A couple of months ago my sister Sharon and  friend Marra  wrote this years Sunday School Christmas play "A Story For All Generations".  Which will be held at Community Church of Elkhorn at 10:30am on Dec, 18th.  During the planning stages my sister volunteered my photos then asked me the next day if I would do it and of course I said I would.  

    The story is a grandfather telling the story of the birth of Jesus, as the grandfather is telling the story, my photos are presented above the stage.  We did the photos back in November after church one Sunday.  I have always been interested in the Three Kings (Melchior, Balthazar, and Gaspar).   I dont want to get theological on the names or if their were three or more kings,  but they are the names Ill go with.   

    I did  a few different views with the boys playing the Three Kings. I photographed them coming at me, staggered apart, and together, but it wasent the photo I really wanted to do.  It was towards the end of photographing them and the kids playing the shepherds were waiting on the sidelines  trying to stay warm when all of a suddenly the sun went behind the clouds and the idea came to me to get a profile photo silhouetted against the clouds in the sky.  Exposing for the sky and not the kids with the sun on the side gave me the silhouette I wanted ( I know I know they are facing the wrong direction), but the sun gave just enough light to illuminate their crowns and faces to what I wanted and give a little detail.  I did a photo of the kids all in black but felt it plugged up the photo too much so I backed off that idea and went with this final exposure of F8 at 1/1000 sec at a film speed of 500.  I also rested my camera on the grounds and photographed them  at a lower perspective . This helped me out in a couple of ways, it covered up the house and power-lines in the

background and with more of the sky behind them gave it a more towering view of the kids.      I enjoyed this photo shoot , yeah, it was alot to do in an afternoon and yeah, it was a little hectic but I enjoyed it so much.  I think it would be fun to to a shoot like this on a clear night with bright stars in the background, but that my be for next year.   Merry Christmas!!