David is my little brother. For the last few years he was living near us and we got to spend quite a bit of time together. Despite being nearly ten years younger than me, we have an awful lot in common. David is also the person I turn to when I want to try something new, different, or often just new to me with my photography. He’s my trusty and go-to test subject.
He has willingly stood for me in the middle of roads, put eggs to his eye, climbed through corn fields, done face-shaking till his brains were rattled, gotten his black clothing completely drenched in flour, posed in his tux in 90 degree heat in front of weird make-shift backgrounds, and held his trombone SO STILL while lying on the ground in the garage of our parents’ house.
In more recent adventures, he’s accompanied my kids and me to the zoo (about 43 million times), to many playgrounds, coffee shops, restaurants, and generally been my partner in crime on mid-morning kid-outings. That’s also meant that his being there has allowed me to photograph some of these adventures a bit easier. He (and his amazing girlfriend) have also let me try out some new couples prompting/posing with them pretty much whenever I need to.
I definitely count myself lucky in all of this. I’d be remiss if I didn’t also note that my sister has also always been game for letting me test things out on her as well. I managed to wind up with a pretty excellent family. What’s even better, as far as I’m concerned, is that David has started to be bitten a bit by the photography bug as well. He and my dad are currently on a hiking trip in Colorado and he took one of my cameras and a couple of lenses with him. He calls on occasion and asks for tips, tricks and settings, and it’s fantastic. I’ve got my fingers crossed for some photo adventures with him in the future.
Do you have a go-to photo subject? Someone you test out all of your new tricks with? Who do you aim the lens at when you’re attempting a little free-lensing or pulling out the prism or working through those posing guides you found? For a long time, this post would have been all about my dog – haha!
All the best,
Alison