Family Photos

My wife found a 128KB compact flash card in her van the other day.
It was like finding a prehistoric fossil from the Mesozoic Era in our vehicle!
It was like finding a time capsule from years gone by.
I estimate that this beauty was about 10 years old.
My photography style has changed, hopefully for the better, as I’ve pushed so hard on the fundamentals over the past few years.
This shot is of my kids about 10 years ago.
We had just purchased a doughboy above ground pool and my kids were having more fun with it being filled up than I could even imagine.
Utter chaos was breaking out as they completely freaked out!
Isn’t that one of the things that is so wonderful about children?
Everything is pure joy when you are a kid. Even two inches of water.
My wife was so good about slathering way too much sunscreen on the kids to counteract the hole in the ozone layer.
My boys even have t-shirts on!
Makes me wonder why she didn’t put our daughter in one too?
Here’s a few of my technical thoughts about this image:
1) Each child has their own space. The two outside ones are in the respective, left and right, areas of convergence and the pool liner serves as the horizon.
2) Great peak moment of action. The joyous look on the youngest child is pretty apparent and makes a nice feel for the overall image.
3) The background serves as a nice neutral and clean canvas that helps the subjects to “pop” or stand out from the background.
4) The Harsh noon-day lighting is counter-acted by the one child looking straight up. Thanks Devin!

All this amounts to a great second chance for me to capture a moment of my life and more importantly, my children’s childhood, with great light, good composition and an engaging moment. All that does add up to an image that my wife and I will always treasure.
Look to document your family’s life.
Everyday.
It goes so fast and we don’t always have the luxury of finding compact flash cards in our cars.
Be inspired!