First Holy Communion Revisit

I was editing some First Holy Communion pictures that I made recently of a young boy in my studio.  Something happened while photographing him that I just had to share.  I need to categorize this moment under the heading of "Situational Awareness."  While you might hear me talk your ear off about SA in other settings, I find that it works for me in most of my life.  It's simple moving through life with an awareness of what your senses are taking in.  For me, it's hyper-drive on the visual side but smells, sounds, sensations, etc., they all play a role.  Here's how SA worked in this photograph.

After finishing a series of images, I turned off my main light and moved it out of the way to get ready for the next series.  As I did, I saw the light pouring in over Hunter's head, like a beam of light that angels descend down to us in.  (Not that I've actually seen that actually happen, but you know what I'm talking about.)  I stopped dead in my tracks and said to my photographer friend Jason, who was visiting for a few days, 'do you see what I see??"  "YES!" was his excited reply.

I made a few images of him when Jason spoke up and said, "Hunter, look up at the ceiling."  Wow!  It made the picture happen.  Pious, reverent, humble, innocent - all the words that would fit for a First Holy Communion portrait of a young boy.

So they we were, Jason, Hunter, his grandma and I, a few days before Easter, and it was that situational awareness and that infamous angel of mine, "intuition", that spoke to us and helped me create this moving image of Hunter.  I invite you to help me think up a title for it.

The light from above, you ask?  It was biblical - the roof opened up and poured down a shaft of light that I needed for heavenly illumination of his portrait!  OK, you got me.  I cannot lie around Easter.  I owe it all to the Solatubes (http://www.solatube.com/) I had installed in my studio.  (Brighter Concepts on Capital Dr in Shorewood.)   I think I'll be using them for a light source more often!  It pays to have SA!