A snap from two days ago when Alexis celebrated her 7th birthday a day early with some of her friends from school. They had an 'inset' day on Friday ('teacher training day' when I was at school).
I drove down and met her, her friends, her mum and step-dad at the local water park, and spent 2 very fun hours going down water slides. It was very good fun, followed by some grub at Pizza Hut.
The later in the evening some more friends arrived for a very nice birthday tea with food, games, and even a magician...! Of course it was all topped off by a candles and the cake - a dark chocolate sponge with chocolate fingers and Skittles on top. Naughty but very nice.
I have left her friend Daisy in the foreground because if I crop in further, you can clearly see that I am focused on the back wall and not Alexis' face, but I also like her friends' expression as she was helping to blow the candles out as well.
This isn't the shot I imagined, but it's never easy trying to show this kind of scene without it being too dark, or getting some very blown out highlights with the candles and faces. I think some gentle flash would have helped. The colour balance isn't right and there is probably far too much shadow areas in the frame, but when I tried to open them up a little, it all became a bit too messy. I kept looking at the jpeg that was recorded along with the RAW and it looked much nicer as it was shot compared to the over-corrected RAW. I wonder what a pro would have done with this.
3 good things:
1 - Fun at the water park
2 - Pizza for lunch
3 - A great birthday tea and games in the afternoon
I agree - it is a really difficult shot to get right, and not the time to spend ages creating the right arrangement. Keeping the friend there definitely was the right decision - she adds interest and depth to the composition without taking away from the main subject. Lovely happy shot.
