Courtney Slazinik preserves precious family memories with the Tamron SP 24-70mm VC and SP 70-200mm VC lenses.

By Jenn Gidman
Images by Courtney Slazinik

When Courtney Slazinik and her husband moved into their home, they got rid of the dark wood furniture that was inside and replaced it with white IKEA furniture. The purpose was twofold: to affordably redo their home so it would withstand the daily routine of three young girls ("our kids are still so little and destroy everything," she laughs), as well as to create the perfect setting for the photos Courtney's always taking of her family. "All that brightness looks so beautiful in pictures," she says.

Courtney uses both the Tamron SP 24-70mm VC—her workhorse lens—and her latest addition, the SP 70-200mm VC lens. "My 24-70 still lives on my camera, but I now love the 70-200, too—any time I can put that one on, I do," she says. With their advanced optics, fast maximum F/2.8 aperture for when she's shooting in low light, and Tamron's proprietary Vibration Compensation (VC) feature to tap into as she chases after her little ones, these two Tamron lenses ensure Courtney is able to capture the moments that mean the most to her and her family.

Read on for Courtney's tips on how to zoom in on not only the milestones but also the seemingly mundane: Even the most humdrum activities can be transformed into compelling photos if you know what to look for and how to capture it.

Try photographing from different angles when your subjects are engrossed in their activities.
My kids are so used to me walking around with my camera that nothing fazes them. Sometimes they're so accustomed to me that they forget I'm there. That's when I can get creative and try to experiment with different angles to show varying perspectives.

That's how I got this picture from above of my daughter reading her book. I had taken a few images of her in another room, then moved her to her little white table in front of the French doors we have. I took a few pictures of her reading, then decided I wanted to try something different. I captured this mom's-eye view of the top of her head and the pages of the book, like what I'd see if she were sitting on my lap reading. I love how at ease she is and how intently she's concentrating on her book—after all, that's what babies do at that age.

I followed the same routine at my parents' house over the summer. I just hung back as my daughter played with my dad in the pool, zooming in with the 70-200 as they interacted. I was able to get a perfect picture that shows their relationship and how we spend our summers without them even looking at the camera.

Use lighting, lines, and even lack of color to make distracting elements disappear.
I was able to capture a nice image in our playroom of my oldest daughter showing her younger sister a dictionary for kids, trying to scope out the definition for "skeleton." They were so intense as they looked for it that I knew I would be able to get a terrific photo without them really paying attention to me.

There were a lot of distracting elements as I set up this photo. There's a lot of clutter in the room and adjoining hall, and my dog was hanging out in the corner. The chair you can see in between them in the background is a yellow chair with blue flowers; one of my daughters has a red dress on, while the other one is wearing a pink dress with crazy patterns. I realized there was a lot going on in that image, so I decided to shoot it in black and white to focus the viewer's eye on my daughters instead of on all the other stuff.

It was a cloudy day, so the light wasn't too bright when I took the picture. But I was still able to use the light that was coming in through the window, as well as the lines of the window ledge and in the grain of the wood to help minimize the other clutter in the room and draw the viewer's eye directly to where I needed it to go: the girls.

Be prepared to think on your feet when your subjects aren't following the game plan (and have a versatile lens on the ready).
Trying to wrangle your subjects into always doing what you want them to can be challenging. I wanted my three girls to do a mini-photo shoot with me in a local park, but they weren't playing ball: The little one was scared of every car that drove by, and they were all just giving me these big, cheesy smiles.

I was getting frustrated until I suddenly remembered how much they love Taylor Swift's song "Shake It Off." I just started singing and said, "Let's dance!" They began waving their arms in the air and goofing around, and I was able to zoom in to get the shot, blurring out the background just slightly as the light started to dim (it was about 15 minutes before the sun went behind the trees). This picture is so them, too—I probably couldn't have posed this.

The same thing happened with the picture of my daughter standing to the side of that tree. It was her last day of preschool and I really wanted to get some pictures of her, but she was having none of it, giving me sour looks, the whole deal. She whirled around to walk away from me toward the tree when I just called out her name. She turned around and gave me that look—her look, the one she always gets that I want to remember when she's all grown—and took the picture. In both these instances, it pays to have the flexibility of a lens like the 70-200, because you can zoom in and out to get whatever spontaneous action starts happening in front of your camera.

Some of the most powerful images come from the quietest moments.
I took a series of pictures the last morning my youngest daughter was in her crib. It was the morning of her 2nd birthday, the day we gave her a big-girl bed. She was a hot mess that morning when she woke up, but I just walked around the room taking pictures from different angles when I saw this one through my viewfinder. There was something in the way she was holding the crib and the lines of the image that helped me once more direct viewers to where I wanted them to look. I adore this photo—she's my last one, my youngest, so it was an extra-special, bittersweet moment for me.

A couple of months after her big move, I decided to capture some images of her in her new bed. Mommy gets a little break when she has quiet time there every afternoon, and I wanted to capture that part of her day. I loved the soft light filtering in while she read her book, the lines of the bed, how you're able to see her little feet and the blankets and sheets she used at this age and her stuffed kitty. It's such a peaceful, calm moment I was able to preserve with a photo.

To see more of Courtney Slazinik's work, go to http://clickitupanotch.com.