I live in the small town town of Duncan which is great. The old downtown has such a nice feel to it. You can walk ten minutes and cover the whole core area. This area has many nice boutique shops, restaurants and coffee shops and it just great to spend time there. I just finished up a job for the downtown business association which was looking to get photos of the window displays of the local shops. I thought that was great that they wanted me to do it. I just had to take photos of shop windows. Not really. That is what I possibly could have done. But I had bigger plans. Plans on making downtown Duncan look like a place to come and check out and take in the holiday feel. After all, these photos were to be used for publication with my name there for all to see so I wanted to produce something I'd be proud of.
I had originally thought of using some people I know to model for the photos but with the weather here (often raining) and work and school schedules that people have it was going to be difficult to arrange. I realized the solution was right in front of me. My beautiful family!
So we set out to do our photo shoot one afternoon just as the light was getting to be about the way I wanted it and suddenly the sky opened up and the rain poured down. As we drove I could see breaks in the clouds so we carried on. We got to our destination and sat in my van and waited. The rain was easing off! And then it stopped. We got out and set up in front of Fabrications boutique clothing store and got to work.
The photo above is what I had envisioned and it worked out just right. You can see the reflection of my wife's face and just a hint that she's holding our baby, while our four year old gazes into the window in awe of the display.
Just before packing up, Nina (my wife) suggested another angle. So I looked at it and set up the lights and it worked! It really worked! It is the photo on the top of the page. Lots of reflected light, glimmering decorations and great interaction between Nina and our baby.
A few days later I had another idea...
I thought a pure shopping street scene would be good, taking in some of the character of downtown Duncan. Lucky for me, my sister-in-law (Camila) and niece were available on short notice.
Timing a scene like this is not easy. The intersection in the background had a steady flow of cars going by and waiting for pedestrians to pass felt never ending. We were waiting around more than we were actually shooting.
Judging by how many of the photos I took have my niece's feet off the ground, I'd say she was actually having as much fun as me!
My wife and son enjoyed being part of the process as well. It really was a great family project.
I also took a multitude of the requisite window photos which I simply do not have room to show here. Go downtown and see them for yourself. You won't be disappointed!
