Academic Shoot

A good friend of mine is a teacher at the Children's Center of Austin. I chose this academic environment for my shoot, because I knew photographing kids would be fun and make good photos.

1. What challenges did you encounter while trying to get close, capture real moments, and capture action or emotion? How did you deal with these?

-----> Since all of my subjects were kids ages 3-5, they were all very excited about getting their pictures taken. Getting candid shots was especially difficult because they'd always want to look at the camera and "Say Cheese". To deal with this, I had my friend make some kind of distraction and get their attention while I snapped a shot. Capturing emotion and action was not difficult at all; these kids were so full of energy, every facial expression was emotional.

2. What technical aspects of photography (focus, exposure, composition) did you find yourself thinking about the most, and how did you make sure you did these correctly?

-----> I was pretty worried about the lighting and was constantly testing and checking my light meter to make sure it was above 60. Focus was another small problem, I tried using manual as much as possible, but resorted to automatic for certain shots. Composition came pretty easily; the kids were always fooling with something in their hands and there is so much going on in classrooms like that so filling the frame was not difficult.

3. Describe how you attempted to use at least one of the advanced composition techniques when you shot.

-----> I tried using the rule of thirds pretty often. I'd try to get one kid in focus off-centered, then I'd include another child or some toys in the center background.