There’s nothing quite like capturing a child’s wonder for life — the curiosity, the surprise, the discovery.

But photographing these moments requires a special kind of photographer, one who not only knows how to snap a portrait but also understands what it takes to bring out a child’s emotions.

In the latest interview of Advancing Your Photography, Marc Silber sits down with accomplished child and baby photographer Lena Hyde for an in depth discussion of what you can do to improve your own family photography.

Lena’s claim to fame resides in her uncanny ability at connecting with children. With experience taking portraits of kids of every age — from newborns through young adults — Lena has developed a naturalness in both method and style that manages to bring out the best in her clients’ families.

Watch the interview and you’ll learn all about:

1. Natural Lighting — Lena makes it a point never to use artificial light sources. To do this she stays away from in-studio shoots and is constantly on the hunt for the best spots for natural lighting. Watch and learn as she offers a few tips that you can use in getting the right light for your shoot.

2. Photographing Children –If you’ve ever tried to get a kid to sit still and smile for a picture, you know how hard photographing children can be. But for Lena, this is an obstacle she has turned into an advantage. Listen in as she describes how to make a child feel comfortable during a photo shoot… as well as her amazing ability at using finger-puppets WHILE shooting.

3. The Importance of Environment — “I spend the time to go to the client and shoot in their world,” Lena says. “This makes it more comfortable for the family being on their own turf.” Plus, as Lena points out, nothing matches better with the walls of a home than photographs taken in the home itself.

To see more of Lena Hydes’ tips and techniques on how to improve your child photography, watch the latest episode of Advancing Your Photography with Marc Silber. Also, be sure to check out more of Lena’s amazing work at her website, www.LenaHyde.com.

Photo © Lena Hyde 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Photo © Herman Leonard

Herman Leonard, one of the most prominent jazz photographers of the 20th century who became famous for capturing musical greats like Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie and Billie Holiday, has died at a hospital in Los Angeles. He was 87.

Leonard passed away Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in LA, said a family spokesperson on his website. Leonard had moved to Los Angeles from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina flooded his home and destroyed thousands of his photographic prints.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest music scene photographers of the mid-20th century, Leonard is most known for his shots of jazz and vocal greats performing in smoky blues clubs throughout the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s. Moving between Paris, London and New York, Leonard’s photographs displayed his signature smoky, back-lit style that is now part of the era’s unmistakable look.

As super-producer Quincy Jones recalls, “I used to tell cats that Herman Leonard did with his camera what we did with our instruments. Looking back across his career, I’m even more certain of the comparison: Herman’s camera tells the truth, and makes it swing. Musicians loved to see him around. No surprise; he made us look good.”

130 of Leonard’s photographs are in the Smithsonian’s permanent collection. His most enduring images include Frank Sinatra brooding in the recording studio, Ella Fitzgerald singing in a packed club while Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman sit enraptured, and Louis Armstrong with a bottle of champagne. In 1956 he was Marlon Brando’s personal photographer on the actor’s trip to Asia.

Even after more than six decades as a photographer, Leonard later admitted that he still got the same rush when he looked at his photographs. As he said in an interview just last year, “It is amazing how an image can revive the feeling of the moment. The thrill of actually being there has never left me.”

Randy Johnson has traded in his baseballs for a camera.

The future Hall-of-Famer, who spent 22 years as one of the most dominant pitchers in the history of Major League Baseball, is now realizing his long-time dream of photographing some of the biggest rock ‘n’ roll stars in the world.

The former New York Yankees player brought his camera to Chicago’s Grant Park last weekend for the Lollapalooza music festival, and was spotted in the crowd shooting bands like Iron Maiden, Dream Theater and Soundgarden, who he is close friends with.

“This is my first summer available to go to shows, since I spent the last 26 years playing baseball, so my time was limited,” Johnson told the music site Noisecreep. “I have four kids and there is usually a concert in Arizona I can go to. I’ve enjoyed music forever, and photography, so one plus one. I envy these photographers that shoot for the bands, taking great pictures, having total access and getting them published.”

