Happy Memorial Day to everyone. Today is a day to honor those who have fought and served our country and to grieve those who died while serving.

Memorial Day also signals the unofficial beginning of summer and what do kids want to do in the summer … SWIM! The weather in Bel Air today is fabulous — bright sunshine and 84 degrees.

While the kids were playing, I also was playing with my camera. I thought I try my hand at shooting with my right hand while holding a flash in my left. The downside to bright sunshine is the harsh shadows that accompany it. To bring out some definition in the shadows, a bit of fill flash does wonders.

The photo above — of my daughter Keely, the ham — used my technique of underexposing the camera 2/3 of a stop to cut down on the hot spots, and pop a bit of flash from the shadow side at 1/32 power.

The flash is not for inside use only. It can really come in handy outdoors as well. Give it a try, you may like the results.

For those that don’t normally photograph young’uns, I’ve got news for you — it’s not that easy. Well, it’s very simple to take pictures, but where the difficulty lies is in getting good pictures.

Unlike teenagers or adults, these little ones have no idea what photography is all about let alone listening to posing suggestions. You’ve got to let them be themselves and be ready to capture those great moments.

The one thing I set my mind to when going out to photograph little ones is patience. Knowing in advance that you most likely won’t be able to pose the child exactly as you wish and get that spontaneous smile or funny face, allows me to treat the photo shoot like a sporting event — and I LOVE sports!

If you’ve got other tips, I’d be glad to hear them.

My son was playing on the floor the other day and I was noticing his beautiful blue eyes. I grabbed my camera and took a nice closeup of him.

I processed the image using Nicole V’s actions and was extremely pleased with the outcome.