Her Favorite Photo

To continue the "ode to the model", I must to showcase her favorite photo. I took this photo last spring. We went to pick up her little boy from Kindergarten and decided to grab some photos in the playground. We really enjoyed the bright colors the playground had to offer for background elements.

I sat him down on this bench because of the playful handprints. I liked the bright colors and wanted to contrast them with an attitude; I wanted him to pout. I told him to sit on the bench and pout for the camera. He didn't understand. He didn't know how to pout. So, I asked Kirsten to sit on the other side and show him how to pout. My intention was to photograph just him and not get his mom in the shot. She sat down and showed him what it meant to pout.

He cracked up! He thought it was so funny his mom was pouting on the bench. He burst into laughter and I quickly snapped this shot. I knew I was capturing a fun moment between the two of them so I made sure to include them both in the shot.

This has become Kirsten's favorite photo of mine.

I knew I wanted a bit of motion in the shots we had been taking so I had the camera on shutter priority and choose a speed that would allow a bit of motion blur - 1/40 of a second, which you can see in his feet. The camera did the rest. Shot at 85mm, ISO 100, 1/40 of a second at f/10.

I set out to create an image about a boy in trouble on the playground. I thought it would be fun to have such a scorned look on his face with a playful background to contrast the emotion. We never got that shot. But going with the flow, I was able to get a great photo for both of them to enjoy.