Song for Dad

Song for Dad
Anyone who has ever known my father will tell you he is the single most giving person they know, with both his time and his talents. While many of our talents are decidedly different (most of what I have ever done with a hammer is not what you might consider "constructive"), I'd like to think we have a common drive to do the things that we do well. He's taught me too many things to even count, but the foremost that comes to mind at this point in my life is in these lyrics from Keith Urban's "Song for Dad":
The older I get
The more I can see
How much he loved my mother, (sister), brother and me
And he did the best that he could
And I only hope when I have my own family
That every day I see
A little more of my father in me
(the rest of the lyrics and play/download links are available on his website)

Here he is getting a well-deserved day off on his birthday, just relaxing in his favorite chair.

This shot was taken in my parent's living room as it is every day. I pulled the curtains closed behind him to clean up the background and prevent any reflections (of the flash) off the otherwise-exposed glass door. He is lit with a flash in a shoot-through umbrella from camera left with a little bit of ambient fill light from a lamp just out of the frame to camera right (which allows you to see into the shadows on his camera right ear). I considered using another flash to separate the chair from the curtains but I didn't like the look of it, the ways I tried it anyway - more practice on that to come.
Strobist info: SB-600 to camera left in a shoot-through umbrella at 1/4 power with a 1/4 CTO gel. Balanced the exposure (1/100th) with light from a nearby lamp hard camera right, just out of the frame.

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