Week 28: Morning

There's not really a clever story or insightful moment to share this week. This week is just a documentation of one of my favorite times of day - assuming it's the correct time and not too early!

Jonah's a pretty cute kid all of the time (yes, I recognize my bias), but he's particularly cute in the morning when he first wakes up. The fuzzy hair and bleary eyes combined with him being sleepy and snuggly make for a cute boy. So, I decided to try and catch him in his fresh faced state.

This one took some pre-planning. I set the seamless paper and light up the night before; had the camera set; took a few test shots with Kristi crouching in for Jonah. I wasn't sure what to expect. This photo is taken downstairs - which can be problematic with all of this toys drawing his attention away from the task at hand. Moreover, Jonah just hasn't been very patient with me while taking photos lately. He's just not interested. The morning attack worked out perfectly! He was happy to sit, look at me and let me take some photos. Granted, I'm not going to be able to pose him for several more years, but this was one of the easier attempts in awhile. My camera skills are less than polished at 6:30 AM, but I got through. Several shots are not quite in sharp focus and there are some shots where I clipped his hand with the edge of the frame. Guess I'll need to finish that first cup of coffee before picking up the camera in the future.

There were several shots I really liked and it was tough to choose. I settled in on this one because he's really looking at me. I feel a connection in this shot that's not easy to come by. I'm reading a book by Annie Leibowitz right now in which she briefly discusses why, in most of her photos, her subjects are not smiling. She doesn't ask people to smile and feels it is contrived and a false representation of the person to ask. If they have a genuine smile, great, but otherwise she doesn't ask. That resonated with me when I saw this shot. Here are the other few selects from this morning if you are interested.

Photo - this is my 135mm at f/2.8. It is lit by a Profoto head in a 53" Octabank on camera right.