Continuing curating images and writing up blog stories about my Urban Portraits Dumfries project with a post about an urban autumn photo session with Kevin.
At least, autumn vibes and yellow leaves in an urban setting was the initial idea behind this shoot as my last seasonal portraits for the project were taken a while ago in Castledykes Park. This time I wanted a more urban look.
However when John and I got into the town centre I remembered (dooh!) that a few days previously the council removed all large trees in the square outside Burton citing safety reasons. So there was nothing left on Dumfries High Street for us to use except a few pretty rowan trees on Quensberry Square. That’s where the warming up/getting to know each other) part of the session took place.
The rowan trees grew quite a bit since I last photographed them. I had to ask Kevin to stand on the bench to bring his face closer to luscious yellow foliage and bright red berries, use a shallow depth of field and frame just under his waist to hid the intrusive back of the bench. John wielded the trusty reflector to add catch lights in the boy’s eyes. Given the location limitations, I didn’t aim for much variety at this stage.
Kevin had just lost his front milk teeth and only could give me the wryest of smiles despite all the encouragement from us and his mum Joanna. I still think it was incredibly brave of him to get involved given the circumstances!!!
