<<< o >>>and now she is five 39 comments + add yours
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Rhowan was five today, though it doesn't seem like any time at all since she was born. I remember, when I was young, that time seemed to stretch away for ever: weekends were meaningfully long, rather than just long enough to regain some semblance of sanity, and things like the six week summer holidays seemed to go on for ever – hot summer days stretching away well beyond the horizon. These days, five years can pass in the blink of an eye, and a baby can become a beautiful young girl in a moment.

captured
camera
lens
aperture
shutter speed
shooting mode
exposure bias
metering mode
ISO
flash
image quality
RAW converter
cropped?
4.22pm on 28/8/06
Canon 20D
EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
f/4.0
1/25
aperture priority
-1/3
evaluative
100
580EX (-1 FEC)
RAW
C1 Pro
1x1
 
1x1 + children [portraits]
comment by Roger at 09:37 PM (GMT) on 28 August, 2006

I am hot and cold on the composition David. I do love the expression,

comment by Marina at 09:52 PM (GMT) on 28 August, 2006

Congrats to Rhowan - hope she had a great day! The picture is gorgeous.

comment by Trish at 09:59 PM (GMT) on 28 August, 2006

Beautiful shot of a beautiful child. This is, to me, a very unique picture, and I'm rather mesmerized. Happy Birthday Rhowan!

comment by [ PIXEL VIKING ] at 10:01 PM (GMT) on 28 August, 2006

Like Roger, I don't quite know what to say about the composition. "Different" is mostly good in my book, though. Congrats on the little one - love her look. Is that lipgloss on her? Does she have a 28 year old biker boyfriend too? :D

comment by John Washington at 10:12 PM (GMT) on 28 August, 2006

Great commentary Dave and those words kind of sum up the reason why I take photos. I like this image and I'm all for compositions that break rules/conventions as this one perhaps does.

For me though portraits more than anything freeze images that can never be recreated. I wish that I had more photos of my children to look back on and to that end I urge you to never stop documenting the family.

Good work.

comment by Gavin at 10:15 PM (GMT) on 28 August, 2006

Happy Birthday to Rhowan. This is a beautiful shot of her. The composition is so wonderfully weird and unique, I love it. It's the eye that makes it for me, theres something about it thats just perfect.

comment by Jennifer at 10:31 PM (GMT) on 28 August, 2006

Fab - one for the wall - not just the album!

comment by mihai at 10:34 PM (GMT) on 28 August, 2006

cool angle..lovely expression...nice processed

comment by A.Ellis at 10:42 PM (GMT) on 28 August, 2006

Nice and sharp eye for 1/25th! Good work as always.

comment by alan at 11:21 PM (GMT) on 28 August, 2006

Gorgeous. I am in the "love the composition" camp. The toning and DoF work incredibly well together to create an aura of "softness". Beautiful little girl and beautiful image! Happy Birthday Rhowan!! :-)

comment by nuno f at 12:20 AM (GMT) on 29 August, 2006

Beautiful portrait of Rhowan. Happy Birthday to her!
The tonning is excellent for this kind of portrait and the composition is well balanced. Another fantastic work!

comment by Andy@PhotoChron at 12:27 AM (GMT) on 29 August, 2006

As always, top notch composition.

comment by Maxine at 01:21 AM (GMT) on 29 August, 2006

Oh my gosh! It is impossible, yesterday she was a baby! What a beautiful young lady! Happy Bday Rhowan! And dad...what a pic! Superb! Congratulations!

comment by milo at 02:32 AM (GMT) on 29 August, 2006

awesome

comment by DAVE at 03:25 AM (GMT) on 29 August, 2006

Your kids are so beautiful, it's like they were born to be in front of your camera. Always great work with your children. Keep it up. It's pure art.

comment by Gabriel Loeb at 05:28 AM (GMT) on 29 August, 2006

Absolutely stunning shot. The face is sharp, light subject leads to a dark background, great dof. Really really fantastic. This is wonderful. This is one of my favorite shots of yours.

comment by navin harish at 06:42 AM (GMT) on 29 August, 2006

Interesting observation about the time. I remember when I was not married, the weekends seemes quite long and now every sunda evening I think about where the weekend has gone and I know things are going to get more hectic ion the future. It reminds me of a Hindi song that goes like "Dil dhoondta hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din" meaning My hart looks for those lazy days and nights.

