Close Up Portraiture

Last year I joined group of photographers who chose a theme to photograph, and then share on our blogs each month.  Most of my group dropped out after the first few months, and there were some months that I was definitely not as into it as others, but I decided to do it again this year for one main reason:  It kept me blogging.  And not just on the themes from our group either. 

There were a lot of months when the time to post on our theme was coming up and I realized I hadn't posted anything since the last theme. I didn't want the theme posts to be the only thing on my blog, so I'd dig through the pictures I had taken over the month and choose something to blog about.

So that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I am at it again.  But I am excited.  This year's themes are more open ended.  Although, let's face it, that can be a good or bad thing.  Open ended means you have to think more doesn't it?  ;)  But regardless, I think it will be good for me.  (And if nothing more, it will keep me blogging).

So, this month's theme is Close Up Portraiture.  I confess I really struggled with this one.  I don't have a macro lens.  In fact, the longest focal length I have is a 50mm, and you can only get so close with that.

But for a long time I had wanted to photograph my kids eyes, so I thought I'd give it a shot.  Bart and I have nearly the exact same eye color, so it's no surprise that all of our kids have blue eyes too.  But, despite the nearly identical color, it's fascinating how different the eyes of each of my kids look. I only got pictures of Lilly and Hannah's eyes, but I'm going to work on getting Maya's and Addison's too.  Maybe I'll even share it in another post.  :)

Here's Lilly's:

And here's Hannah's

They were taken at different times of the day in different lighting conditions, so the color isn't as close as it is in real life, but compare the irises.  They are just so different!  It's awesome!  I love it!

Now go ahead and check out Catherine's take on this month's theme.