An ongoing series exploring why quality is always better than quantity and how not to overshoot your family.

My beautiful daughter, and of course that is a totally objective fact and not just because I’m her father. Why are you laughing?

As is often the case when I’m playing with my daughter I see a great shot and grab my camera. Sometimes it’s in a playground or on holidays by the sea or up the mountains and sometimes it’s in my own living room.

This was what I first noticed and wanted to capture. But I took some additional shots including the close up that I later decided was a much more powerful portrait.

Unfortunately at the moment we’re renting an apartment that while right beside Pandora’s kindergarten has lousy lighting and has drastically reduced the amount of casual photos I take of my kids. However in this case it was the lighting rather than the activity that attracted my attention. My daughter built herself a castle out of cushions in the living room to play with. The low angel of the sunlight in the winter worked in my favour and the light cushions acted as a reflector giving a nice diffused light on her face. I ran to get my camera and while continuing to play with her, so she wouldn’t get too bored, occasionally took photos of her from overhead.

At first I thought the wider angle shot that I wanted was just right but later in the editing stage decided the closer shot concentrating on her eyes was a more powerful photograph. There’s not really much to it but it has all the hallmarks of a great portrait, beautiful lighting, a wonderful subject with an enigmatic expression and intense eyes.