Had to start off with this one above :D Such a perfect example of why just letting your people do what they naturally do tends to get you the best pictures. Carter just loves playing with leaves, so when Mom & Dad joined in it made for some brilliant shots.
Taken with the Sigma 35 1.2, which is just special as all hell for its ability to separate a foreground scene from the background like this and be both sharp and creamy-soft at the same time. Love it.
This one is sort of half-posed - let’s say directed. It’s less ‘you two stand there and look out while Carter looks at me’ and more ‘you guys look out at the river and then do what you feel like while I move around like a squirrel’. I get a lot of extra exercise doing these shoots!
But back to the image, I love Carter just looking right at you through the page (it just feels like a page…) with Brooke and Bill still very visible, but less prominent around him. There’s something that feels like he’s breaking the fourth wall, while Mom and Dad don’t know that you’re there.
I love the colour palette of this whole shoot. Sometimes I’ll tweak colours a little to suit the tone but that wasn’t really needed here! Autumn in Pennsylvania is perhaps a bit more subdued than say Maine or Virginia but it has an understated glory nonetheless :) And did I mention that Carter loves sticks and leaves? I guessed at a future career as a national park ranger, but it seems he has some custom staircases to build first.
Feeling > everything else.
Everything is subjective. Everything is based in your own experience as a human living your life; sometimes there needs to be enough left unspoken so that you can fill in your own gaps with how it makes you feel. Sometimes the best thing to do is say a little less.
Which is a little ironic, in a blog of me saying things to you. Hey, it’s Friday.
I would just ask that we all pause for a moment in respectful observation of how awesome Brooke’s hair is here.
…
Thank you.
So, so good. I truly love going through my unprocessed images after a shoot and seeing the ones I know will just punch you in the chest. Or at least punch me in the chest! That’s all you can do - create work that means something to you, and let the rest work itself out.
If it doesn’t matter to you, how can it matter to anybody else?
That sounds like a good thought to close on. Enjoy your tea.