Looking for Light: The Golden Hour

The month of June was, well, crazy for me. Probably the craziest of my life. We welcomed our fourth child, Grant, into our family; however, his entrance was not how I anticipated because I ended up with an emergency C-Section. After three "normal" births, this has been quite the recovery process, and I will NEVER underestimate how hard C-Sections are to heal from. On top of having to recover from the Section, I ended up coming home to a sick 15-month old son and soon after two sick little girls. Thankfully, I had my mom and my husband to help, and I will be forever grateful to them for how amazingly wonderful they were. All in all, though, Grant is a beautiful and healthy addition to our family, and I am grateful for that. The rest of the kids are healthy again, too!
Now, enough about me, haha. Let's talk about photography- a subject that puts me into a feeling that makes me feel, well, zen! Ohhhhmmmmmm.....
Last month, I talked a bit about open shade. This month, I want to talk about the "golden hour," which is the time(s) of day that most photographers LOVE, due to it's universally flattering and dreamy effect that it tends to produce.
In short, there are actually two "golden hours" during the day- the hour after sunrise, and the hour before sunset. During both times of day, the sun is not bright enough to cause squinting or harsh lines, and it often creates a softer dimension to your skin tones and subjects in general. The evening "golden hour" can also produce an amazing sense of backlight, or that halo effect that you can get when the sun is placed behind the subject.
If you have young children and are brave enough to venture out of your home with your kids and camera in tow, you will be amazed at how that morning light can create whimsical photos that can allow you to incorporate things like morning dew into your photos, too. I promise that you won't regret it!
Now, there are some technical aspects to taking phenomenal photos during the "golden hour" that I will have to address in a future installment. Until then, have fun taking practice pictures of your kids and/or pets during these times in order to see how these times of day often create the best photos!