Since I decided my Four Best of 2004 should each be different in as many ways as possible, I felt this last one should be taken with the 'kit' lens and represent photos I took of my grandson (age 2 1/2). That narrowed it down to a few thousand images. This was selected partially because it is very recent and partly because it was taken when he was in an unusually cooperative mood. His mother was an easy subject who loved to pose for pictures from her earliest days. This boy has no interest in being photographed and requires a great deal more effort to get results. This was lighted with a Sigma EF500 DG Super flash bounced and diffused using the bubble bag shown on my photo home page: http://home.comcast.net/~dougsmit/photohome.html The shutter speed was selected (M mode) to record the fire as I wanted and ETTL was relied upon for proper exposure. I was able to take several frames but this one seemed the best combination of placement and expression. His mother wanted the shot with him wearing a Santa hat but he was only so cooperative and that was asking too much. Kipper the dog, also in the image, is his favorite character and was a gift from his aunt shortly before this was taken.

This image was posted to the PBase space of the Digital Rebels Yahoo Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digital-Rebels
Users of Digital Rebel, 300D, 20D or other Canon Digital SLR's are invited to join us.