Peanut Butter and Jelly

When I think of peanut butter sandwiches I think of Sesame Street's the Count and his magic words, "a la peanut butter sandwiches!" I also think of Charlie Brown sitting alone on the playground trying to muster up the courage to speak to the Little Red-haired Girl. Charlie claims, "there's nothing like unrequited love to drain all the flavor out of a peanut butter sandwich." (Oh how I loved that 45 read-along record, "You're in Love Charlie Brown.")

I would like to introduce you to my new favorite peanut butter sandwich guy. I mean, really, I could sit and watch Seth eat his little bite-sized squares of peanut butter and jelly all day long...

So I endeavor to capture my little guy and his irresistable table manners.



Ugh. The light from the window barely touches baby's face. This will not do. So I move myself about 90 degrees clockwise, placing myself between the sunlight and the subject.



Ah ha, the light from the window hits his chubby little face perfectly now. I just need to go from vertical to horizontal and get in closer to fill the frame with this sweet face.



Oh yeah! Clair likey. My aperture is open as wide as it will go which is f/1.8. This gives me a very shallow depth of field (were talking a couple of inches). I like it... the background blurs out of the equation and all that's left in focus is a perfectly messy face. I'm going with it...





Let me fire off a few shots so as not to miss any important moves...







Uh, oh. Seth knows Mom is loving this. He knows the cuteness factor is high.



Here comes the charm...





Notice how the sandwich and fingers are in focus, but not baby's face. This is because of that shallow depth of field. Seth's hand and face are not on the same plane so I at f/1.8 I have to focus on one or the other. It's the hands. (The truth is I was a bit caught up in the moment and wasn't paying too much attention to what the camera chose to focus on in auto focus. But it sounds good to say I chose the hands because some viewers will think that I meant to do it and that it is a nice creative choice. Others will think I'm terrible at focusing.) Going with the flow...



One certainly needs a drink to wash down a PBJ. See how the sippy which is several inches in front of Seth's face is in focus.



Now we're back to things being on about the same plane so everything reads as equally in focus.



Thanks for joining me for this session of "Clair takes a picture." FYI- All photos used to this point are straight out of the camera with no editing. No flash was used. Camera settings for this bunch were ISO- 200, aperture- f/1.8, shutter speed- 1/320sec, and I was using my 85mm lens which is awesome for portraits and blurred backgrounds.

I pick a favorite, crop to 5x7, do a little under eye circle removal, add a slight eye pop, a tiny increase of color saturation, a hint of soft light and then say the magic words... "a la peanut butter sandwiches..."



Poof!