Welcome to the May edition of our Storytellers Blog Circle! If you’re new here, our intention is to use our collective posts to give you, our beautiful and amazing readers, our storyteller point of view. We’ll provide a little background, and then tell you why we’re drawn to the image and pass on the technical details (ignore if that’s not your thing 🙂 ).
One of my favorite places to shoot is at the table. We gather in this space day in, day out, over a week, a month, a year, a decade. From paying bills to family board games to birthday cakes to homework to gingerbread houses to signing everything from field trip permission slips to our will—and, of course, our everyday dinners, we are connected by this large rectangle hunk of wood. It will surely, sadly, feel too big one day.
Here, Jack pours a cup of milk for his younger brother, Ben.
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Canon 5D Mark III, 24-70L @ 24mm, ISO 2500, f4.0, 1/320
I chose this image (over the shot below) for a couple reasons: 1) Most importantly, there is a smidgeon of space between Jack’s right elbow and Ben’s left arm. I absolutely want people to own their own space! 2) Jack lifted his arm enough to also reveal that Ben is still picking at his dinner. 3) Ben’s face is more visible. 4) There is a more obvious milk flow–allowing the viewer to understand the action I was aiming for.
While I love color, especially in this kind of light where it’s all somewhat dark, rich, and saturated, Jack’s soccer shirt is neon yellow and it just glowed and reflected against the back wall–thus, taking over the whole image. The blinding neon color is where the eye went–whomp. While black and white really has a lot of shadows, I do love that the white milk & jug pops and that Ben’s hand position offers a silhouette, making it more visual.
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Shoot me any questions you may have about my storytelling process!
In the meantime, please continue the circle to see Blimie’s storytelling post RIGHT HERE.
xo, Jen
Beautifully Ordinary is a trademark of Jen Lucas Photography, LLC.
