Face-Painting Par Excellence!

I'm very much still feeling my way with respect to portraits. I would

appreciate any comments, criticisms, and suggestions.

I'm just glad that I don't have to wash that stuff off!

Nice colors and composition. Visit my site if you have time. Any rating / comments highly appreciated. Alec

Hi Stephen. First some questions...did you set this up, or was it spontaneous? I love the idea of the painted faces, but I think I would've chosen a different background, or clothing....that's why I want to know...

Hi Linda,

The whole thing was basically spur-of-the-moment.

I took this last Sunday during a Hanukkah bazaar at our synagogue. The bazaar was run by the Sisterhood, who also hired an amazingly talented woman to do face-painting like this for the kids. Our friend Debbie (the Mom in the photo and this year's Sisterhood president) decided to have her face painted, too, and asked me to take pictures of her with her daughter, as well the other kids who had their faces painted.

I took my victims just outside the school building's doorway - kind of an open vestibule - shaded but illuminated by the a clear blue noon sky. This also sheltered them from the cold wind blowing at that time.

The entranceway is lined with a facade of stone (or maybe I should say "stone" :-) with mortar joints. I cloned out the mortar joints to prevent the rectilinear pattern from being distracting. I asked Debbie and her daughter to stand for several shots, "just in case" - at one point, Debbie rested her head on her daughter's, which I think made the best pose for them.

As always, thanks for your thoughtful comments.Best regards,SteveR