Assignment # 6 Portraits

For my portraits, i shot my cousins. The pictures were Saturday and Sunday at their house, and the light is gorgeous. I took some pictures of them just playing, and then one by one, posed. There are five children, two older girls and three young boys. There are five candids and five full on portraits.
When i first tried to upload the pictures to the blogger, the computer got all messed up, so i had to delete and re-import, so what's on here isn't as good as the actual prints because i didn't have enough time to redo them completely.
Portraits first.

This is the youngest, Gary. This was his own pose.



I love the light in this one. These are the 8-yr-old twins, Dustin and Corwin. They have kind of opposite personalities, but are a lot alike at the same time. Dustin is the one in the shadow, Corwin is the one looking at the camera. This was how they were actually standing, and i just happened to be there and snap a picture.



This is Indigo Joy, 11.
She is doing that eye-to-eye thing -- you know, that means "I'm going to GET YOU for this."
It was originally a little flat, but i pulled up the contrast to get depth in her face and hair and pop the whites in her collar.



This is my self portrait of me not being me. I chose Greta Garbo to be, and imitated her famous picture. I had Eli bracket, so i had more options to work with. I gave it a really high contrast to echo the original picture.



The candids were really fun to do, because the kids were much more natural and didn't burst into nervous giggles just as I took the picture.
This is the first. Indigo and Gary are in the foreground, warding off Darwin (the dog). There was a picture just before this without the twins in the background, but it had too much blank background so i chose this one instead.



I love this one. Sage is the oldest -- she just turned 12. I love her expression in this picture. It's a little self conscious, and a little bit amused at whatever i just said that was probably stupid, but she looks very calm and happy at the same time. I especially love the light hitting the side of her face.
When i think of Sage, I always think of her as strong. Not physically, but very much in her personality. When she was 3, she was diagnosed with leukemia, and spent four years fighting before it went into remission. She lost all her hair and still has big scars below her collarbone, but she did it. So here is the closest picture I took that says that this is a strong girl.



This is Indigo again. She spends a lot of time in her own world (when she isn't glaring at me) and strikes dramatic poses such as this instinctively, looking contemplative and philosophical. The light was a bit tricky -- I wanted to make the stripe on her cheek to stay bright, but had to bring back details on the wall behind her.



Gary again, after bumping his eye. Sage brought his some ice. I love his lower lip that's sticking out. It looks like he can't decide whether to sulk or whimper. I also like the contrasts here.



This is my favorite. I was fiddling with it in Lightroom, and decided to yank up the blacks, pull exposure out enough to keep the lights, and print whatever happened. Further testament that impulse decisions are the way to get through life.