Passage V

With the Sun Behind Me

When my parents were both professional photographers, gave me a camera for my tenth birthday, I immediately expected to shoot the same kinds of stunning photos that decorated the walls of our home. My father was known for his spectacular sunrises over the harbor, my mother for her glittering nighttime cityscapes. My first photos, however, looked nothing like theirs. “Person without a Head,” “Blurry Dog in Motion,” “Blob on the Beach” — these were some examples of photos I took.

Determined to improve, I diligently adhered to every photography rule my parents taught me, such as: use diagonal lines to draw the viewer’s gaze to the photo’s main subject. Carefully “frame” your shot by paying attention to the details that make up the borders of the picture. [A] Remember to position your main subject by using “the rule of thirds.” And, finally, when taking a photo outdoors, always make sure the sun is behind you. [B] It was this last rule that I expressed loudly to my mother one afternoon when, fumbling with her camera bag, she told me to sit down on a park bench. [C] “Just trust me,” she said. Skeptical, I waited while she pulled out her camera and attached an electronic flash to the top. [D] Now I was baffled. Not only was she going to take my picture with the sun behind me but she was going to use a flash? In daylight? Instead of answering my questions, she simply smiled and goes something about rules not always being as clear-cut as I thought. (68)

When I saw the prints a few days later, they were far from the blurry, shadowy mess I had expected. Next, the setting sun behind me had created a soft halo along the edges of my hair. This effect, my mother explained, was the result of two techniques. Called “backlighting” and “flash fill.” Usually backlighting results in a silhouette, but she’d had prevented that by using the electronic flash to radiate my face. The combination of light behind and in front of me yielded a portrait that, perfectly captured the golden glow of that late afternoon.