Recently on a few peoples' blogs I have seen them feature a best shot of the week. I love this! I figure, I can commit to posting consistently at least once per week, so from now on I am making Wednesdays here on my blog - Best Shot Wednesday.
In the future, I will make sure the shot is from the previous week, but for today I am featuring a recent shot that wasn't actually taken this week. It is from my five year old son's school's family sports day. All the schools here do it. And it is a tradition in Japan as well.
Students and families gather at school one weekend day during Fall for some fun activities. Usually they are relay races. Nobody keeps track of the winners (except for some of the kids, of course!) and every student gets a medal at the end. Braden's quote of the day, 'Dad, I didn't know there were going to be medals!'
One of the things I realized I needed to do with my photos is make them more interesting. I could capture the expression, get things in focus, meter things correctly, control the depth of field, etc, but my photos didn't always tell the whole story. They were a little stale. You didn't always know where my subjects were or what they were doing. Therefore I have been trying to include more of the surroundings in my photos.
My new wide angle lens has assisted me in doing that. I can get close to my subjects - which adds interest and intimacy - and at the same time include background and/or surroundings to help tell the story.
The photo above wouldn't be nearly as interesting if it were just a close up of his expression or even a tight shot of his waist and above with a blurred out background. Sure you would get to see the cute expression on his face and with the framing of his waist up, you might even be able to guess that he was participating in a relay race, but with the wider shot, you get the surroundings as well. Not only can you see he is in a school yard, but you can see there are adults and kids in attendance and you can almost feel the excitement and energy.
And because I couldn't help myself. Here is another favorite from the day that also demonstrates what I was trying to do.
His older brother is his partner in the wheel barrow race.
DINNER
Because I so often get frustrated with my choices for cooking here as well as dealing with the limitations of my kitchen, I made waffles for dinner. I bought a new waffle maker a few days ago, so I'm having fun with it. To make them a little healthier than the traditional waffle, I found this multi-grain recipe on FoodNetwork.com. They were pretty good and better yet filling. Turns out though they don't have enough fat for the kids' taste, therefore next time I will go back to my healthfied version of waffles from The Joy of Cooking. Perhaps I'll post that in on another day.
Thanks for stopping by! Leave me a comment if you get a chance and stop by again any time!
xxxxx
That's a great photo, I like the expression on his face :)
Posted by: Rachel B | November 10, 2010 at 09:00