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people have said to me from time to time – “tara (my wife) must have so many photos of herself” or something along those lines. people assume that she is my test subject for a new piece of gear or something. she is not.
tara, contrary to popular assumption, does not enjoy sitting in front of my camera. or standing, or any other human posture. it’s not that she hates getting her picture taken, rather she doesn’t really enjoy getting it taken by me for some reason. part of it is probably because i take advantage of the fact that i can have her sit there for indefinite amounts of time while i tweak something just so or think about what i want to do next. trying out a new lighting setup? the natural inclination would be to have your wife act as subject for you. typical scenario? grab a chair and find stuff laying around to stack on it. i’ve probably taken more pictures of paint cans and cordless drills than i have of tara. maybe.
so the other day she came groveling, begging, and pleading for me to take a photo of her for her blog profile (at least that’s the way i remember it). being the kind husband i am, i obliged. i set up the studio equipment and we got to work. shooting to get one image is kind of freeing because the focus is more on nailing one shot rather than coming away with 25 good ones. here’s one:
she picked this after going through all the pictures, so i got to work right away with the editing (not that she needed any editing, of course). we stuck it up on her blog and… “i hate it, it’s terrible”. of all the pictures i’ve taken, only my wife has given me that reaction. start over. she picked another picture and i went back to step 1 with the editing. thankfully, second time around, the reaction was a little more positive. here’s the winner:
i feel compelled to show some outtakes from the shoot. here is tara in mid-sneeze. everybody likes a good action shot. note her, while sneezing, still giving me instructions (the raised finger telling me not to shoot, which i ignored).
here’s tara when she was auditioning for playing cousin it in the new addams family movie. isn’t she beautiful?
really though, i had a good time (not sure about tara) and i was glad to be able to help her out. typically she shuns me away in favor of taking her own pictures with her point-and-shoot. definitely keeps me humble. i think i’m in love.
check out tara’s blog at thetinyhummingbird.blogspot.com. rest assured, she’s a better blogger than i am.
