Carbon Copy

Last week I received some of the most exciting news I have received ever in my professional career.  First Blush Photography is now an official award winning photography company.  The image that won was the one above I had taken last summer at a good friends home near Caroline, AB.  She sent me on a very exciting trip via an iPhone location pin that sent me into the back woods near Rocky Mountain House, AB.  The long of the short of it had me driving for about 4hrs when I was only initially around 50 minutes from her home initially.

When I finally arrived at her home I was greeted by the most lovely dinner of lasagna and Caesar salad and then it was time to get to work.  This image came from a 20 minute mini session that was booked to just capture her four boys – the twins and their two handsome older brothers.  We had such a good time and shared so many laughs in that short time just before the beautiful summer sun disappeared for the night.  There was dancing, singing and a little chubby dog by the name of ‘Fetchy’ that would run in and out of the frame – my friends fifth child, like all pet owners understand so well.

All of the boys were a pure dream to photograph.  They were so full of life and enthusiasm despite me having a camera stuffed in their faces the whole time.  They posed, they played and most of all they showed the love they have for each other.  I grew up as an only child and never had that constant friend that was available to play with and have fun with – as well as have many fights with.  The four of them had such an amazing bond together – they just loved and enjoyed every second of the day and the opportunity to play around in the dirt, get dirty and show off for the camera.

I had had an idea about half way through and asked my friend whether she thought the boys would be willing and/or able to sit back to back for a few seconds.  If you know my friend she kind of looked at me like “uhhhhhhh…if you want to” and rolled her eyes in the most amusing of ways.  Between herself and her husband they got the boys positioned and settled so that they could jump backwards in the most exiting and awkward of ways when I gave the signal.  “1, 2, 3…GO” and they two boys sat there and looked at them…more confused why both parents just flung themselves sideways away from them, in a half ninja – half drunken college student style.

The boys continued to sit there – gazing at me with the most beautiful eyes and soulful expressions.

Let te me tell you about the composition of this picture ‘Carbon Copy’ as well as specifically I edited it in such a way that I wanted it to tell more of a story then just two beautiful boys sitting back to back.

The boys are beautifully handsome.  There is no doubt about it.  They are little cherubs and are as bright and funny as they are angelic.  So how did I get THIS image you may ask – because toddler twin boys are possibly more exciting at times then my own two and a half year old triplets.

The boys are good boys and really were interested in what I was doing.  They are extremely identical but you can definitely tell some differences in how they sit, smile and how they use their body language to express themselves.  They were sitting on a road with lots of dirt and weeds and if you look closely you can see that where they are sitting has a different patch of road in front of each of them – the road is not identical and neither are they intrinsically.  The background was duplicated and flipped…again like the boys seem to be and a beautiful glow was added to the top of the image to create a light feeling of innocence and beauty.  Multiple corrections and hand edits were also used to create the image but those just come with the territory.

It was a pure pleasure taking this image and one that I will never forget.