The Birthday Boy

Our very good friends' boy had his birthday party today. I like how this shot of him opening his presents turned out. I think they will like it too. It captures the dynamics of the boys nicely.

It's hard, technically, to get decent pictures at parties like this. They are indoors with decent enough light but not enough to get the shutter speeds needed to capture energetic kids, particularly boys, without major flash or a very high ISO setting. In this case I had to pull out all the stops and use direct flash at -2 stops and ISO at 1600 (yuck). I've also learned to use an orange gel on the flash when I do have to use direct lighting so as to warm up the skin tones. Otherwise subjects with light skin end up looking too gray.

I'm really looking forward to when the ISO and dynamic range capabilities of cameras make some serious advancements. It will be interesting to see what's possible in the next ten years.

Oh, and Holly was having her birthday party this time last year. I like that picture too.