lighting: 1, karli: 0

I wanted to add a few more pictures from my little photo shoot with Livia last week. My mom offered to serve as baby wrangler on this particular occasion, so we headed over to her backyard.

I like to have my kids in the open shade facing the light in order to capture those lovely catchlights in their eyes. In the first group of pictures, the sun is coming up behind Livia, which is not how I usually position my kiddos. But if we faced her toward the light, we would have only houses and no pretty landscape in the background. So I decided to take a few pictures anyway, and then come back one evening when the sun was in a different spot to try again.


Oh, how I love this background, but the lighting is totally wrong! Sitting your child in the sun is sure to yield you some major squinting and nose flaring. But the background is beautiful, right? **sigh**


I got frustrated by seeing eyes with no sparkle, so I plopped Livia down under a tree and faced her toward the light. I don't love the background, but I see blue eyes!


When the lighting is all wrong, you can do a few things: come back at a different time, use a reflector to bounce light back in your subject's eyes, or use a fill flash. I don't know how to do the last two, but my goal this summer is to learn. It's so frustrating to find the perfect location, but not be able to get the pictures you want because of the lighting. I want to learn how to make every location work at any time.


Fast foward a couple days... and Doron, the 3 kids and I headed over in the evening to try again.
It didn't start well.


Nope. Not well at all.


But after a flower from daddy, things began to go a bit better.


I love this picture of Livia. This is probably one of the only pictures I've ever taken of her that I would hang on a wall in my home. She looks so pretty! And I love all the yellow flowers.


I like this one too.


I shouldn't have worried so much about catchlights since she refused to look at me anyway.


Now we're having fun!


I wanted to add this picture to show you the difference between sitting in the sun vs. the open shade. Now her eyes are glowing!


So that's my main goal for the summer: figure out lighting! I started to get interested in photography last fall, and I had two months to practice before it got too cold (for me) to take pictures outside. After being indoors for 6 months, I'm off to learn new things!