How I Got The Shot-- Water Balloons
Water balloons are such a summer icon and it is always super fun for me to make photos. Let's take a look at how I got the shot(s). I'll walk you through my entire thought process in this tutorial.
What is the story?
When it comes to documenting an activity and making a strong image, the first step is always trying to figure out what exactly the interesting story is and take it a step further than the literal and obvious scene.
The bland story is: Some children are playing with water balloons in the summer.
This is a story. However, it is a veeeeeery boring story. Let's take this tory further. What is so interesting (to me) about playing with water balloons?
It's a a group activity and it takes team work to get the activity even started. (could happen at any distance)
It is action time and water everywhere. (Gotta get in that splash zone)
Kids always have different ways of playing water balloons than just throwing them at each other. (Maybe when adult are not around)
[Depending on how much time you spend behind the camera, the above three focused story should be good enough for one session. If I am hanging out with my family, I would just stop and go back to play with them afterwards.]
Lens Choice
Sometimes people think that when shooting documentary, you have to use a wide angle lens. That is not necessarily true. Different lenses will give your image a different look and feel. If you are aiming to create a single image to tell a complex story, then a wide angle lens might be the best choice. If you are outdoor and you can't necessarily get in close, you need a longer lens for subject separation. Or if you are creating a photo essay with multiple images, then you would need to think if you want more of a visual variety or if you need visual consistency.
First let's take a look at when I used my long lens. (70-200mm)
BTS video taken with my phone mounted on top of my camera so you can see where exactly I was from my perspective.
The shot I got: <A story of team work shown at water balloon play among cousins.>
Perspective: I am watching the kids and see what they do and how they work together and they figured it out.
The shots I got: <Action shot!>
Perspective: Look, I am watching those kids having fun.
For visual variety, I switched to my wide angle lens.
The shots I got: <A story about different ways of playing water balloons, especially when the water balloons would not pop easily with kids' throwing strengths.>
Perspective: I am hanging out with the kids and see what they came up with.
Now let's get reeeeeally close!
(note: My nephew did not want me to use any of his close up photos I got publicly even though his mom gave me the permission, so I had to redo the splash zone BTS video with only my kids at a different time for this tutorial.)
The shot I got: <Water everywhere! Splash splash!>
Perspective: I am playing WITH them and this is how it feels to be playing water balloons with them.
See how you feel differently when looking at images made with different lenses and from a different distance?
Editing
For this set, I specifically was looking for the moments and also texture to start with. Color was not really part of my story here. If I were trying to focus on how colorful summer feels, then I would have edited the images in colors for sure. For this time, we have sooooo many colors that are distracting. If I had left the colors in, your eyes really don't know where to focus anymore. See how many colors we would have here?! Even though initially I tried to see if I could include the yellow color pop, I decided to let go of that idea as we have too many other colors for that idea to work. BW worked well for this set.
If I really wanted to stay with the color blue/yellow combo, I probably would have just stayed with the composition whith the kids hanging out in the small pool where all the balloons were filled.
That's my whole process. Can't wait to see if you can get some cool water balloon images this summer! Come back and share with us!
