James is my little photography apprentice.  He has shot almost sixty weddings with me, which is incredible.  At first, I used to bring him along for moral support, so that I didn’t have to spend all day, alone and wondering what on earth I was doing.  That’s definitely how I felt in the beginning.  Now, he’s a part of the whole experience.  And he is able to use the camera in a valuable way now, as opposed to when he sort of just carried one around to look official.

Truth be told though, he doesn’t do much practicing.  We talk through setting every so often, and discuss what to do in particular situations, but sometimes he doesn’t do too much with just taking every day pictures.  And that’s mostly because if we’re together, I’m normally the one with the camera in hand.

The other day though, James took out the camera and went to the front yard with the boys so he could practice shooting with the full setting sun in the background.  It’s actually pretty tricky.  When the sun is at a certain angle, it’s very bright, which makes it hard for the camera to focus.  So it takes some practice to figure out what settings to use, and how to focus correctly on the subject.  I’m glad he went out to work on it–it shows it’s important to him.

Photos taken by James.  Edited by me.  (And after looking at them you’ll find what I will tell him to work on next . . . making sure he’s not taking all of his pictures crooked!)