I went to my friends’ house to take their Christmas photo. I know, I know: Christmas photos should be in color. Whatever. Anyhow, it was really hard! First off, we broke the cardinal rule of “always photograph toddlers in the morning.” Luckily, we were working with an unusually good-natured toddler.

Then, I had such trouble figuring out the light. Sitting-on-the-floor: window is to the right, flash is to the left. Unfortunately, it is unclear which is the main light. I also think that the flash is too far back: almost next to my subjects instead of in front of them, leading to some unfortunate shadows in people’s eyes and to the reflection of Mommy’s red sweater onto Daddy’s face. This is not so noticeable in monochrome.

For the window photos, I started photographing when it was still light out. As the session progressed, the sun set. I prefer the photos that I took after the sun set. However, the darkness introduced some complexities: only one source of light to work with and frightening reflections off the window glass. I could have moved the flash so it shone through the Christmas tree. That way, my subjects could have all looked at the tree and had their faces illuminated at the same time. It still might not have looked so good…

Then, there was the issue of my tripod. An important part of it somehow accidentally ended up in California. The lack of a functional tripod prevented me from putting the camera in a stable location in order to give my full face and attention to my friends.

In conclusion, I learned that I have way more to learn than I dreamed of. The above photographs are my favorite. I do not assume this is how my friends would like to be portrayed for Christmas, but this is how I see them: loving, silly and cute. And patient. With me.