This post is about one of the photography techniques that you can use the take great photos of people.

The need to expect the unexpected can’t be stressed enough. Especially when photographing kids.

Anything can happen… and probably will!

In this photo, I was taking a portrait of my three children. The oldest two, decided to kiss the youngest to see what kind of a reaction they could get out of him. They didn’t tell me first, the just did it.

I didn’t expect the reaction that he gave, but I was ready to capture it!

You can’t set something like this up. Life happens and you need to be ready. How?

One way to be ready is to continue to look through the viewfinder and leave your finger on the shutter. Anticipate the extra ordinary and you will likely capture more unexpected moments.

Also, you need to place your subjects in flattering light. In this image, I’ve placed the subjects in ambient light and in the heat of the moment, the oldest subject on the right moved into the direct light. Still the moment was so strong, it overides the slight problem of the lighting. Sometimes you need to compromise.

Cure Magazine Shoot

I recently photographed a medical caregiver who was nominated to be included in a special book for Cure Magazine. An essay was written by Kady Lane about her friend and nurse, Bob Garvin, of Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles.

I was contracted to photograph the two of them any way I wanted by the magazine. A dream assignment, since anytime a client says, ” Do whatever you want we like your style,” just wish I could hear that more often.

I arrived to find the area I was to make the portrait in total afternoon shade. Very blue light due to the shade and I had about 1 1/2 hours of light left in the day.

Moving to another spot was out of the question, since one of my subjects wasn’t to mobile due to her illness. Actually, Kady would probably have moved, but I didn’t want her to.

So my original idea of a shaft of light on the main subject quickly was dashed and I looked around for some inspiration.

I found it at the entrance of the cancer wing. Beautiful red rock tile/slate covered the entrance and would make a great background for my portraits.

I took an ambient exposure and set my camera at f8 @ 200/sec at ISO 400. So, I set my flash at 1/2 power and my camera to manual. I ended up shooting at f20 @ 200 which is 3 stops over the ambient and made for a very dramatic lighting ratio.

Bob is an amazing person who was funny and personable. I can see why Kady nominated him and his story was accepted to be published.

The trick to this type of lighting is to modify the light that is coming out of your flash. You can use a very expensive gizmo or make your own.

I bought a piece of black foam paper for less than a buck and put some velcro on it and wrapped it around my 580 EXII flash and made a snoot. That’s the shape of the light that you see on the wall behind the subjects.

Then it was just a matter of moving the light and the subjects into the most pleasing pose possible.