TWO-t Sweet

I've challenged myself this summer to become comfortable shooting in manual mode. I tend to rely heavily on aperture priority and shutter speed priority only using manual when I have plenty of time to experiment. Using manual mode I end up with a lot of pictures I don't like but sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised.
Photographing manually certainly slows me down but I feel I'll be happier with the creative freedom it offers.
We spent the evening outdoors trying to capture Leone at this age in pictures. She wanted to run wild and free but all I wanted was to freeze her in the moment. I admit at the time I was a tad frustrated with how squirmy and busy Leone was, she didn't sit still for one second! Determined to use manual settings I could hardly keep up. I laugh at the pictures now because the blur will continually remind me of how active she is at this age. Leone wasn't really in the mood for having her picture taken either, which just makes the smiling photos sweeter and the pouting pictures broody. I realize many of the pictures are in black and white but I can't help myself. I find in them something desperately romantic.

Here she was copying Spencer as he was walking with his hands behind his back.

 Then they started playing copy-cat.