A Photography Walk

Micah is not a fan of the camera. He'd rather not have my lens all up in his grill, and is very subtle at ignoring it. And by ignoring it, I don't mean he pretends it's not there. I mean, he turns his back toward me. Or at the very least, he turns his face away. He is so skilled at this that it's become his super power. And he does it so nonchalantly that to the unobserving eye, it looks very much like he is completely unaware that I'm there and he is simply playing.

This is one I got recently that shows the fact that he knows exactly what he's doing.

As far as picture quality goes, it's pretty much crap, and I had to edit to even get his face lightened, but just look at the every-so-tiny grin on his face, and the way he's looking over his shoulder at me. He was very well aware that I was snapping pictures. He tossed Woody down off the swingset, and I was there waiting for him to come down. He walked to Woody with his back to me, leaned down to pick up his friend, and turned to grin, clearly saying, "Ha! Who's the smarty now?" I was lucky enough to catch that half-second look on digital image forever. So despite the crap quality of the photo, it's one of my favorites.

Today was a super rare day and Micah was in the mood to pose for me. This happens approximately once every other week, if I'm lucky. And usually that pose is for something like, "Hey, see the dress-up outfit I pulled together out of your discarded scarf, a Hawaiian shirt, pirate pants, and a superhero mask? Take my picture!" Not exactly something you'd want to hang on the wall, or even really keep on the computer's hard drive taking up space.

Today, I got the boy's full cooperation. And I learned a few things. Posed pictures are not my favorite, by a long shot. I am in love with captured moments of real time, not stand-there-and-do-that unnaturalness.

While this is as cute as you're going to get from the boy who avoids the lens, it's not my favorite. And yet, it'll most likely end up framed somewhere because it is cute, and that level of cooperation needs to be rewarded. (And for the record, I did not pose him. That was all The Ham, showing a rare appearance.)

This one would be my favorite, though. I don't know why, because it needs cropped, and exposure is off a tad, and a few other glaring things are screaming at me. But I adore it. He'd just taken his shoes off and was swinging his feet in pure glee. It's so very Micah.

I also learned today that when you have the perfect spur-of-the-moment shot in focus and the boy is still for more than 1.3 seconds so that I can capture it, his face will always be in a shadow. Always. And because he is so skilled at avoiding my lens, I cannot ever just move to get him into the sunlight. He will also move, right back into the shadows again. Truly, it's his super power.

And the last thing I learned today is that when I have willing subjects, and the weather is unseasonally gorgeous, and the stars align just right so that I can practice photography and come out at the end of 200 plus photos with some awesome winners, the battery will be the one to say, "Meh, I've had enough of this today."

There's absolutely no reason for that photo to be out of focus, and I am super bummed that it is. It was at that point that I realized my battery was in need of a fix, and the focus went downhill fast after that.  I swear, if it's not the kids or the weather being uncooperative, it's the equipment.