keepin' it simple

I was at my friend's house the other day and she had her grandson for the day. I had told her I was coming by with a camera and wanted to snap a few pics. Her son is, in my opinion, a terrific, but inexperienced photographer, who way overthinks his photography sometimes. I think that when you have a photographer in the family, people set up expectations that you don't want to miss, and so you do nothing, rather than do it and fail. What people don't realize is that while you might be an awesome fine art photographer, or architectural photographer or wedding photograper, maybe babies make you nervous.... You wouldn't ask an orthopedic surgeon to do a coronary bypass, right? Bad comparison, I know. : ) However, the baby is four months old and Uncle hasn't taken any shots yet, so I wanted SOMETHING for her to have as a 4 month marker.

In my younger days, I would have stressed over the lighting and the clothing and the posing and maybe I would have never gotten around to taking photos either, I don't know. In any event, when I arrived, I stripped his carefully chosen clothing off him, down to the diaper, put him in front of a door way with lots of great natural light, and snap, bang, boom got some photos to make a collage of. It took less than 20 minutes. Could I have made better portraits with a softbox and more effort? Probably. But if I had to drag on that stuff around, or have her come to my house, it might not have ever happened. Keepin' it simple. That's how I roll.

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I agree about keeping things simple, nice pictures, but they look a little dark maybe under exposed to me. It could be your conversions b/c they are very gray 'muddy' perhaps. I don't know if you were asking for opinions or not, so sorry if you didn't want any.

I agree they are kinda dark but I love each photo. You captured a lot of different expressions. I love the one of him under the blanket. I would suggest switching the close up face shot to a smaller photo and putting one that shows his whole face in that spot since it seems to be the main photo. Either way Im sure his grandmother will just love it!

Sue I think the pix are adorable! And I have to thank you thank you thank you! Here's why: I recently have just become the proud grandma (for the first time) of a precious 1 1/2 month old grandson. I have been so wrapped up about making sure the light is right, the lense is right, the pose is right, this and that is right . . . and although most of the time those things are important, right now, I just want to snap pix and have memories b/c they grow so fast. So . . all this to say "thank you" for the gentle reminder that although photography is a passion for me and its important to get it right . . . . sometimes its more important to just "keep it simple!"

suecassidy wrote in post #8967031
I was at my friend's house the other day and she had her grandson for the day. I had told her I was coming by with a camera and wanted to snap a few pics. Her son is, in my opinion, a terrific, but inexperienced photographer, who way overthinks his photography sometimes. I think that when you have a photographer in the family, people set up expectations that you don't want to miss, and so you do nothing, rather than do it and fail. What people don't realize is that while you might be an awesome fine art photographer, or architectural photographer or wedding photograper, maybe babies make you nervous.... You wouldn't ask an orthopedic surgeon to do a coronary bypass, right? Bad comparison, I know. : ) However, the baby is four months old and Uncle hasn't taken any shots yet, so I wanted SOMETHING for her to have as a 4 month marker.

In my younger days, I would have stressed over the lighting and the clothing and the posing and maybe I would have never gotten around to taking photos either, I don't know. In any event, when I arrived, I stripped his carefully chosen clothing off him, down to the diaper, put him in front of a door way with lots of great natural light, and snap, bang, boom got some photos to make a collage of. It took less than 20 minutes. Could I have made better portraits with a softbox and more effort? Probably. But if I had to drag on that stuff around, or have her come to my house, it might not have ever happened. Keepin' it simple. That's how I roll.

Thanks for the comments. The pictures might look a tad dark, but the adjusted-for-contrast prints are actually ok. The baby is African American, so perhaps they look darker on the monitor. I really miss having a baby around the house!