My client tomorrow wants some low-key portraits of her son. Fabulous, you say!

Sure! Except for the fact that low-key is something I normally only accomplish by accident.

So, this morning I woke up in a cold sweat, remembering tomorrow is the day and I have done nothing to prepare.

Time to get my Learn On.

But first, a cup of coffee and a little physical therapy to start the day…

a funny video of people lip-reading for football players…

the sweetest gaggle of kittens rolling around in a basket…

And…Ahem!

It’s noon and I still don’t know how to do a low-key portrait on purpose. Eeek!

So, I decided to use my Interwebical Powers for good. Thankfully, except for that bad batch of fudge last Christmas, the interweb rarely disappoints. There are so many things I learned here and I found a number of awesome examples here. In addition to that, I tapped the knowledge of a few fellow photographers who have experience with low-key shooting. Like HUMAN BEINGS that I KNOW. It was via the internet, but I totally could have called them too. No, really. I’m sure I have the phone number here somewhere.

I was starting to feel like I could totally handle this and it was getting to be time to put all this new found knowledge to the test. But this is where it gets hard, because the only subject available for testing was

me.

Low-Key Self-Portrait. Oh good Lord, next time let the neighbors be home when I need them.