super Kid Shots Of course, every mamarazzo wants to know how to capture winning photos of her children. She wants to pick the perfect spots for shots, use lovely lighting, and make her camera’s bells and whistles sing. But the true show stopper for most moms is the ability to capture her child’s true personality in photos. A few insider tips can do the trick! Don’t act your age. The best way to guarantee giggles from your children is to think like a kid yourself. Figure out what makes them laugh … and then start the show! This may mean breaking a few rules in honor of photo time. For instance, let your monkey jump on the bed or plan a ridiculously bubbly bath time. But whatever you do, aim to capture the magic of childhood. Grab close ups of your son’s grass-stained knees. Or keep your distance and zoom out to show your daughter at play in her room. Use your imagination--right along with your child--to grab some great captures. Catch smiling siblings. Sibling shots are the pièce de résistance for nearly every mama--and papa, for that matter! But they can also be the most difficult images to get. How can you capture the charisma (or chaos!) of siblings without taking a trip to the looney bin? Here’s an idea: Gather your crew and engage them in a fun-for-all activity, like blowing bubbles, playing in the sprinkler, or building a blanket fort. Step back and capture the candids that ensue. Or hop into the Director’s chair for some shots. Mix up the words to a standard song to get a few grins. Suggest a jumping contest or try a tickle fest for fun. Balance something on your head and then let it fall to the floor. Engage your inner actress and make a big deal over the funny fails. Encourage siblings to get close (closer … no, ever closer!) to each other as you snap your shots. Chances are, if they’re having fun, they won’t mind the close quarters … and yep, it even works with toddlers and tweens! Give ‘em some star treatment. A seemingly simple tip that can go a long way to improve your mamarazzo moments is to handle your “star” with care. Be fun, honest, and kind to your child when you’re behind the camera. Make picture time fun … and enjoy the experience … rather than just getting the shot. Play games, tell jokes, or act silly along with your child. And if your children are old enough, let them be part of the photography process. Encourage your daughter to choose her own funky photo outfits. Or have your son pick his favorite places for picture-taking. If you make it fun, chances are that you’ll all enjoy camera time together. Remember to be kind to your child, especially when taking photos. You’ll want your child to feel cherished rather than chastised when the shutter is snapping. So keep your cool, mama. And no matter how much your kids push your buttons when you’re trying to (wo)man the camera, keep it fun and upbeat. And when you’re tapped out, close the curtain! With these tips, you’re sure to capture the winning shots you want. And even better, you might just earn a repeat performance the next time you bring out your camera! Photo Examples The Right Lighting Picking Clothes Sibling Photos

Where Children Sleep presents English-born photographer James Mollison's large-format photographs of children's bedrooms around the world--from the U.S.A., Mexico, Brazil, England, Italy, Israel and the West Bank, Kenya, Senegal, Lesotho, Nepal, China and India--alongside portraits of the children themselves. Each pair of photographs is accompanied by an extended caption that tells the story of each child: Kaya in Tokyo, whose proud mother spends $1,000 a month on her dresses; Bilal the Bedouin shepherd boy, who sleeps outdoors with his father's herd of goats; the Nepali girl Indira, who has worked in a granite quarry since she was three; and Ankhohxet, the Kraho boy who sleeps on the floor of a hut deep in the Amazon jungle. Photographed over two years with the support of Save the Children (Italy), Where Children Sleep is both a serious photo-essay for an adult audience, and also an educational book that engages children themselves in the lives of other children around the world. Its cover features a child's mobile printed in glow-in-the-dark ink.James Mollison was born in Kenya in 1973 and grew up in England. After studying art and design at Oxford Brookes, and later film and photography at Newport School of Art and Design, he moved to Italy to work at Benetton's creative lab, Fabrica. His work has been widely published throughout the world in Colors, The New York Times Magazine, the Guardian magazine, The Paris Review, the New Yorker, Le Monde and elsewhere. His previous books published by Chris Boot include The Disciples (2008), The Memory of Pablo Escobar (2007) and James and Other Apes (2004). Mollison has lived in Venice since 2003.

Here is a book babies can really sink their gums into. Built for the way babies read, Indestructibles are printed on an amazing paperlike material that can’t be ripped, torn, or punctured. Indestructibles are 100 percent safe and nontoxic, and if they get too funky, just throw them in the washing machine or dishwasher. They’re made for baby to hold, grab, chew, pull, and bend, and are designed to create an even more special bond between reader and baby. Printed without words, the parent gets to make up the story, or just cuddle with baby while they explore together. The creators of Indestructibles are Amy Pixton, a mother of triplets, and her mother-in-law, Kaaren Pixton, an artist and children’s educator.  Plip-Plop Pond! is about a frog who visits his friends in the pond. Kaaren Pixton’s art is bright, swirling with color, and reminiscent of Eric Carle, and it attains an almost 3D richness on the special paperlike stock of the book.

It's Waddle! And it's in color. And boy, is it irresistible. In the same way that kids can't read Gallop! without wanting to gallop around the room, Waddle!, an animals-in-motion Scanimation book, will inspire prancing, hopping, stomping, and scampering. And did we mention color? Created by the optical genius behind the phenomenal #1 and #2 New York Times bestselling children's books, Gallop! and Swing!, Waddle! adds touches of color to the images and integrates it into the text. That prancing pig is pink, the leaping dolphin is blue, the slithering snake yellow. The Scanimation itself is also more lifelike, as the author continues to refine his patented Scanimation process, resulting in a more fluid, realistic motion. Nothing else compares. Waddle! teaches color and movement. Its language is a joy, the rhymes inspiring, the animals full of life. And one more thing: Waddle! has a surprise ending. Something else to grab the reader—literally.

Mann's subjects are her small children (a boy, a girl and a new baby), often shot when they're sick or hurt or just naked. Nosebleeds, cuts, hives, chicken pox, swollen eyes, vomiting--the usual trials of childhood--can be alarmingly beautiful, thrillingly sensual moments in Mann's portrait album. Her ambivalence about motherhood--her delight and despair--pushes Mann to delve deeper into the steaming mess of family life than most of us are willing to go. What she comes up with is astonishing. --Vince Aletti, The Village Voice