Mini photo Shoot

My sister in law had requested that I take pictures of her youngest son (Evan) back when I did my nieces pictures (his cousin), but we never really coordinated our time. After a number of email interactions we determined that I would take pictures on Easter. The goal as I understood it was to get some pictures  of Evan to select from that she could put on a card or even print out and to include his brothers if possible. Unfortunately, one of her sons, Graham, couldn't be there that day, but her oldest, Quentin, was able to join in. Hopefully, I can get a picture of all three in the future.

I was excited to take these pictures as it would provide me with more practice. Plus there were additional challenges: Evan would only be there for an hour and I would have to take pictures in the middle of the day -  in the high sun. Oh, and I was working with my brother's yard. In these pictures it looks like he's got a big woodsy backyard, but that's not really the case. There are actually a lot of houses surrounding him and they are quite close. (One of my favorite spots with good light also had the neighbors pink canoe in the background - a little adjusting and I was able to avoid the canoe in the picture.) I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

I learned a lot about working with people - whether it was the people I was taking a picture of or the person making the request (mom). Also, I discovered that I could pull off some decent pictures even if it wasn't my ideal lighting situation. I wish I would have explored other areas of the neighborhood to get some more 'backgrounds' and lighting options. Good takeaways if I do this again.

Taking this picture from above helped me avoid the neighbors pink canoe to the right

My sister in law noted that she could take a picture, but was having a hard time getting her boys to smile so I knew that my goal was to get some smiles out of them. I also wanted to get pictures that captured their personalities... even though I don't know them super well, I do know a little. As you can tell just by their style they are a little different from each other, and it was fun to see these differences shine through.

These boys are tall so I probably should have had a chair, but I was able to find a wall in one part of the yard that I could get a little higher than them and those are probably some of my favorite pictures. Another good takeaway for me.

Also, I was looking for good light areas initially, but some of those areas would have included less than desirable background scenery. I didn't initially plan to use the woodpile, but these are also some of my favorite pictures.

Thanks to these guys for letting me take these pictures and to their mom for suggesting it! I had a lot of fun, got to know a little more about them, and got in some valuable practice.