I feel like in terms of photography, I’ve been neglecting my oldest. You would think that my youngest, at 22 months old would be harder to catch. But Ezra is the one I haven’t been able to get a real picture of lately (like the last 12 months) because he is embarrassed by the camera. This morning I finally got a few authentic shots. How did I get him to smile? I talked to him about poop.

[Technical Details] The light was incredible. The sun had just risen over the mountains and was pouring through the living room windows onto the floor, reflecting back up into his face. In some of the shots, this effect was really pronounced and unfortunately took on a “ghost stories around the campfire” look. I shot at 50mm f/2.8 and converted them to black and white in photoshop with a caramel overlay at 7% opacity.

Backlighting has always scared me a little. It seems so difficult to get the correct exposure on the other parts of the image. This morning my youngest found a ladybug on the sidewalk in front of our house and it seemed like a perfect opportunity for me to experiment a little.

The sun was already kind of high in the sky so I had to use a pretty wide angle in most shots to get any sun flare. I was also laying prostrate on the sidewalk, blocking the path for several students on their way to campus. I think it was worth it though. What do you think?