Central Arlington 2014

The Story:

During my previous post I detailed how I ended up with a picture of my younger brother for my parents to hang.  I don’t remember if the graduation snap resulted in a parental request for the rest of the kids or the other kids lamented their lack of photo-on-the-wall, but the demand was set.  Or the challenge, really.  Portraits are not a strength for me; the candid decisive-moment nature of Carl’s photo is much more my style.

Unfortunately I was not as lucky with captures at my sister’s graduation.  I tried a few more times over the next year or two, but didn’t arrive at anything I wanted hanging in public view (through my own mistakes, of course).  During August of 2014, Patricia was living in the DFW area and noticed that the Arlington Museum of Art was hosting an exhibit called “Ansel Adams: Masterworks.”  I was within driving distance so I joined her.  I really enjoyed the print selection and descriptions. As we walked through, I took notes on my handout about how his photos were achieved and took in the vision in each photo.  I may have also essentially scripted out a road trip, but that’s for later.

After the exhibit, we ate lunch at the Babe’s Chicken in central Arlington and then walked around the town.  While Adams’ work would not directly inspire anything from the day, it did get me thinking!

The Shot:

We found a nice fountain and adjacent sculpture across Center Street from the restaurant.  I had my reflector set in the trunk, and Arlington was mostly cloudy at the time.  That’s a pretty good combo for a people picture, reducing harsh light.  Putting those cues together, I had my sister sit for a few in front of the fountain. Those photos were nice, but not great.  Next I had her pose casually against the nearby sculpture.  To me, that produced a photo that looked more natural for Patricia.  I framed it, leaving some room on the side for a canvas wrap just like Carl’s, and it turned out really well.  By Christmas that year, my parents had their second kid photo hanging up.