Perfection

Do you see what I see when I look at these pictures?





For me, trying to learn to take great pictures means that when I look at a photo I've taken, I evaluate a lot of things: Did I nail the focus? Is the exposure good? Did I use the right white balance setting? Should I have used a faster shutter speed? Is my composition okay? etc... (might be Greek to you, but don't worry about it).

But one of the things I've been reading about is the difference between a "technically perfect" photo, and an "emotionally perfect" photo.

To me, a technically perfect photo gets all the details right. Everything that should be in focus is in focus, the colors are good, there are no trees growing out of people's heads, etc... An emotionally perfect photo, however, is one that reflects some sort of memory, or emotion-- one that overrides whether or not everything is technically correct.

So basically, a photo can be technically good, but not have any real emotion tied to it (like a really posed picture-- like forcing someone to smile at the camera when they don't want to. Sure, you might get all the settings right, but it doesn't exactly bring to mind a great emotion or memory). And to flip the coin, a photo can be emotionally perfect, but something is a little blurry that shouldn't be, or there's a big ugly sign in the background, etc.

In the best scenario, you take a picture that is both technically and emotionally perfect-- that's like having your cake and eating it, too! If I manage to take even just a couple pictures like that, I'll be completely happy.

So honestly, for me-- these two pictures of my brother-in-law Corey with his kids are pretty great. I'm mostly happy with the technical things about the pictures, but they're also special to me because they show how much a daddy loves his kids. In particular, a dad who works really hard and got to spend three uninterrupted days with his children.

That's what I see when I look at these pictures. (Hope that's what you see now, too).