By Scott Shephard

I never aspired to be a child photographer. In fact, in the first year of teaching photography a few years ago, a student went to the administration to voice displeasure with the fact that it appeared that child photography wouldn't be part of the curriculum because, as she said, "He doesn't like children."

I kept my job in spite of the complaint. And I'm sure I never said that I didn't like children. I think I said that getting good photos of children is hard. And it is - at least for me.

Nevertheless, I do take photos of children from time to time. Here's one from a recent session that I really like. I'll admit that my judgement about this photo is clouded by the fact that I really like this subject, our granddaughter Glenyce Jane. What I like is that all of the technical details are right - Rembrandt lighting, good focus, shallow depth of field, etc. More importantly,  I also like her look, which is, I think, one of curiosity. It is totally natural and un-coached.

And it was preceded by 31 failures. I realize that a 31:1 ratio isn't very good. Maybe I'll get better with practice. . . .

Canon 5DIII 1/180s f/4.0 ISO100 102mm

Check out my 31 failures: