The photo was taken a wild field next to a forestation in my town. I happened across the field by accident while driving past it one day. These wild mustard flowers only grow for two months every year. I am a family and child photographer so I am constantly looking for new places to shoot.
Time
I knew the moment that I saw this field that I wanted to shoot at sunset. The sun sets right behind those mountains. Before I even saw how the light would illuminate the flowers I already knew it was going to be magical. This was shot on the 27th of January 2016 at 7:45pm. This was about 5 minutes before the sun sank completely behind the mountain.
Lighting
I absolutely wanted the sun directly behind the little girl. The sun put this gorgeous glow on the flowers and I wanted that to lead directly to the subject and light up her white blond hair. I got other images of her playing in the field with different angles of the light hitting her but I knew that this image was what I came to shoot.
Equipment
I shot this with a Canon 5DMIII 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM. No other equipment was used.
Inspiration
I love capturing the essence and innocence of childhood. There is so much beauty in the carefree way that children play. This is an image of my daughter and her favorite baby doll. I found this buggy at an antique store that I love to go to when visiting my sister. I knew that I wanted to capture her with her doll and when I saw this field I just knew that it would be the perfect location to show the beauty of my daughter and the love she has for her doll.
Editing
This image was processed in Photoshop. I really wanted to enhance the sunset and create a soft whimsical overall feeling in the image. I knew I wanted the little girl to be the main focus of the image but I also wanted to show the beauty in the landscape around her.
In my camera bag
My 24-70mm f/2.8 is always on my Canon 5DMIII body. Thus it is always in my bag. I also always have with me my 70-200mm f/2.8. They are the staples of my camera bag. I love the versatility of my 24-70 and that I can quickly pick it up in my home and get great shots of my kids playing or doing something silly. I adore shooting my 70-200 outside. I love the compression it gets when it is at 200mm and I pretty much always use it when shooting outdoors especially in larger fields.
Feedback
The best advice I could give is to not have any expectations. In this image my daughter had just turned 3 years old and she did not particularly like me trying to pose her. Generally I have an idea in my head of the shot I want but I am not married to it. I will set the scene before she sees it and then I will turn her loose in it. What you don't see is I (as a rule) have someone just outside of the frame helping me to keep her in the area that I want to photographer her. I give her almost no direction and I work around her to find the magic. If I go in with an expectation of a certain shot I typically end up disappointed because she feels confined and will not "perform" as you might say.
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