A fifth appearance

Samuel is making a record fifth appearance on the blog today, but I make no apologies for that… not only is he my godson, but when he is wearing his “old man” pyjamas, like he was on Monday morning, he just has to be photographed.  Easier said than done with a 6 month old of course, especially when you use a wide aperture. Getting that shallow plane of focus just where you want it isn’t easy with an always-moving subject.

Samuel isn’t yet at the stage where he can sit up by himself, so for a pose like this he has to be supported somehow.  On Monday morning he was sitting in his “Bumbo” while the rest of us were having breakfast.  The Bumbo, its website tells me, is a snug and cosy environment for a baby – i.e. it wedges them into the seat so they can’t fall over.  And Samuel won’t mind me telling you that it’s not difficult to wedge him in.  Lifting him out of the seat tends to see the seat come with him!

So with him secured and upright, and me having grabbed my camera with the 50mm lens to allow me go to nice wide apertures, it was just a matter of hoping he would look in the general direction of the camera.  That was no problem – he seemed to be fascinated by it, and wherever I went he looked.

Much like the shot of Donal that I posted last week, I tried many photos taken from above.  My reasoning here was to include the pyjamas in the frame while keeping the seat from being too dominant.  The fact that Samuel tended to look at me wherever I went helped with getting the pose I was after.

Being honest, this shot isn’t as sharp as I’d like, but I was at f/2, and he was constantly moving his head.  In my selection of which to pose (and I have about 22 photos from the 10 minutes of photographing him that I really like) I let myself not become too obsessive about sharpness and went with the photo with the pose I like best, which is this.  Besides a slight softness to an image suits a baby portrait – indeed a hint of softness is often added.  I just achieved the same effect in camera thanks to that wide aperture and a constantly-moving and curious subject.