Happy Birthday Rowan.

comment by > at 07:17 AM (GMT) on 29 August, 2006

wow. the framing, the angle, the colour, the expression, its beautiful!

happy birthday rhowan

comment by Roy at 10:28 AM (GMT) on 29 August, 2006

Your daughter shares the same birthday as me - albeit over fifty years apart!
I like your thoughts on time and absolutely concur.
Also loving the square format of this shot that you see so little of these days (unless Holga) and the composition of the single eye next to the eye-like shape on her shoulder.

comment by Stefan at 11:06 AM (GMT) on 29 August, 2006

my daughter just turned 4 today too, so I know exactly what you mean with time running away and everything. wonderful composition.
happy birthday rhowan.

comment by Ali at 11:13 AM (GMT) on 29 August, 2006

Happy Birthday Rhowan.
Happy Composition Dave :)

comment by m at 12:29 PM (GMT) on 29 August, 2006

Fantastic shot. Keep those people shots comming!
I nearly didn't recognise her, she looked so different.

comment by Darren Birkin at 01:18 PM (GMT) on 29 August, 2006

It's definitely an unusual composition. Was that intentional or was it cropped that way afterwards ? Interesting angle / perspective too. On the whole I think I like it.

comment by tiberiu crisan at 03:25 PM (GMT) on 29 August, 2006

Rhowan, be happy like your father is when he looks at you.

comment by doreen at 05:23 PM (GMT) on 29 August, 2006

i swear, your daughter looks about 12 in this picture. i would've never guessed she was just 5 years old.

comment by Chad Hilligoss at 06:21 PM (GMT) on 29 August, 2006

It's a very good picture. After reading your post I'm reminded of the song "Run Home to Me" by Eric Clapton. It's about parenthood and not wanting your kids to grow up very fast among other things.

comment by sb at 06:26 PM (GMT) on 29 August, 2006

beautiful girl, beautiful picture! Happy Birthday Rhowan!

comment by Chris Pittock at 08:09 PM (GMT) on 29 August, 2006

How true. Why just yesterday my Son was born, next month he'll be 11. Scary!

comment by Bill at 08:23 PM (GMT) on 29 August, 2006

Wonderful shot, great composition, love it...

comment by Karl Baumann at 09:41 PM (GMT) on 29 August, 2006

your kids portraits are always great :-)

comment by djn1 at 09:52 PM (GMT) on 29 August, 2006

Thanks everyone, and happy birthday to Roy too :-)

[ PIXEL VIKING ]: yes, it's lipgloss – she's quite into make-up at the moment.

Darren: the crop was decided on after the photograph was taken. This was shot in our north-facing bay window but because she'd tilted her head backwards the right side of her face and the top of her head were quite brightly lit. This crop evened out the lighting.

comment by Claude at 09:56 PM (GMT) on 29 August, 2006

Interesting framing and composition. A great and original portrait. Happy Birthday Rhowan!

comment by Zeynep at 12:09 AM (GMT) on 30 August, 2006

I have been checking your photos daily for a while, although I have not commented before. I really like this photograph. She is beautiful... the angle is wonderful. :)

comment by chiara at 09:29 AM (GMT) on 30 August, 2006

Love her expression and the angle!

comment by kurt at 10:46 AM (GMT) on 30 August, 2006

perfect composition and great dof!
a wonderful portrait.

comment by Riri at 11:28 AM (GMT) on 30 August, 2006

Great composition !

comment by Mary at 03:24 PM (GMT) on 30 August, 2006

Nice shot. I like the depth of field and the angle. She looks so much older than 5 in this pic. What a beautiful child! Hope you had a wonderful birthday, Rhowan!

comment by pro at 04:26 AM (GMT) on 31 August, 2006

Absolutely beautiful portrait!

comment by Adriana at 07:17 PM (GMT) on 2 September, 2006

Another one to showhow your babie's face's have started to show they're about to stop being babies.