Metering: The process of taking a light reading from a given area to determine what your camera settings should be for proper exposure of that area.

I remember my "Ah Ha!" moment very distinctly. It hit me one sunny afternoon while I was sitting on my couch, doing nothing in particular. I was several months into taking photography seriously and had spent countless hours pouring over every tutorial I could find. Suddenly everything I had been reading came crashing together in my mind, and from it a VERY useful piece of information floated to the top.

Getting my dial to center on my meter did NOT equal perfect exposure. Say What?!

I'm just going to say it. Overhead mid-day sunlight - not the friend of the momtographer. With the exception perhaps of the middle of the night, if you can pick any other light in which to take portraits, pick it. But that's the thing about Momtography - our job is to document our kiddos lives... and sometimes we can't help the light.  So our job is to take the big lemon in the sky and make photographic lemonade.

So why is it such a challenge?  Well, think about the light of the midday sun - it streams down directly and harshly from above. If you could even see their eyes under those squinty eyelids, they would be made dark by the shadows cast by their brow bones. And wow, the contrast just isn't' pretty… is that a nose or a sundial?

Sunflare.  It's a special kind of backlighting that happens when you put your subject inbetween the sun and your camera. It usually happens in the late afternoon (except for you odd early birds among us!), and the results range from colors that look like the lemonade of late summer, to wild lens flare, to silhouetted backlight.

The general idea is to face your camera west at sunset, and put your subject somewhere between you and the sun.

Keep the sun JUST slightly out of the frame, and here's what you get.

There are few lighting situations that I love more than the backlight blowout.

The trick is to place your kiddo with their back facing a very bright light source (such as a bright window, balcony, or the very edge of deep shade), and have a source of reflection in front of them to bounce some of the light spilling from behind them back onto their face.  My favorite is white carpet, but a white blanket, sheet, or even a reflector does the job!

We've followed Photographer David Bean for some time - both on twitter and on his Pro Corner group on Flikr for Semi-Professional and Professional Photographers.  We're big fans of not only his stunning images of celebrities and his commercial work, but his truly approachable and open desire to help other photographers along the way.  A few months ago, I was talking to a fashion-world friend of mine about stand out photographers who would offer something valuable to our moms - and David's name made the short list. We leaped at the opportunity to connect -and a phone interview (with SIX DISCONNECTS!) he was every bit the wealth of experience and graciousness we thought he'd be!

MT: David - I'd like to start with something I saw on the bio of your webpage.  It says "Art is not my life… Life is my art."  That's something that resonates so strongly with us and with our moms because of what the nature of a Momtographer is.  How did you get there?

Basically, I'm not an artsy-fartsy person at all - I don't like artsy fartsy people… someone who takes themselves way too seriously, like what they do is so important that without them the world would be this tragic place. I really appreciate arts and I appreciate the craft of photography, but it's not saving the world - I don't have any grand illusions that I'm saving anyone's life!