capturing moments not clutter

​I was talking to my grandma the other day and she expressed her concern about me being out in the woods all alone with my kids where there is so much wildlife out. I let her in on my little secret. There are times that I am out on a trail alone, but a lot of the time we go places where there will be other people around, or at least that we will pass other people on the trail every now and then. I love getting out and being alone, but I also love feeling safe and feeling like if something happened to me there would be someone around to help me and my girls back to the car. This is where cropping and angles come into place. There are many times that I take a picture and just outside of the frame one of my kids is making a stupid face, or there is a random person off in the distance. I am not trying to fool anyone into thinking that one little moment was perfection, but I also don't want distractions in my photos.

Why am I telling you all of this? I think my biggest reason is so you don't feel like you have to be out in the middle of no where, all alone, to have a great time or to get a great picture of your kids. Just the other day I went on a hike with a group of families from my church, there were a million kids running around everywhere yet in my shot there was only one person. Right outside of the frame? Utter, joyful, chaos. Next time you go on a hike, if you are hesitant to take a photo because there is so much going on around you try getting down low, angling your camera/phone, or cropping the shot differently to capture the moment and feeling that you are wanting.