Photograph your family’s holidays this year as if you were telling a story. Look for moments that convey a beginning, middle, and end. And spice those with a variety of angles and points of view to create a memorable holiday scrapbook.

Overall Sets the Scene
An overall generally requires a high angle. A step stool or even a chair will do inside. Heading out to buy a Christmas tree? Bring a step stool, use the tree lot’s ladder, or look for a nearby hill. Take a few shots from on high to show the scope of the tree lot—and thus the challenge of selecting the ideal tree. If a scene plays out on a hillside, by the way, you can get LOW for a good overall, too!

Medium Shot Tells the Story
A medium shot “tells the story” in one picture. Come in close enough to see the kids in action, yet far enough away to show their relationship to one another and to the scene. The medium shot contains all the storytelling elements — mom or dad picking up a tree and turning it around while the kids come in for closer inspection, perhaps. Another good medium shot will be tying the tree to the car top or otherwise preparing it for the trip home. Back away enough show the car and the tree.

Close-up Adds Drama
The close-up brings us into eyeball-to-eyeball contact with your subject. Come in tight to get facial expressions – wonderment, frustration, glee? Come close, close, and closer to show treasured ornaments fashioned by little fingers. Bounce the flash off a ceiling or wall to avoid washing out the picture. To use the lights from the tree for illumination, you’ll need to stabilize the camera on a tripod or a flat surface and use a slow shutter speed (see below).

Unique Perspectives Reveal New Worlds
Show the world from your child’s perspective. Get down, way down, to show in a picture what your little girl or boy is seeing. Sometimes you don't even have to worry about including the child. Just look up. Capture your little one’s world. A wide-angle lens setting works best in these situations, but experiment; also try different lens settings.

For the ultimate unique perspective, once you’ve gotten some pictures you like, put the camera on automatic and hand it to your child. You may be surprised at the world as seen from a child’s point of view. When the whole family is around, let Grandma, Grandpa, and the cousins have turns, too.

Keep Following the Story
Repeat these kinds of shots as you follow your family and the tree through its trip home and its transformation into a thing of magic. Take an overall of the living room as the tree awaits, bare; medium shots of kids unpacking the ornaments, of dad struggling with the lights. Watch for the kids’ interactions with familiar ornaments, the intensity of their search for the perfect spot in which to hang the orb.

Using this approach as each holiday event unfolds — from baking and eating the holiday cookies to setting up a menorah and lighting its candles to wrapping gifts or unwrapping them. A photojournalist’s approach to photographing your family’s holiday traditions and rituals will deliver an entire story to be relived by generations to come.

Below is Part 1 of Family Photojournalist LuAnne Cadd's 2008 Christmas Story. Thanks so much, LuAnne, for sharing your holiday memories with us.!