Preschool Graduation

My son graduated from preschool today.  All the 'big' kids came marching out of the preschool at the end of class with their cute graduation caps on.  Mrs. Rosemary made them.  I feel like I was just registering him for preschool.  Now we've registered him for Kindergarten.  And I can't believe this was the last day of preschool for us - ever.  I'm kinda happy to give up a little taxi-ing for a bit.

So now I would like to share a few tips on how to take these sweet little portraits that will make their grand appearance at his mission farewell and on his wedding day.  What we did was once we got home after a good celebration lunch and gift giving (I gave him one Cars 2 squinkie and ramp) and he was in a great mood we headed out to the north side of our house.  It was about 1pm here.  

Then I had him stand in the garden where the garage and office meet in a corner.  I set my camera at f2.8, and because he was about 10 feet away from the rock wall, it was nice and blurry, making him the focus.  Yep, aperture priority all the way! I had his back facing that corner and so the light fell across his face at a 45 degree angle.  Of course he is in the shade but just barely. If I stepped to the left a foot I would have been in the sun. This gave us some good bounce light and a little shade. 

Since you are in control of the camera you can do this quickly and take a few different angles and turn the camera which ever way your heart desires.  It's nice to be in charge of the portraits but make it quick. Happy kid, happy mom!

Again, these are straight out of the camera - no retouching.  Click on the images above to see them larger.