Nothin better'n Ezra

This is my nephew. If you look through my archive from the past year, you will see I have a ton of pictures of Ezra. He is cute, and very cooperative. He won't run when he sees the camera, and he thinks its great fun! I just need to remember to show him a few shots on the back of camera!


I wasn't planning on posting again this week. But, while going through some recent pictures this one cried out to be finished. Once it was done, I had to post it. It was really a simple task, just some unsharp mask to pop the eyes, after that it was complete!

The vignette-like blur is provided by the basket of chip and pretzel bags I shot through. I love finding stuff like that. Its not because I'm afraid of post-production, far from it. It wasn't always this way though. When I started shooting, I had a ridiculous notion that photography was somehow "pure". I felt if an effect wasn't captured in camera it was rubbish! How stupid I was! Thankfully I have seen the light and realize photographs are a manipulated reflection of reality just like paintings. Using slide film is probably the closest you can come to viewing exactly what was captured at the time of exposure. But, it is still only a reflection of reality-- different films render a scene differently!

But back to where I started that thought: The vignette in this photo is provided by some stuff I stuck in the foreground. Even though I don't mind doing post work, I get a special thrill when I can pull off small tricks like this in camera. The light here is provided by a window, and an umbrella I stuck out to camera left. The head-asploding cuteness is all provided by Ezra.