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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
The Wild Ride
of parenthood

Last week I did what I suppose is my first purposeful portraiture photo shoot. I've done plenty of impromptu portraits (such as these or these), and I've found the use of the word “impromptu” frees me from the worry of having to be good: it's impromptu, so hey, if I come away with something nice that nice, but it's not expected.

This time was different, meeting with the express intent to capture some father/son photos. But the subject matter, a friend Tetsuo and his younger child, Issei (一星), made it difficult to get a bad picture. A general rule that seems to make sense to me is that when doing family stuff, so long as the kids are in a good mood, the camera can do no wrong. Issei was in a good mood.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 130mm — ¹/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 720 — map & image data — nearby photos
Master of the Force
1 year 2 day old Issei

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 102mm — ¹/800 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 135mm — ¹/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Still Learning
this whole “walking” thing

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/640 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Attack

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Quintessential Fatherhood Scene
(differs little from a quintessential motherhood scene, but hey, it's Father's Day)

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Tetsuo

How I met him is sort of an interesting story. Last year on day three of Kyoto's Gion Festival, I mentioned the “exceedingly pleasant” experience I had when I stopped at a Spanish restaurant's stall selling ham and beer. It took six months, but I finally got to go and actually visit the restaurant last December, and had a nice chat with one of the cooks, who prepared my food right in front of me at the bar. It was Tetsuo.

After chatting a while and enjoying his personable nature, we were both surprised to discover that not only did our kids go to the same weekend English-study group, but that I had photographed his wife and younger kid at the group's Christmas party earlier that day. I showed him the photos on the back of my camera, which I still had with me. What a small world.

When looking at the picture of his boy (who must have been six months old at the time) and him, I could see the clear resemblance, and had been wanting to photograph them together ever since. I finally got my chance last week.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 125mm — ¹/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
Flowers

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 110mm — ¹/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Happy

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
Juggling
Parenthood is a balancing act

His daughter was in school at the time, but now that I've got this one-kid experience under my belt, I think I'm ready to try a two-kid (two-parent) shoot, so maybe next week....