alysonbrimecombe

Curiosity

Canon EOS 6D

settings

Aperture f/2.0 ISO 100 Shutter 1/400

upload_date

Jul, 2014

Views

1368

Likes

+120

Awards

Contest Finalist in Fstoppers Volume 3 Photo Contest

Peer Award

+21

Superb Composition

+13

Absolute Masterpiece

+10

Top Choice

Outstanding Creativity

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All Star

Superior Skill

One Of A Kind

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Behind The Lens

Location

I took this photo at a public park with a dirt track that goes down towards the creek, and it is a one minute drive from my home. The afternoon light hits the long grass at just the right angle, and about a week after I took this photo, I went back down to this spot to find that the local Council had mowed it all down!

Time

I always shoot during the golden hours - majority of the time, I will head off to shoot around 4pm, and then wait until the perfect light.

Lighting

This image is backlit, so the sun is behind my son here, bringing out amazing highlights in his unruly hair. I under exposed this image by a stop, which means that I had greater control over the highlights in post processing - which I love.

Equipment

I used a Canon 6D body with a 135L f2 prime lens, handheld. With a toddler who is always moving and never stands still often, a tripod is a redundant piece of equipment. I do not use a flash. The other piece of 'equipment' I had with me was my partner, who helped to stop him from running away!

Inspiration

My older child is a wonderful model for me. He is older, and takes direction and gets my vision. My toddler on the other hand, is not interested in posing, or staying still - and every shot I get of him actually looking at the camera, is a big win for me! So, I really wanted to take an image of my youngest son to include in my Emotion Series photography project. This is called 'Curiosity', and is featured on my Emotion Series collection. And I think 'Curiosity' is the perfect title for my toddler to showcase.

Editing

This image is hand-edited using Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop CS6. I love playing with colour, and doing a lot of masking on and off using layer masks and inverting. I knew I was going to be shooting in this long grass area, and I knew I wanted to turn it into a caramel inspired tonal range for the grass, so I purposefully dressed my toddler in a blue / denim outfit for contrast. And during post processing, I made sure I made the most of the contrasting colours to make the image pop.

In my camera bag

Before I got my 135L f2 lens, I was always using my 70-200 f2.8, however, I now almost always choose to use my 135L f2 when shooting portraits. Whats in my camera bag depends entirely upon the session I am shooting, and the end results. I generally like to take however, my Tamron 24-70, Sigma 70-200, 105mm Sigma macro, my 40mm pancake and my 6D with 135L ready to go. I always make sure I have at least 3 memory cards on me at all times, formatted and ready to go, and 3 fully charged batteries, and my Black Rapid strap.

Feedback

My advice for shooting children is to get as low as possible. I don't shoot traditional portraits of children where they fill the majority of the frame, I like to get a bit of the scene also, for storytelling purposes. Simple locations and backgrounds are also much more appealing to me than busy, cluttered backgrounds.

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alysonbrimecombe

alysonbrimecombe

Curiosity

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow alysonbrimecombe

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