Photoblog: Dominic’s First Birthday!

Sometimes us photographer-types have to go the extra mile the capture our personal moments with the same flare we put into our daily photographic work.  Tonight turned out to be one of those occasions for me.  There are many times that I have taken the easy way out when it comes to photographing my family occasions.  That isn’t to say that the photos I did take were not thought out or artistic, it means that I didn’t spend time to do any extra preparation.  My youngest son, Dominic, turned 1 today and we wanted to celebrate it just like we had done his brother, Dino, last year – with cake!  The biggest difference was that Dino’s was celebrated outside in a park and Dominic’s was going to be in our kitchen.  We chose the kitchen because we knew how much cake would end up on the floor and the rest of the house is carpeted.  I almost took the easy way out and went with a lens that could handle low light and/or put a speedlite flash on to bounce off the ceiling and walls. I’ve done that in our house before and I knew it would not stand out as a special occasion – the pictures would appear very flat.  Our kitchen is very utilitarian and not the most beautiful backdrop for a photograph, so I needed to make sure that I directed the viewers eye to main subject through the use of light.  Had I just bounced the flash off the ceiling, I would have lit up a lot more of the background of the images and cluttered the image.  Using no flash would have really mixed lighting from the Tungsten lights in the ceiling and the natural light coming in from the left side of the shots (see photos at the bottom).

Here is what I decided to do.  First, I asked my wife, Heidi, if I could “set up” for the photos.  She knew what I meant and said that I could, but warned that I had to be prepared to deal with broken gear if Dino happened to knock it over.  I agreed and set up an umbrella with a speedlite near the ceiling to the right of the camera – with extra sandbags (2 year old Dino is a tank).  I then put a bare speedlite camera left behind Dominic’s chair as a kicker to bring dimension and focus to the image.  I shielded that from the camera using a standard issue kitchen cutting board that was already sitting right next to the flash.  I pulled out my light meter and dialed in the settings for a few f-stops that I wanted to use and put the basic settings in my very short term memory.
Everything was in place, then the curve ball….Heidi asked my mom if she could take a family photo of us.  Needless to say, I had not planned for that.  She snapped a few shots and there was my “kicker” in plain view.  I fixed it, we took a few more shots, and then the cake eating began.  Dominic was hesitant at first, but that changed the moment a taste of chocolate frosting hit his tongue.  He didn’t tear into it voraciously like his brother did last year, but he happily ate his fair share.

Once I had the main shots I wanted from the front, I moved around to play with the flares and rim lights from the kicker.  This flare also helps detract from all the items that were on the counter and in the shot.  I then grabbed a few more shots without the flash to remind myself that a little extra effort pays off big.  I was pleased with the direction, color, taste of the cake, focus, depth that this directed light brought to an otherwise “busy” kitchen.  Use this as inspiration to go the extra mile the next time you have a special family event that you plan to photograph and enjoy creating memorable light as you create family memories.

Photoblog:

A couple photos I took without the flash setup to use in this comparison: