A Stack of Books and a Whole Afternoon
My twins enjoying the sunshine and a few good books.
My twins enjoying the sunshine and a few good books.
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Mar, 2015Views
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Awards
Creative Winter Award
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Contest Finalist in Your Life Photo Contest
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Absolute Masterpiece
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AlfieVitaro
April 24, 2015
wow brilliant photo. aside from the adorableness of the subject, i love the light on the floor, the open door bokeh etc........wonderful shot.
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Behind The Lens
Location
This is in my own home. I had an afternoon alone with my boys and they love to sit and look at books, so I set it up and it turned out quite well.Time
The front of our house faces south and gets a lot of light. This was taken a bit after lunch, so close to noon or 1pm. The light filters in quite nicely through our front windows, but I like the idea of opening the front door to let in the warm sun and then pose the boys in a way that looks like this was the best possible spot in the entire house to read books, kind of how a cat will always find the warmest spot in the house, usually in front of a window with light coming in.Lighting
I wanted to embrace shadows and highlights with this one. Normally if I'm going to use the natural light that comes into my home, I use it in the late morning or late afternoon when it's not direct. But in this shot, I knew that I wanted more contrast and relax a bit on the whole idea of getting even light. I had light coming in through other sources as well such as nearby windows, but I wanted the light to be stronger, so I threw open the front door and really like the effect.Equipment
This was shot on my Nikon d5200 with a Tamron 17-50mm lens. No flash or tripod needed for this one.Inspiration
I take a lot of portraits for people and they are mostly outside in beautiful locations. That's all very nice but I realized the I wanted pictures of my own family to be in a place that was very familiar to us and meant something. The first thought that popped up was our own home where we live and love to be. I also wanted to catch moments or display my family in the way that I know them best. So for this photo, I wanted to capture my boys together, because they are the best of buds, and I wanted to capture them doing what they love. I arranged the scene a bit to lend some interest to the shot, but everything else it quite natural.Editing
The only post processing I did was up the contrast a bit and then render the photo in black and white.In my camera bag
In my bag I have my camera, a Nikon d5200, two lenses (a 50mm Nikkor and a 17-50mm Tamron), a rocket blower to keep dust out of the interior of my camera, a set of neutral density lenses, my battery charger, several SD cards, a microfiber cloth for cleaning, and my cell phone.Feedback
There are so many ways to light your subjects or the scene and sometimes we need artificial light for that purpose. But I like the idea of embracing natural light. Natural light is very good at bringing emotion to a scene or a subject because it looks more relatable and real. To capture something similar, watch your own home during the day and see how light filters in through windows or doors. Once you find a light source and a time of day that look interesting to you, set up a scene. Embrace the shadows and forget the idea of even light everywhere. Sometimes even light is what you want, but more than not through our day to day activities, we are hardly ever naturally evenly lit. And as long as your subject matter and composition are right on, you can produce some very simple yet striking photos.
