Miss Sydney

On Sunday I went out to try to capture some images of my friend Errika's daughter, Sydney. As you know, I've photographed this little one before, but it had been a while so it was time to try to photograph her again. This time, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful spring weather and we met at a park to take some outdoor photos.

Errika carefully chose the time we would meet to coincide with Sydney's happiest time of day. And Errika talked it up with Sydney before they got there to get her excited about having her photo taken. She was all dolled up, but she was in an ornery mood. She's 2. It's to be expected, I think. She decided she was going to try her hardest to NOT look at me or smile. She did a pretty good job of it too - most of the time, she was NOT looking at the camera.

I am not a professional photographer, as you well know if you are one of my 13 followers. On Sunday, I wished I was - I wished I had some tricks up my sleeve to coerce small children into doing what you want them to do. Luckily, Sydney's mama had a few tricks of her own and we were able to get a few good photos out of the trip to the park. She is such an adorable subject, it would be impossible not to get a few good ones. So, today, I thought I'd show some I felt were the best with you here.

I did notice well into the shoot that I should have turned my ISO down - I had it way too high for the high light of the outdoor park, and had I noticed this earlier, I could have reduced the noise in some of the photos. But, people, there are never too many ways to say I am constantly learning and full of pitfalls when it comes to shooting subjects. That being said, I am fairly happy with the way the Rebel shoots, even at a pretty high ISO, with little noise - it's not like the little purse camera with noise galore. So, even though in hindsight I should have turned it down earlier, the photos came out OK.

Look at that sweet face.

I cropped this one up - more noise.

I know this isn't "portrait" looking, but what an expression!

This one might be my favorite one of the whole group.

One of the only times I got her posing.

Mama was tickling her here, and I love that you can see Errika's reflection in her eyes.

That's S's blue outfit behind her in this one.
He was playing photography assistant.
Read: He carried the backpack.

I like the look of "huh?" captured here.

In this photo, she was talking to her mom.

This is the smile you got if she decided to say, "CHEESE."

This is another favorite of mine.

So cute - she was telling us to "come on!"

I asked her how old she was here - she said two but her fingers weren't cooperating.

Another favorite.

A sweet one with mama, looking at ducks out of the scene.

She definitely loves her mama.

What a cute subject!

Thanks, Sydney, for letting me take your photo, even if you weren't too excited about it. You're too cute!