Drama Queen

Our first assignment in Detra's Creative Light workshop is to take a picture using dramatic light (ha! I feel so official. My first "assignment"). The subject needs to be in front of a light source, so you blow out the background and have some dramatic shadows on your subject. Sounds easy enough, right? Yeah, I thought so too until I started taking pictures. I took around 300 photos yesterday!! (So before you go telling me how great they are, remember · I took 300 photos to get them!!) I like a large percentage of the ones I took yesterday (thank god!), but I'd get a big fat F for the assignment because the majority didn't follow the guidelines at all. First of all, Julietta is not the most accommodating of subjects. She never does what I tell her to do!!

I expressly told her not to use this face, but do you think she listens to me?  Ok, her face cracks me up, but it doesn't work with what I'm trying to accomplish here.She just doesn't understand that I have a vision. ; )

I ended up bribing Bella with two juice pops so she'd sit still in front of the window. I also had to put on the movie Monster's Inc. Jeez! The things I'll do to get a shot!

Anyway, here are some of my practice shots. Do you see one that sticks out that you think I should turn in? We have until next Friday, so I thought I'd keep practicing.

After all of the bribes were exhuasted, I settled for just taking some random shots of my girls while they played (and cried) and got excited to see the Yayos when they came.

I've never seen a kid shed such a large quantity of tears every time she cries. Look how big those tears are!

The Yayos had just pulled up.

This probably would have been better if I'd had more room to back up, but I really like how it shows the contrast between youth and age.

Today I got Alex in on the action. I also have to do a sidelight shot for a bonus. He was not feeling well, but he humored me for a few minutes.

Wow! That was  a long post. But it was aimed at your viewing pleasure. Less words, more photos. That's how it should be. I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Back in the day, I dreamt of being a writer. I've always loved storytelling. The problem, however, is that I can never think of the right words, which can slightly hinder the writing process. I like to think that finding photography is my outlet to share stories; to see the things other people overlook. Maybe I was always meant to be a story teller, just not with words. I sure hope so. I hope I hope I hope...