Daughter
Taken at Kasuga Taisha in beautiful Nara Park in Nara, Japan. March 5, 2019.
Taken at Kasuga Taisha in beautiful Nara Park in Nara, Japan. March 5, 2019.
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Jul, 2019Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photograph was taken at the Kasuga-taisha temple located in beautiful (and expansive) Nara Park, located in the city of Nara, Japan, which is 45 minutes east of Osaka by train (if you get on the correct one..hehehe!)Time
About mid-afternoon on March 5, 2019. We had arrived in Nara Park about 11:30am and we eventually made our way (walked) to Kasuga-taisha as that was one of our focal points during our time in Nara. Nara Park is very big and there are a number of other things to see and Kasuga-taisha is a bit into the mountains (not too much).Lighting
I took this just outside the temple entrance. The afternoon sun reflecting off of nearby surfaces gave this covered walkway shadow area a softer glow ( a sort-of lightbox effect) so no harsh contrasts between light and shadow to take away from this touching image.Equipment
I basically used my Huawei Mate 20 native camera system. This phone features a Leica triple lens camera system, with better capabilities in low-lighting and night photography, which is my primary area of focus.Inspiration
Being that this was my family's first time to Japan, of course we were all taking hundreds of photos with our mobile devices. I wanted each of my photos to tell a story of our time in Japan. This photo was one of two photos that I took with, and of, my daughter. Just before this, I took a photo with my wife doing a similar pose while holding my hand and looking back towards me (one of those "#couple travel goal" photos). My daughter just happened to blink as I snapped this photo. The other photo of her has her eyes open. Later on, I would receive such a significant positive response of this photo by the Viewbug community, and it has become one of my most popular photos shared.Editing
At the time, I didn't have Lightroom installed. All post-processing was done with either the native photo Gallery app on my phone, or via the tools in Google Photos.In my camera bag
The only two cameras that I had available on this vacation were my Huawei Mate 20 Leica triple-lens camera phone, as well as our Canon Powershot sx30is, that actually belongs to my wife. I don't really possess other professional equipment other than two tripods, a ring light, a phone adapter for said tripod. I, do, have a Huawei Honor Band 6 smart watch, which can be synced to my camera giving me remote shutter capability. This proves an invaluable tool, especially for my long-exposure shots.Feedback
When the creative muse "comes a-callin'" as the saying goes, I will try to pick out potentially interesting subjects and mentally figure out how I could photograph him, her, it to make it an interesting (albeit amazing) photo. I factor in the current lighting conditions--whether indoors or outdoors, level of contrast between light and shadow, direct or indirect lighting, how to compose the photo in order to grab the viewer's eye and bring it to my subject and whether or not to take from a different angle. With this photo, first, I waited until the background was clear of people that would take attention away from my subject. Then, I took my daughter's hand and had her pose as you see here. As I snapped away, I would take into consideration the factors stated above, even how much of the background to include and using a shallow depth of field to blur said background in order to place more emphasis on my subject in the foreground. Also, one of the most important points that I can make regarding portraiture photography: always ask for permission before you photograph someone even if that person is a family member or a friend. Now, there are exceptions to that when it comes to street photography, as I had come to learn from one of my dear friends, who was a semi-professional photographer. But generally, this is a good rule to abide by.
