Posing
This portrait is all about the toddler, but we started by posing Dad on a bar stool with his right leg elevated slightly. This allowed his son to sit on his leg and be closer to the camera. I usually like to keep my subjects on the same plane, but here I had Dad lean back a little to drop him slightly out of focus and bring more attention to his son. Dad was leaning a lot to his right as I focused on the little guy.
To intensify the connection, Dad is holding his son’s hand and the boy is grabbing Dad’s finger. This conveys a level of intimacy and emphasizes contrast between Dad’s large, rough hand and the child’s small, smooth hand.
Composition
The curves of their arms at the bottom of the photograph are nice compositional lines. They produce an almost circular composition that conveys the idea of family. Bending an arm instead of having it straight, perhaps giving a sweep to the image, always makes it more appealing.
Expression
The expression on the child’s face is one hundred percent about engaging his mind. I guarantee that he was enjoying whatever it was I was saying to him. We very rarely use toys to engage children; we find that engaging their minds is much more successful in evoking emotions and expressions.
