About a year ago, I was having a conversation with one of the other teachers on my main school site. I was thinking that it would be nice to photograph her in a sun dress, back lit by the sun in an open-air light hearted way. That didn’t happen. Ah, well. Time passes, but she kept the idea in mind. This fall, she brought up the idea of me photographing her family. She wanted the family to look like they were up against a police lineup height chart with a caption that read, “We can explain…” I told her that I had never done anything like that, but I was willing to try it.
I did a practice run or two a couple of weeks before they showed up, just to see if I could do it. I took a tape measure, and photographed the wall space. I made note of how high certain things were – the cabinet shelf height, the electrical plug, the light switch. Then I made a height chart from that, lining up the height markings. I pre-set my lights the evening before the family arrived. I’m glad I did that because they arrived about a half hour earlier than I as expecting. Across the next hour, I photographed them as a grouping and also as individuals so that I could composite the best postures into an overall photograph. I also adjusted my lighting to get a few pictures just of the little one. Between the crying fits and the parents trying to get his attention, I managed to get at least one really nice shot of him, for which I am very glad. She was really pleased with the outcome of both of these. So was I.
