Every Wednesday, there's a nice park in my local area that hosts a nature play group. For an hour, the girls listen to stories, dance, make a craft, and go explore outside. They love the social interaction and it makes my day go by a bit faster, so it's a win-win. The only downside? It lets out just before lunch, when the sun is directly overhead. As most of us have heard, that's not the best time to take pictures thanks to the harsh shadows cast on our faces and the inevitable squinty eyes. Therefore, I've never bothered to take my camera along to the play group.
Today, however, I decided to challenge myself. While the girls were cutting and pasting the state animals of Oklahoma, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to shoot and how to work around the lighting challenges. I then noticed that Adelynn was chewing on her hair. This is a (pretty gross) habit of hers that usually frustrates me, but I realized that she hadn't done it in almost a month. At that moment, I recognized that this quirk of hers was coming to an end and that I might *possibly* miss it one day. The image I wanted to capture had been decided.
The next part would be harder: how to work with the light to highlight this memory. I remembered that the park staff had built a small fort out of branches by the playground, and I knew that would have to be the location. Here it is: