Behind the Image: NAU Guest Blogger – Shelby Lynch

“Grumpy Gills,” photo copyright Shelby Lynch

“Grumpy Gills”
Romping around on a warm day in Flagstaff, AZ with my partner in crime… okay, tour guide actually.  Admittedly, I wanted to sound cooler.  My older cousin graduated from Northern Arizona University a few years ago and lives up here with his fiancé and son, so they have helped me find places to take photos for class.

I was inspired to capture images of their son, Casey, because he was acting like my personal assistant.  He found all of the perfect flowers for me and would advise me to take photos of them.  Casey is three going on thirty.  He is the most serious, concentrated, well-mannered kid I know, but totally a thinker.  Casey would analyze the picture taking process and you could tell.  He has his “thinking face” on.  The boy was completely intrigued and wanted to know how everything worked together to create an image.  He asked and continues to ask me how the image gets inside of the camera and I love how fascinated he is with the process.

After attempting to answer questions as best I could, I turned the camera on little mister Casey.  Now in the past this has happened, but it seems every time I turn the camera on him… or most children, I get this “thinking face” or the face of a miserable child.  I don’t know what it is about me that brings this face out of children, but I must be doing something wrong.  I’ve showed them images on the camera, I’ve made the goofiest noises, and I’ve even danced (which would probably make me cry to see too, I suppose)… nothing works for me! The only time I seem to get a smile is when I put the camera down, and that’s just what Casey did.

As a photographer, I love to capture more emotions than happy or the typical smiling face, I enjoy capturing what’s real.  I’d like to believe that there is more than a happy smiling face to people, and think that is the reason people go to photographers more than companies now-a-days.

When I pulled the photos I took into Adobe Lightroom, and I quickly realized that this was my favorite one.  I adjusted the exposure slightly to darken it a little.  I also pulled the blacks down a little and created a matte preset for this image as well as the set it is in.

For my image, “Grumpy Gills”, I used my Canon Rebel T2i/EOS 600D.  My settings are ISO 100, 50mm lens at f/1.8, 1/500 of a second.

About the Photographer:
Hello, I’m Shelby Lynch and I’m generally all smiles.  Just a small town gal transitioning to university living.  I am the kind of girl who prefers to be behind the camera.  I am majoring in photography.  I have been shooting since I got my first camera in 2006.  When I started out, I just took photos of friends and still life.  I have done a number of portrait shoots, but I believe there is always something to learn.  I love to capture people’s real essence and try finding beauty in everything.  One day I hope to own my own business.

To read more about the Northern Arizona University “Behind the Image: Guest Blogger” project on our blog, please read the introduction at youcansleepwhenyouredead.com/wordpress/its-back-the-2014-nau-photography-students-behind-the-image-guest-blogger-project/.