Grayson, 6 months

As a gift to my sister, I promised to photograph her son. Of the ten shots on the roll from that day, this was my favorite. A lot of credit, though, should really go to Grayson's grandma, who elicited this smile as she crouched just to my left. Baby photography is hard!

Technical notes: Wanting to use natural light, I loaded a roll of Ilford Delta 3200 in the Mamiya RB67. For a narrow depth of field and flattering effect, I used a 180mm lens. Even with the fast film, I had trouble shooting above 1/30th of a second in the window light. (Another surprise was a side effect of the low-light setting: His pupils were almost completely dilated! I'm not sure why I didn't anticipate that. In a couple of the pictures, the whites of his eyes weren't visible at all, leading my wife to observe, "Um, he kind of looks like a puppet.")

The biggest thing I learned from this, though, was that Ilford 3200 should really be shot at ISO 800, or so, unless you're using a special developer. I used my usual 1+100 Rodinal, and got thin negatives with tons of grain. Ah well, I kind of like the effect -- or, at least, I've convinced myself that I do. At any rate, unless I get that special developer, I now know of no way to shoot portraits in room light with an RB67. Which is kind of disappointing. The camera's so versatile, I've always told myself that there's nothing it can't do besides fit in your pocket!