I was in northern France with my host family, teaching their two boys English as part of an exchange program. On this particular day, we were attending a baptism, and I had my camera with me to document the entire event. During a break, I asked one of the daughters if she’d be up for a few fun portraits, and she kindly agreed.
The church was nestled beside a stunning field of flowers, their petals gently swaying in the breeze. I was experimenting with using foreground elements to add more depth to my shots, so I asked her to sit for a few test photos.
This one turned out to be my favorite, capturing her personality perfectly. The variety of shapes and the movement of the flowers seemed to echo her free, adventurous spirit, with the wind adding a natural energy to the shot.
I shot this with my Nikon D750, paired with a Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, set to 200mm and f/3.2 to really hone in on my subject. I chose f/3.2 because it provided sharper detail with this lens, and at 200mm, I didn’t need to worry too much about subject isolation.
For the final edit, I decided to apply a sepia tone to minimize distractions from the surrounding environment. While the scenery was beautiful, I wanted my subject to take center stage, and the sepia effect also added a nostalgic vibe to the image. I slightly reduced the highlights, since it was early afternoon, and adjusted the composition by cropping to shift my subject a bit to the left. After that, no further edits were needed.