Thursday, February 26, 2015

Our Valentine's Day Party #NikonMOMents

A Girls' Valentine's Day Party

My daughter and I decided to have a get-together with a few of her friends on Valentine's Day. I highly recommend sharing Valentine's Day with a group of enthusiastic and spirited tween girls. They had so much fun hanging out, doing Valentine's Day crafts and nibbling on snacks.

Of course, I had to snap some shots of these cuties partying in true preteen fashion. As a Nikon Mom, I have had a blast sharing photos taken with my Nikon D3300 over the last several months. And, although this is my last official post as a Nikon Mom, all of the photos for this blog will continue to be taken with my Nikon D3300 and my Nikon D5100.

Tween Valentine's Day Party Fun

With their girl power-energy at an all-time high, it was difficult to get the girls to stay still long enough for pictures, but I managed to get a few fun shots to capture the joy that they felt spending time together on this day dedicated to love.

Making Valentine's Day Cards At Home

For our first Valentine's Day activity, we made cards for loved ones using a a fun stamp and card kit I bought at Michaels.

Love is gross Valentine's Day card

Feast your eyes on this little Valentine's Day card one of the girls wrote. Love is gross. Ha ha. I wonder how long that feeling will last? (For several more years I hope.)

Happy Valentine's Day card for grandmother

This sweet girl shared a more traditional sentiment on this card she made for her grandmother.


Valentine's Day party decor
f/1.8, 1/160 sec., ISO-100
In addition to doing our planned activities, the girls conspired to create fun mystery word games.

In this photo, I wanted to capture the Valentine's Day décor in the background while primarily focusing on the happy girls in the front of the shot. I blurred out the background by focusing on the girls using my 35mm f/1.8G lens. Its large maximum aperture of f/1.8 allows me to give a nice out-of-focus effect to the background. If you are on a quest to better understand your camera, Nikon has great tips for using your digital SLR, including this handy article about understanding aperture. I have some more quick tips in my post about our 15th anniversary trip to New York too.

putting your hair in a bun for dance class

In addition to staging some photos, I also took some shots of the little details the girls are sure to enjoy remembering in future - like their very cute hair accessories.

Valentine's Day party treats

And the snacks that they munched on for Valentine's Day.

heart-shaped fruit for Valentine's Day

My favourite shots are always the spontaneous ones, like this one above, in which the girls are having a laugh while enjoying their heart-shaped fruit on sticks. I think it captures their youthful spirit.

I like to play around with the composition of my photos. The rule of thirds suggests that you imagine a tic-tac-toe grid over the scene you are photographing. The points where the lines intersect are generally the best places to position your subject. Of course, rules are meant to be broken - the best thing to do is play around with your composition. For help, check out these 5 easy composition guidelines.

heart shaped fruit on a stick for Valentine's Day

I had told my son he could invite a friend to the party, but he chose not to. Wonder why. Anyway, I called him any time there were snacks on offer.

Making tissue paper pom poms for Valentine's Day

My daughter enjoyed teaching her friends how to make tissue paper pom poms.

Sprinkled heart cupcake for Valentine's Day

Of course, making cupcakes is a Valentine's Day necessity. We had lots of colourful toppings for the kids to choose from.


Sprinkled cupcake for Valentine's Day
f/1.8, 1/200 sec., ISO-100

Sprinkled cupcake for Valentine's Day

eating decorated cupcakes for Valentine's Day

Although my official time as a Nikon Mom has come to an end, I'm looking forward to playing around some more with my Nikon digital cameras. I still have lots to learn in order to take advantage of all the unique characteristics of these fabulous cameras. When I was a teen, I used to love to set up my tripod and experiment with taking photos of sunsets, lakes and passing cars. Inspired by the enthusiasm of my Valentine's Day party girls, I am once again feeling that desire to explore the fun in photography.

What's your favourite subject to photograph?



Disclosure: I am part of the Mom Central Canada Nikon MOMents team and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

17 comments:

  1. I loved the way you used the aperture setting! It really makes the pictures pop.

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    1. Thanks so much! I really appreciate that. :) Jo

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  2. I love these clear, spontaneous pictures. As a long distance granny they keep me up to date with the lives of the "kids". That's especially important this winter when we are housebound because of snow and cold.

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  3. Oh I love these shots!! We usually have a get together for my kids and a few of their friends along the same lines - although I may pinch your heart shaped fruit on a stick idea!! I love these kind of photos. They'll certainly prompt memories of happy timed shared in times to come. Fantastic photography, J9 x

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    1. Thanks so much Janine! Yes, the fruit on a stick is fun and gets something healthy into the kids too! :)

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  4. Love is gross - lol... Tthere are days when I completely agree. Beautiful photos!


    (Now I want a cupcake.)

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    1. I am in agreement some days too Wendy. ;) Go have a cupcake...

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  5. Beautiful! Everything looks fab and your home is gorgeous and so cosy! I really should follow your instructions for tissue paper pom poms (and next time make sure I'm actually using tissue paper...) My daughter says the photos are very nice especially the cupcakes :)

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    1. Awww, thanks so much! Cosy is what we're going for since it has been freeezing for weeks here!

      Your pom poms were great! And say thanks to your daughter. Too bad she wasn't closer to come over for cupcakes. :)

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  6. Absolutely wonderful photos! It looks like a really wonderful day for everyone :)

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  7. So sweet. Capture these moments in your mind and heart... the time is short from tween to teen!

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  8. Awww, thanks Lisa! You are most welcome. I am good with anything that speaks of spring...or summer for that matter!!! :)

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  9. This is just the cutest thing ever, how fun and totally impressive!

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    1. Thank you so much! You are lovely to say so!!

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