On February 18 we made the annual pilgrimage to the Renaissance Festival. Among other things we caught this year’s performance by Cirque du Sewer with cats and rats and other shenanigans.
Sometimes you come up with an idea on the spot and sometimes it works…kind of.
This tree was casting a dark shadow on the ground and so I assigned the family members spots accordingly. Their shadows make it a little hard to spot. Can you see what we did?
Here’s a hint…
FAMILY TREE!
Shooting children can be a challenge, but often the most rewarding. I always want to get a few of the kids sitting calmly for the parents because that’s what the parents want and those are nice, but I can get the best gems from letting the kids be kids. Let them run wild, let them dig, let them interact with a tree; they’ll let you into a world you’d long forgotten.
My eyes go to the foreground, then up to the girl; white shirt on silhouetted trees. Up to the bright sun. You can feel the heat of the day (never mind that it was only about 60 if that). The smoke catches my eye on the left. A small crowd of people are laughing and talking. The ball is in front of them. That’s right, the kids! There they are again. I can hear them laugh. Back to the foreground afternoon light evoking nostalgia.
It’s the discovery of that one photo you make after chasing people around clicking wildly and praying that once again you caught lightning in the bottle of your camera that makes this so worthwhile. For a moment there was life preserved in time in black and white.
I have 4 shoots scheduled for the next two weeks, so then maybe we’ll get back to people, but in the meantime I liked this crazy cat picture. It was the same evening as the sunset I posted a couple of days ago. Faith I caught mid-chops-licking and Jaina is eyeing another cat that’s eating down on the bridge. I feel like there’s a lot going on here and I’m quite the “father of cats.”
When people talk about a photo telling a story I’m often not sure what the story is. This moment doesn’t so much tell as ask: who’s got the light on? What’s s/he doing early in the morning? The light beams are calling to our curiosity like whispers in the dark.
It’s another week before I have more shoots scheduled, but in the meantime the sky was pretty awesome tonight.
Sometimes the picture is enough.
A couple re-edits I did Super Bowl night from 2016 overlooking Phoenix.
Spent last night re-editing some landscapes I did back in 2016 in Lancaster, PA (Amish Country). I hadn’t been happy with them at the time but I’m much better with Lightroom now and the results show.
As I await a new scheduled shoot (tomorrow! Woot!!) I scrounged up another photo with a reflection.
MRP Visionaries 