Fly! Bring Me That Girl and Her Slippers!

This little runaway from the Land of Oz was found looking for some ruby slippers at the home of my Uncle over the Christmas holidays.  Always on the look-out for chances to practice taking portraits, I found him to be the perfect model.  A non-human.  I still find myself being a little nervous when it comes to taking pictures of actual people.  I don't have doubt in my abilities, but rather with my instruction giving.  There's just something about my telling someone to "give me your best smile" just before I count to three that seems to not produce the natural smiles I'm looking for.  Shocking, isn't it.  Luckily, this guy was used to taking orders from a Wicked Witch so he found my direction giving to be a little less stressful.  I did a little redecoration and moved the statue out of its corner and positioned it on a table with some Christmas lights in the background.  Lighting consisted of a hanging table lamp that was just above the statue and some background light from the room.  I took the shot at f/2.8, 1/60sec, ISO 400 at 70mm.  The main reason for shooting at f/2.8 in this case was because I really wanted the blurring effect on the Christmas lights.  I felt that the out of focus balls of light looked nicer than if were we to see the LED lights that were strung together along the wall.  Being the perfect model, he held his pose long enough for me to snap off a few shots before vanishing in a burst of smoke and fire and a clap of thunder.  Something about needing to find a girl and her little dog too.