Three Sisters, Three Portraits

While I was in Dallas for the holidays last month, I was able to break away from taking the typical Christmas day photos and make some portraits of some of my family members. Alas, I didn’t get a chance to work with everyone, but of among those I did manage to shoot were my sister Joli’s daughters.

The oldest of the set is Brittany, a senior in college. I caught her in a room that was filled with huge soft window light coming in through a patio door. It’s the kind of light you wish you could have at your disposal all of the time. It’s the sort of light that lets you take a photograph straight out of the camera, crop it, and show it off. The only trick is convincing your subject to give you a great expression.

The middle of the set is Rebecca, a senior in high school and off to college next year. Here she was in a rare bit of quiet right in the middle of the mayhem that was the living room where presents were being opened. The living room wasn’t filled with great light—far from it. But there was certainly enough to work with. I treated this photograph quite differently than the one of her older sister. Something about the mood of it makes the split-tone work for me.

The youngest is Bella. She’s just over a year old and cute as a button. I caught her as she was waving good-bye to people that were heading out the door. The light here was all sorts of wonky mixed low-voltage tungsten and when I corrected the color, I couldn’t find a balance that really let her eyes shine. Going to B/W took care of that and lets the quality of the light speak more than the color of it. Those eyes!

Some part of me wishes I had a consistency of treatment between the three sisters. On the other hand, they are three very different people and I captured them in three different situations. The only thing that’s really missing is a good shot of their brother. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to spend much time with us and I didn’t get a good portrait of him made. There’s something about boys and young men either running away from the camera or making funny faces all of the time. Next time.