Photo of the Day


Window Walls and Leading Lines

December 7, 2018

By Stacey Goldberg

Photo © Athena Hays

A former wedding client reached out to photographer Athena Hays with a rather tall order: The client’s extended family was getting together for a family reunion/photo session in Minneapolis, and they wanted Hays to capture the get-together. That included making a portrait with 16 adults (including several elderly family members) and 9 kids.

Hays was up for the task. She arrived early at the Lake Harriet Bandshell and scoped out the scene. As she was getting familiar with the setting, she spotted this father and daughter looking out the wall of windows at the nearby lake. “It was a gorgeous, clear day and the clouds were absolutely perfect,” Hays recalls. But that also meant an abundance of light coming through. Hays, after spotting the sweet moment, took out her camera and underexposed the image, keeping the father and daughter crisp and clear as well as the leading lines cast by the shadows. “The reflection lines on the ground lead straight to the viewer. It’s almost as if, rather than leading lines into the frame, they are leading outwards.”

(Captured using a Nikon D750 and a 50mm f/1.8 lens at ISO 400, 1/1250 of a sec. and f/1.8.)

Photo © Athena Hays

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