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The other day I received the TIME Magazine Style & Design issue in the mail.  Per normal, I spent about two minutes flipping through, really liking what I saw.  This image inspired me to start a ‘Portrait’ Board on Pinterest.   Loved the lighting and mood of the image.

( If you aren’t on Pinterest yet, you should be!  Email me if you want an invitation, or click HERE to follow me.)

We were all sitting around the table enjoying our family dinner.  I do my best to make family dinner happen every night of the week, but it’s not easy!

I sit directly across from my teenage daughter.  The lights were out in the room behind her, and in my mind I was analyzing how the overhead lighting was falling on her face.  How it was shaping her based upon which way she turned her head. Not intentionally, but most likely because I had recently been inspired by that magazine. I love it when my mind goes this direction!

I non-chalantley left the table to get my camera. I didn’t want to do anything fancy, I just wanted to capture her in this particular light.

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Here’s the first one I snapped:

f/1.8   1/200th ISO 1000

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Then I asked her to gently put her hand on her face.

This one is my favorite, and is definitely going up on our portrait wall.

f/1.8   1/200th  ISO 1000

Can you tell which direction the light is coming from? Not only from her skin, but look at her eye catch-lights too.

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The fabulous location of these two portraits, our crumbed up dinner table:

(  lucky for me I got her before this mood took over!)

I hope this post inspires you in some way or another!  Would love to hear if so.

~Kathy