Discovery

ISO 400 f 2.8 ss 1/160

Shot with 35mm and bounced flash

Just a  fun picture from this last week. Scott discovered that he could see himself in the bathtub drain, and was so excited. He would point and laugh, and then realize he could see himself laughing and then he would laugh some more. So fun to see the little things that bring so much joy.

I shot this bouncing my flash behind me. In hindsight I would have lowered the ISO down a lot. I was trying to grab every bit of natural light I could, but ended up just adding a ton of noise to the picture. I had to run it through a noiseware program, and that seemed to help a little. Unfortunately, one of the downfalls of the D80 is it doesn’t handle digital noise very well at all.

Things I liked:

• I liked that even though his head is not in focus because of the small depth of field (f 2.8), that you could still tell that he was smiling at himself.
• I don’t know if it’s a like or not, but kind of cool that you could see him in the faucet as well. I was really going for just the circle drain and the faucet kind of just happened to happen as well.
• His finger is pointing to himself in the drain. It still would have been cute with just his face reflected in the drain, but I love the playful feeling I get seeing him interact with his own reflection.
• I liked that I saw him doing this and went to get my camera! I am really trying not to let any opportunity pass me buy to practice and more importantly to capture those little moments that I know I will forget. It really only took a second because I only took about five shots in all and was done, yet how cute is this! Such a great memory. I think getting outside my comfort zone no matter where I am is becoming a very important part of my journey, and I am really loving it.

Things I could have done different:

• Technically-try a different ISO combination for sure!
• Shoot with his face closer to the drain for a fun kind of distorted  big face look. Even though I love his finger in the shot, I think if I had one with just his face and closer up, I could have gotten the same perspective but without catching the faucet in the picture. This one just doesn’t crop well to crop the faucet out and leave his head in.
• Tried one with the faucet slowly dripping water and seeing his reflection of utter concentration as he tries to catch the water. I may try this one some time, if I can keep him from splashing me and the camera too much.

My goal for next week is to actually take pictures of my other kids! I tend to practice more when they are in school, so unfortunately this don’t get much camera time. I also would like to work on some more color photos as well, we’ll see how that goes!