This whole idea of “bugs eye view” is something that I’ve loved trying to pull off with a point & shoot. It’s hard, though. It seems like I have to put the camera in macro mode to get enough depth-of-field blur to make it work right.

Anyone have any tips for how to pull off that sort of stuff with a P&S?

[...] First off, I know I’ve said before that you should shoot kids on their eye level, but sometimes it’s fun to break those rules, like with the picture to the right. I find that, especially with kids in costume, it’s cool to get a different view than the straight-on looking-at-the-camera shots that parents tend to do every Halloween. The bird’s eye view shots give a cool voyeuristic feel (great for a spooky holiday like Halloween) and they help you see a different angle of the costume than you can when you’re photographing a child right in front of you. Even though my daughter’s not in a creepy costume, I think this technique works well for this shot because of her full skirt. And yes, I would have liked a little eye contact or even a smile, but you try to tell a 13-month-old to do anything on command. I dare you! Another thing to remember with kids in costume is that the most important thing is to make sure that they are comfortable, both with their costume and in their environment. I know this seems obvious, but many a Halloween photo has been ruined because a child couldn’t see through his Buzz Lightyear helmet and threw a fit or hated the princess tiara shoved onto her head. It always helps to try the costume on a couple times before Halloween, especially for younger kids. Getting zipped into something fuzzy and itchy could be scary if you don’t know what’s going on. [...]