Weekend Photo Focus: Headless Portraiture

Fuel Your Photography‘s Weekend Photo Focus was on Headless Portraiture. I was inspired by the photos in the article and wanted to take a stab at it. As usual, I’m a day and a half behind editing photos, so I wasn’t able to submit my results before the Weekend Photo Find was published, but it was still an interesting project.

I think I could have done a better job, especially if I gave myself more time to think through the shot. Once again, I fell victim to rushing myself to get shots in by the end of the day. I’d like to revisit this again before the end of the year, perhaps without using my kids as the subject. If you have any examples of headless portraiture you’d like to share, please give me a link in the comments!

Our Sunday

Late in the morning, my mom took Mr. Serious to Michael’s then the grocery store. They stopped for lunch and were gone until around 2pm or so. Boa was taking a nap when they left and woke shortly after. He’s been going through some teething or a growth spurt or something because he wasn’t awake for more than 90 minutes before he wanted another nap. He isn’t sick and he’s been down to one nap a day since he was around seven months old, which is why I think it must be teething. Mark thinks he felt some molars coming in, which cannot be very fun for the little guy. I took the dogs outside and tried to find a spot in the shade to surf on the laptop while Mark got Boa down for his second nap.

After my mom and Mr. Serious got home, it would have been a wise idea to immediately try to get him to take a nap. It was such a nice day out and I don’t think either Mark or I realized the time. Mark went to find the baby pool while I got Mr. Serious in his bathing suit lathered him with sunscreen. We took out a little pop-up tent to help shade Boa, which Leah claimed, and let Mr. Serious play with the water as he pleased. We all had a grand old time…

… and that party lasted about 15 minutes before Mr. Serious wanted to play with the hose and I said, “No, sir.” Normally, that’s not much of a problem, but he was throwing tantrums and getting upset at the slightest thing to go wrong. It was so clearly obvious that he needed a nap I felt like I had a parenting fail by letting him get to the point where he was so tired. Since suddenly nothing was going his way outside, I decided it was time to come in and take a nap. He liked this idea even less. Mr. Serious screamed about not wanting to go inside and definitely not wanting to take a nap.

The poor little boy was a sobbing mess by the time we finally got to his bedroom. I explained to him that he felt so bad, sad and frustrated only because he was so tired. To my surprise, he almost immediately calmed down. I read a couple of books and sang a couple of songs, then left the room and he was asleep within minutes. By this time it was nearly 4pm, so we only let him sleep for about a half an hour before waking him.

In the evening, Mark and I headed to one of my favorite restaurants in Cleburne to celebrate the birthdays of Mark’s brother, Doug and sister, Kathy. Dinner was delicious and Mark’s dad graciously and unexpectedly paid. Although I did bring my camera, I didn’t take any photos. Mark got a couple, including a pretty good one of his brother. We stopped by Mark’s parents’ house before heading home for cake and ice cream.

Mr. Serious and Boa stayed at home since the dinner cut into the time they normally go to bed, but they were awake when we got home around 9pm anyway. It didn’t take too long to get them to sleep and then we watched the final episode of Lost. I know there are plenty of people disappointed in the ending. I can’t say I didn’t want more answers. I thought the ending could have been cooler. Still, when I look back at the show over the last six years, what made me fall in love with it was the characters. And in the end, the characters continued to pull at my heartstrings. It was a beautiful love story all around and as most love stories go, it didn’t make complete sense. I’m okay with that.

All Photos Taken Today