rexjones
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rodneyaiken
March 04, 2018
Very Nice. Love the image, Love the blue jeans against the green background and love the way it plays off the water. Great shot.
petercundill
March 07, 2018
Wow! What a fabulous photo this is, stunningly beautiful it has everything. A winner in my eyes!
caroljones
August 01, 2018
Love this capture. Brings me back to playing in the creeks and streams as a child.. Also reminds me of our great books such as Huck Finn!
margitulstrup
February 14, 2019
I'm back in time. This photo telling a beautiful story love it smile
kimberlyjmayo
February 28, 2020
How on earth you got two little boys to sit on a rock looking positively angelic is beyond me! My photo of my grandson would have been of him splashing me IN the water! LOL
PRECIOUS in every way!
PRECIOUS in every way!
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo at an unnamed location along the Santa Clara River, located in Southern Utah, USA. The spot can be found quite easily by simply hiking along the trail which runs parallel to the river. It's a relatively short hike, somewhere in the range of 15-20 minutes, which I realize is more than what most people are accustomed to when it comes to taking portraits. But then, I've never really been one to do what people are accustomed to doing anyway.Time
This was taken in the late afternoon in the middle of summer. Since the days are longer, late afternoon light was still roughly around 7:30pm, just about 2 hours before the sun disappeared behind the horizon.Lighting
I picked that time because the geography of my location was such where the rock canyon walls to the west of the river would block the intense direct light for a considerable amount of time before the natural sunlight actually disappeared completely. That way we were able to enjoy some nice filtered sunny light without all the intensity of the direct sun.Equipment
I used a Canon EOS 5D Mark III camera body with a Zeiss 135mm f/2 Apo Sonnar T* ZE lens. Now, those of you who know how Zeiss lenses work will understand that this was an all manual focus setup. No auto focus made things trickier, particularly since I was literally standing in the middle of the river to get the shot. So, I set up on a tripod to stabilize the camera which would allow me to spend more time setting focus and working with the kids on their setup. I used a Manfrotto tripod with the Junior Geared head to compose the shot with a nice straight horizon line.Inspiration
Honestly, the Mark Twain novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I loved reading the book as a kid and I would spend my summer days out adventuring in the forest just like Tom Sawyer did. I love the storybook explanation of children's adventures and this shoot was designed to recreate a little bit of childhood memory mixed with some Tom Sawyer fiction.Editing
Basically my processing is simply just a glorified set of vignettes mixed with some dodging and burning. Most of the processing for this shot was simply light balancing. Bringing attention to my subjects by darkening the surroundings and brightening up the boys. There was a little bit of color control done, simply to harness some of the raw beauty of the green surroundings. A couple final border vignettes and that's all it took!In my camera bag
I rock a Canon 5D Mark III the entire time and my lenses vary somewhat. For portrait work I always have the Canon 85mm f/1.2, the Zeiss 135mm f/2, and the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8. Those three lenses, even though they all have ranges which compare close enough to each other, all serve very specific functions and I usually pick the lens for specific shots, not the other way around. For this shot, I wanted the combo of both the power of an open aperture of f/2 but the compression of the 135mm focal length.Feedback
Oh man, this is a loaded question. For starters, don't be afraid to use a tripod for portrait work. I know, I know, it seems unintuitive to use a tripod when working with subject matter like children...outside...in the water. But I wanted the tripod partially to allow me to spend more time working on posing and image focus while simultaneously letting me slow the shutter speed down to smooth out that water a bit. Don't be afraid to let the kids be kids. I didn't have a plan for this shot at all. I knew my scenery, I knew my backdrop, and I knew my lighting, but I had no idea what mood those kids would be in. So, using the help of the parents, we set the boys up on that rock and just let them interact with their environment. Moments after getting them in place, an airplane could be heard passing overhead. The boys immediately noticed the sound and I simply asked them if they could actually find the airplane in the sky. Both of them started searching hard, eventually the older one found the airplane and pointed it out to his younger brother. That's when I snapped the shutter. Be patient. Be prepared. Have fun. :)