These are the Hands We're Given
Nov, 2015Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken near my home, in the Rocky Mountain National forest at Poudre Canyon along the river.Time
My children and I were spending the week together on the river, and we weren't quite sure if it would rain. This picture was taken on August 7, 2015 in the middle of the day on an overcast day.Lighting
I really enjoy a bright foreground with a dark background. She was standing in the river where trees were draping behind her which added a lot of rich darkness. The river was also very dark that day due to the cloud cover.Equipment
This was shot with nothing more than a Canon 6D and an 8 5mm. The 85 mm was brand spanking-new, and I wanted to get a feel for it, so this is one of the first pictures I ever made with that lens.Inspiration
This is a picture of my daughter, Danika Lynn. She is tenderhearted and soft spoken. At this moment she was attempting to catch a frog and had come up empty-handed, but still had a droplet of water. I had hoped she would catch a frog, but in the end I was pleased to have this shot. It was extremely in the moment. She didn't end up catching a frog, for me, this shows her innocence and the care she takes when handles anything - even something as simple as a drop of water.Editing
Not a lot of post-processing went into this. I'm a big fan of black and white or color-theory. Since this day was gray already with a darkened river, her hot pink swimsuit took a lot away from the photograph so BW is the obvious choice. I used my usual routine with black and white photography where I brighten the highlights and whites and darken the blacks so that both are rich and show a lot of depth.In my camera bag
At the moment I carry my Canon 6D and my 3 favorite fixed lenses: the Canon 85 mm 1.8, Canon 35 mm 2.0 and Rokinon 14 mm 2.8.Feedback
1. Don't expect the image that you catch to be exactly what you want.. the images often become more creative and timeless. 2. Spend less planning - on Pinterest, learning Photoshop or looking at the work of others to try and replicate it - and spend more time actually doing. 3. Pay attention to the small details - hands, feet, hair, eye lashes, tears, old shoes. Pay a lot of attention, especially, to what people are doing with their hands. Hands can often tell just as great of a story as a person's face, and sometimes the story is even better. 4. In terms of technicalities: get to understand shutterspeed vs. aperture and how light effects them. A fast shutter speed was necessary for this photo (action shot) and would have also been necessary for photographing a possibly jumping frog.
