Sweet Child O' Mine

My son has finally accepted the fact that I want to photograph him and in the month of December he agreed to do two shoots with me.  The first shoot was to emulate James Dean and the next was a 1930's style shoot.

For the James Dean shoot, I recall seeing photos of him wearing a black Peacoat and also carrying around a Twin Lens Reflex camera, since I own both I figured that would be an easier series to emulate then trying to find Dean's trademark red jacket.

At 9:00 AM, I left my house to meet Drew at the Amtrak station, fog had rolled in, and visibility was about 1000 feet, which would be perfect for the shoot, but as I got closer to Downtown the fog had burned off.  Maintaining my "Traveling Light" and shooting with Available Light goals, I brought my 24mm-70mm Lens, an SB-900, Apollo Orb, light stand and a reflector.

We shot both inside and outside the Train Depot, and then headed to "the" alleyway.  All the images inside the depot and at the alleyway were done with Natural Light.

Then about a week afterwards we talked about doing the 1930's style shoot, but the building I wanted to use is only available during the week.  We decided to shoot over the Christmas break, and in preparation, Drew bought a suit, while I picked up a fedora and suspenders.  I also brought my London Fog Trench Coat.

As we headed out to shoot, I decided we could shoot inside The Padre since the interior was refurbished with a 1940's feel.  I assured Drew that it would be okay to shoot inside and after some coaxing, we started.  What I didn't know was The Padre was decorated for Christmas, with trees and decorations throughout the lobby. Very distracting.

We left The Padre and headed to an all too familiar alley that you may recognize in several of my other images.  This portion was shot with a gridded SB-900 and my pop-up flash.

It was pretty cold out, so we shot for about an hour and then packed it up as the sun broke through the clouds and made shooting with speed lights difficult.

What Did I Learn?

• I love photographing my Son - There is no better Christmas present then spending quality time with your children.  Of course, I already knew that.