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growing up fast...

These are great, I love the bokeh in the first few...I am sure these will be kept for many years to come.

Thanks cam, the first 3 have been ordered as large canvasses in my new study.

Beautiful portraits of good looking kids.
I like how you captured their eyes. I also
like the colours and their expressions in
the last one.

Roozy, the first three are exceptional, but the last one even better IMHO. Superb candid portrait of three boys having fun, in superb colour. D800E?

The 3 B&W images are excellent. I like it that you were not afraid to cut the tops of the heads....many would not do that...yet it is the closeness that makes these so appealing. The last doesn't work as well IMHO as eye contact is lost and the lighting is not the kindest.

thanks everyone.

oz. the last is I think with the fuji...or maybe the epl5. cant remember which as I typically take both in a small bag.
the first 3 are the d800e and 85G

the beauty of both of these cameras is that they can make anyone look good and even better there is no pp required !! YAYYYY !!! the first 3 are silverfx mono conversions using the Ilford preset I believe.

matt, I agree that the eye contact and lighting is ordinary in the last.. its a funny shot to us cos although it was a beautiful cloudless day, it was still cold but they all decided they wanted to go in the water. meanwhile, lara and I felt like the worst parents in the world cos no other kids were in the water, they were all in trackies and rugged up and here are these irresponsible parents letting their kids swim in 12 degree weather. oh well...lol its one of those photos we'll flick back to in years to come and remember that little story to give some context.

Top stuff Chris, I love those serious bokeh ones and the BW is a good choice (i think)
presenting those first three one top of one another (lie you see them here) would actually look good i reckon.

Rooz wrote: it was still cold but they all decided they wanted to go in the water. meanwhile, lara and I felt like the worst parents in the world cos no other kids were in the water, they were all in trackies and rugged up and here are these irresponsible parents letting their kids swim in 12 degree weather. oh well...lol its one of those photos we'll flick back to in years to come and remember that little story to give some context.

kids don't feel the cold! i felt the same at Bronte the other week

the 3 B&W's are first class images Chris.

Very nice work.

The B&W are beautiful. Interesting I was thinking the same as Matt, as soon as I looked at them realised I wouldn't have been brave enough to not have a complete head, but the concentration on the eyes in each photo makes them jump off the screen at you. They look great at this size, can only imagine how good they will look large in a study.

Gerry,
here's one in colour since I know you're always curious !!





I do normally shoot zac especially in colour cos his eyes are electric blue.

thanks Sylvia and glen.

25 years ago I had to write an essay in my photography class at school about how to get peoples attention when doing a portrait. I did pretty crap in it actually. lol my teacher at the time gave me some dot points scrawled in red pen at the end.

* framing
* light
* isolation
* expression

that's all he wrote. it was one of the most valuable lessons I ever learnt and I still remember it to this day. similar to dramatic lighting on a face or a quirky expression...chopping the head to get really tight is a way of framing that grabs the viewer by the scruff of the neck and saying "nothing else in this photo is relevant apart from the face."

Rooz wrote:Gerry,
here's one in colour since I know you're always curious !!

cheers Chris, BW definitely the way to go, i reckon the first colour one has a heavy blueish cast which if corrected might make it a contender, however the BW really help's in that 'isolation' dot point!

nice one.

The B&W are best, but the price you pay is missing
the colour of those beautiful eyes. Now, the last one
is a welcomed surprise, which will work either way
I feel because you captured an interesting expression
of the child. He seems to be telling you how to use
the camera in not uncertain terms. Wonderful!

As others have stated the three B&W images are fantastic individually and work so well as a series. That said the colour versions have equal appeal.