Johnson himself makes a rather unusual photographer. Not only does he stand at nearly 7 feet tall (making him one of the tallest photographers around), but he’s also had some highly-publicized run-ins with photographers before. In 2005 he got into a scrape with a TV cameraman who happened to get a little too close to the star pitcher.

With his height, passion and close relationships with various rock stars, Johnson may very well have a new career as a music photographer. Let’s just hope you don’t get stuck behind him at your next concert.

The last roll of Kodachrome film ever created has wound up in good hands.

Famed photographer and photojournalist Steve McCurry, who captured “Afghan Girl” (at left), an image that has been called “the most recognized photograph” in the history of National Geographic magazine, was given the final strip of the iconic film.

The world’s most commercially successful film for much of the 20th century, Kodachrome gained popularity beginning in the Great Depression for its vibrant colors, sharpness and durability. Tragically, the Eastman Kodak Co. officially discontinued the iconic film last year after deciding digital photography is the wave of the future. They decided to give the final roll of 36 exposures to McCurry.

So what will he do with the precious strip? That’s the subject of a new documentary from National Geographic, which follows the veteran photojournalist as he travels the world and attempts to give Kodachrome a proper send-off.

“I thought, what better way to kind of honor the memory of the film than to try and photograph iconic places and people? It’s in (my) DNA to want to tell stories where the action is, that shed light on the human condition,” the photographer said.

McCurry (who has already developed the film at Dwayne’s Photo Service in Parsons, Kan. — the last place in the world that develops Kodachrome film) pointed his camera at a number of New York City landmarks, including The Brooklyn Bridge and Grand Central Station, as well as famous faces like Robert De Niro. Then he headed to India, returning to where he shot some of his most notable work, all on the classic film.

The documentary, which chronicles McCurry’s 6-week trip around the world and the pressure of capturing something important in each precious image, is scheduled to air sometime early next year.

What about you? If you had the very last roll of Kodachrome film, what would you photograph?

Underwater, shot with Olympus 75SW

This morning I swam the last few laps of  2700 yards remembering  the years that I had been in this pool, and the significance of moving away (not far, just far enough to be a real change), savoring those bitter-sweet moments.

The first time I swam here was the summer I took junior life saving at age 12, coincidentally this was when I was first learning to use the darkroom. But my lifeguarding career came to  an abrupt end when we had the final test of “saving” the instructor. I swam towards him and the next I knew I was choking on his precise splash he shot at my gaping mouth. Yep, I was out of the running in about 30 seconds.

We moved back here over five years ago, to the Menlo Park-Palo Alto area where I grew up. Being a dedicated swimmer I hunted down a pool that I could get in my regular laps. I happened by my old high school and noticed a Masters program going on and chatted with the coach who invited me to come by and check it out. I did, and found it to be just my cup of tea: only a few adults swimming with lots of open lanes and plenty of personal attention from the coach.

Up to that point, I thought of myself as a fairly decent swimmer. But I had no idea that he would, in a friendly but persistent way over the next few years, tear down my outdated strokes and cause me to rebuild the new-millennium versions of them. Learning each of the four basic strokes this way was a challenge but on the other side was new found ease and joy in gliding through the water, rather then fighting it. Dang if I sometimes didn’t feel like I was surfing through the water (you can read my story of getting tubed for the ultimate in surfing.)

Near the end of today’s swim, I realized I was in one of those moments: Knowing that this would likely be the last time I’d cruise the lanes of this pool, but more widely, remembering all the events in this area since we moved back. The passing of my folks, with the void that leaves, no matter how old you are; the various events that have shaped my life and career as a photographer over these last years. Yes, it was a moment to pause, and look at where you’ve come and where you’re going, like a photograph.

One of joys of water sports is being completely immersed in a totally different element than we’re walking/worrying/working/driving in moment by moment by moment. This helps me to refocus and see newly and step out the cyber-world that most of us deal with all the time, and simply deal with moving through the fluid world.

Sometimes we just need to get out of all the mechanized, computerized, and hyper-speed moments and literally go with the flow…

Here’s the video I did with Ansel Adams’ grandson Matthew, from my previous post, have a look, and let me know your conclusion about this story.