Five Year Photos

As per our yearly tradition, the day after Elora's birthday we went out to take some five-year-old portraits to commemorate another year in her life. ( I don't know why this only ever happens with Elora: Josh's wall pictures were all taken at odd times like "15 months" or "2 1/2", as were Jonah's. Hmm.)
I realized I had taken quite a few nice pictures of Elora in the last month or two that we lived here, but I really wanted to have some in her new clothes from her birthday. Why? Because half of the stuff she's been wearing up 'till now dates back to around her second birthday! I know, I'm so neglectful. But that's why she got a whole new wardrobe this year, which she was actually excited about.
So she picked out her favorite shirt (which wasn't the one I thought she'd pick) then we went out with the camera. I knew right away it was still too early in the afternoon; the light was too bright and harsh. But Joseph was home and watching Joshua while we "got the mail" (Jonah was in the stroller with us) so it was our best chance to get out.
We found a shady wall for our first attempts, which I loved. Then we explored some nearby cattle stuff (I don't read Pioneer Woman enough to know all the technical terms, sorry.)But most of these shots were plagued by too deep of shadows, fake smiles, or blazing sunlight. It wasn't until the last half hour of our adventure that the light finally mellowed and I was able to get what I wanted. Not that I didn't have a hard time narrowing down the photos: I had about 96 to begin with, and after eliminating all the funny faces or blurry shots there were still about seventy. Here are those that I'll most likely print...which do you like?

First the "blue" pictures. I love these, and I have to figure out some way to display them.





Some cattle gate pictures. For each one of these I kept there were soooo many where she was making weird faces.



Random shots that turned out okay. I think I should have lightened the orangey one a bit, but I was just experimenting:



These all had some things that weren't quite right about them- awkward background, too bright, etc., but I still like them all for some reason.





We went out by our trusty green tractor again, but none of these turned out very good at all. It was just too bright out, Elora wasn't feeling it, and most just looked like snap-shots. Ah well, we already have tractor pictures, right?




Oh, did I mention, up until the tractor photos, most of these pictures were shot while Elora was wearing skates from her birthday? Yes, even those where she was on the gate or other precarious perches.



Finally, here is where the light was suddenly beautiful, at least to me.




I will be using one of this group as my annual 8x10 for the wall. I know which one I like best, though I love all of them. Which is your fave?



Of course, this one isn't bad either..



And I'll spare you the redundancy of the whole group of pics, but these all looked great as black and whites too.



Not a bad day, all in all.