Did I Shoot That?

While I almost always have my camera near, kids move really, really fast, and I often end up begging mine to either “hang on!” or even “do that again, please.” Sometimes it pays off and I get the shot I had imagined, but more often, not so much.

Yesterday, Simon was sitting with Clara, generally being a protective and helpful big brother, and it was super endearing. I sneaked away to get the camera and got all set, then asked Simon to look up and immediately clicked the shutter for this shot:

And it totally cracks me up because it’s so not my style. I’ve been trying to put my finger what it is about the photo—the classic studio portrait pose—that makes it so odd to me, just for the sake of discussion. I’m definitely not saying that good portraits have to be all sun flares and bokeh and shots of the family from the knees down, but I tend to lean a bit more to that end of the spectrum in my photography (I do love a good sun flare). So even though it’s sometimes a weensy bit staged (see my confession at the beginning of this post), I say “go about your business” more often than than “give me a big smile.” If anything, especially when I take pictures of my own kids, I’m going by feel, that is, hoping that the photo will be enough of a trigger someday to help me remember what it felt like to be there. Time in a bottle and all that.  Then again, sometimes it’s just that the kids have on ridiculous outfits or have fallen asleep in a funny position.

I’m just musing here and not by a long shot trying to hammer out a philosophy of my artistic intentions. In any case, yesterday after the so-not-my-style capture, I kept shooting and ended up with a few that were more what I was going for in reaching for the camera while the cable guy was here to bring the magic of the Olympics to our living room.