Day 7 - The Start of Summer

I've had my camera for several years now but I used to hate carrying my camera with me. I blame it partly because of my older camera bag. It was heavy and lugging that bag around kind of de-glamourized (if there is such a word) photography for me. My other reason for not carrying my camera was because EVERYONE I knew was carrying his or her camera. I didn't need to take a picture of the dessert we had for lunch when I could see it from three different sources! ;P Recently I changed camera bags AND I decided the only way to improve my photo taking skills was to actually use my camera.

While I am a novice at photography, I enjoy photographing people more than I do of still life. I find photographing still-life not challenging (yeah...I know...I shouldn't be speaking since I am no world reknowned photographer but it's my blog) and to capture a laugh, a smile or that sweet twinkle in one's eyes takes more skills.

Anyhoo....I do not have little nieces or nephews so my wonderful friend enlisted her niece, Little H, as my photo subject for today (of course with Little H's parents' permission). Little H's mom has kindly enlisted Little H to be my photo model for life. :D Little H is 2 1/2 years old. She's got the biggest eyes and longest lashes I've ever seen for an Asian kid. Too bad you won't get to see it here.

Anyhoo...the sun was setting and created this lighting effect that I was hoping to be able to capture. (Note to self - taking pictures of 2 1/2 years old is not as easy as it looks. At one year old - they crawl or walk like a little drunk meaning they are slow. From two to four - they are walking around, getting them to sit still or do what you want them to do requires bribes. From five onward - they are more willing to pose for you.)

Seeing little H in the picture below makes me wish I was still a child chasing sweet nothings at the start of summer.