But here's the thing. The story of how I captured this image is kind of a long one. First, I went to the trouble of dragging this woman and her child outside our office for better light. I asked his mom to put the child on the ground (rather than on her lap or something).
I knew I'd want a shallow depth of field, so I started shooting in aperture priority mode.
I got down on the ground. Flat on my back. I lifted my 12-pound camera with one hand, and shot dozens of photos. I made funny noises. I encouraged the mom to dangle some keys behind me.
I got a massive cramp in my stomach from the awkwardness of my body position. I kept shooting.
I wriggled forward, on my back, while taking more photos, watching the light, focusing and re-focusing, recomposing over and over again.
Later, I reviewed all the photos, and picked the one I thought was best. I worked on the image for an hour. I tweaked the exposure. I worked and reworked the eyes to make them pop. I selectively augmented the color in the child's costume. I cloned out tiny bits of lint on the costume. I resized and sharpened.
I've gone through this process often in the past. Time and time again, upon seeing a photo like the one above, someone will say, "Wow, you must have a great camera."
That would be the chagrin-causing part, by the way.
2 comments:
A 12 pound camera? Wow - you must have huge forearms.
But more to the point, very nicely done.
Heh...I think it must be a long time since you fired the 9mm. Your wrists are out of shape if you think your camera weighs 12 pounds! :)
Next time you do a setup like that, and you want a little slice of Jonderson's world, try it with fire ants all over you. Good times!
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