Sunday, August 24, 2008

Chasing a Five Year Old

This is Shannon, my friends Miriam and Dan's granddaughter. She is so adorable, she makes your heart melt.

She's wise far beyond her years. Talking with her is like talking with an adult - her speech is impeccable, and her language skills are amazing. She's quite serious in her discussions. She's definitely not your typical five year old.

Except in one category - she has non-stop energy. This kid never slows down. I chased her around the black berry patch the other day with my camera, hoping to get some good photos. She ran me around that patch four times!

She's so fast, I had a difficult time keeping up with her. She's not particularly good on focusing on a single task, normal for a five year old, so it was a challenge to keep up with her as she picked a berry here, then moved 10 feet to pick "better" berries, then backed up three feet because she had missed two "really big berries!"

So much for camera focus. I changed to Plan B - hope that she's distracted enough by berry picking that she'd stay in one spot for more than 2 seconds. She was very aware of the camera, and kept attempting to pose, which didn't work at all.

Of course, all this continual motion kept me hopping around. I was trying to focus and adjust for lighting, as she just did her normal five year old stuff. It wasn't too long before I realized I was probably only going to get a few good shots - if I was lucky.

And that's exactly how it turned out - I have lots of blurs (she moves SO fast!), and plenty of other unusable shots. Out of more than 50 shots, there might be five that are acceptable.

But we sure had fun picking berries . . .

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Active wee ones are a challenge lol...she is adorable. Have you considered less active projects with her? Maybe her laying on the floor with a crayon & paper? Or looking at a book ;)

Unknown said...

ooohhhhh another thought...one of my favorite shots of my neice....outside laying on the ground with a daisy....he loves me, he loves me not ;) :D

beth pulsipher said...

You are absolutely right, Patty! Wish I'd thought of that.

She's only here once a summer, when she comes with her parents to visit. So now I have a whole year to plan, and next time I'll be ready!!! :) b

p2pix said...

Sounds like you got your exercise for the day trying to get pictures of her...lol.

BTW we're heading to The Red Barn at Outlook Farms, in South Berwick for an Aug 31 wedding. Can't wait for the change of scenery if only a short one. We're staying in Plymouth MA for a couple of days before heading up to the wedding.

Have you been there?

I'm double checking that I have all my necessary camera items...lol.

beth pulsipher said...

Hi Pat -

Although I've been through South Berwick before, I'm not familiar with the Red Barn or Outlook Farms. Googled it, and it surely looks like a fab place for a wedding. Definitely take your camera - they need to upgrade their website wedding photog! :) b

Anonymous said...

I feel for you, Beth. I visited with some friends a few days ago and had the same problem with their beautiful daughter. She is younger than Shannon.. four maybe. She loved the camera, but could not stop moving around. She even wanted to be the photographer part of the time. I did not end up with ANY decent photos. :(

Sok.. there is always another day, right?