Adventures of the 3 Year Old Male
Looking at the camera is such a two year old thing.
Looking at the camera is such a two year old thing.
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Aug, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo of my son on the day of his third birthday. We went for a quick stroll around the block so I could sneak in a few birthday photos.Time
I captured this just before the sun faded out of the gorgeous west Texas sky on a beautiful July evening. I was just about finished taken this little man's photos when I shot this particular image. It was somewhere close to a quarter after 8:00 pm. If you look at the bokeh in the background to the left of the photo, you can see the glow of orange that makes it easy to figure about what time it was. The sun behind the trees there was just about set right here. Without referring to the original image, I couldn't tell you the exact time I snapped this, but when I look at it, I know I was sitting in front of this handsome fella, snapping photos in between giggles. three years, six hours, and some odd minutes, give or take, after I laid eyes on this boy and that sweet, sweet face of his this face for the very first time.Lighting
I was afraid the idea to get out and get some birthday photos of Cash here had come too late and I may not have enough time to get plenty of shots of him not cooperating with a few lucky ones in the mix. With this guy, I always just snap away at him as he tries his hardest to keep me from getting anything usable. Fortunately, we started our photo adventure at the perfect time. The whole time I had my camera on him, I could not have asked for better light. This particular day, the sun was filtered through some light cloud coverage. The position of the sun and the clouds was perfection. There was a warm, sunny glow just beaming all around us. The world around us at that time was just lovely. And bokeh. That bokeh! The mix of orange that the sky was that evening as it filtered through the trees created the most perfect bokeh. The only word I can use to describe the natural lighting that occurred when I shot this picture is incredible. Natural light is the only type I use and this particular time, it was nothing short of incredible.Equipment
This, like all of my photos, was shot with a Nikon D7100 and Nikon Nikkor Lens 50mm ? F/1.4. They go everywhere with me. I never leave home without them.Inspiration
The answer to this question is simple. This photo was inspired by the little boy in it. That little dude, Cash, and his big sister, Cali, inspire everything in my life, especially my journey as a photographer. It was those two blessings that lead me to discover my passion for photography and it's those two that keep me on the path of trying to become a successful photographer. I'm dedicated to following through with my photography dream and I'll continue going after it until I'm finally there. Keeping this dream alive, even when it seems like I may neber make it, just so I can become their inspiration.What better way to teach them to chase their dreams than to conquer mine.Editing
Yes. I opened the RAW image in Adobe Camera Raw where I brought up the exposure slightly. I also darkened the shadows and recovered the slightly blown out highlights. After the ACR adjustments, I opened the photo in Photoshop and ran a couple actions from Greater than Gatsby's Innocence Collection. I used an adjustment layer and layer mask to darken the background just slightly more than my subject. It almost feels as if I used PS to help intensify the bokeh in this image, but that was all SOOC and something I was so excited to capture. When I took this photo, I knew it was going to be my favorite. When I snapped this photo, this is exactly the final image I pictured in my mind. I was beyond happy with the photo at that point so I ran a noise reduction action. Something I usually do to all my photos and that probably could have been skipped in this picture, but it did create a smoothing effect over the background that I thought added to the overall feel of this picture. I used a low opacity black brush and painted away some of the smoothing on parts of his face (eyes, nose, and mouth). I ran my favorite sharpening action and used a layer mask so it was only applied to the subject. I flattened the layers to one and ran one last action that I use on all full sized photos just to make sure they are optimized for printing. Side note: this was the first photo of mine that I've had printed by a professional lab printer and it came out amazing. It printed beautifully and I cannot wait to order enlargements.In my camera bag
My camera bag is pretty light. It's just my trusty Nikon D7100 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens. This is all I own right now and although one day I hope to add to my lens collection and eventually upgrade to a full frame, these two beauties and I are doing quite well. I started out with a Nikon D3200 and kit lens so this setup isn't bad at all. I cannot say enough great things about both pieces of equipment. Nikon is the way to go!Feedback
All the time, I have people ask me my secret to getting so many great photos of toddlers. My answer is always the same and I consider it my most helpful piece of advice as a photographer for beginners that come to me for help. I never plan any kind of poses and setups with toddlers and preschool aged kiddos. It's much more work to try to get a child that doesn't know you to follow direction than it is to just let them roam free. This photo is of my son and any parent photographer will tell you that getting pictures of your own children is never as easy as photographing other people's kids. It may not appear so here, but I had a super hard time getting a decent photo of this guy. I gave up on convincing him to look at me and smile. Shoot, I had a hard enough time getting him to stop running off away from me once I got in position to capture him in action. I have about 10 photos taken at this same time with the back of his head or his blurry face trying to make it any kind of decent picture impossible. Actually, almost all of the photos from this little mama/son photo shoot are profile views or silly snaps of him hiding his cute face behind his hands. One of the best pictures I have ever gotten of a kid was the one I did a few minutes before this. He's standing in front of a beautiful orange sky sporting his cowboy boots, shiny belt buckle, and baseball cap and his standing firmly in front of the camera with a big ol' smile on his face. He had both hands over his face, he was looking down so almost only the top of his cap was facing me, and he's laughing his butt off knowing I want him to look at me and smile. He thought he was really ruining my fun, but I sure did take that picture and I did it knowing it was going to be one of the cutest pictures I've ever taken. If you are hoping to get great shots of your little guys or gals or other people's guys and gals, load up on caffeine, set your shutter speed to no less than 500, and give yourself a few minutes to chase your subject(s) around. Be a kid for like 10 minutes and not only will you find shots like this one in your camera roll, you'll have a ton of fun.
