Today, I am going to give you guys some simple tips to help you get the shot. I'll also pass along the central Houston location where I shot these images so you won't have to drive clear out to Brenham to get your image. Everyone thank my client, Diana, for the cool location and the cute baby!

Here is my location- notice the cars on either side, the telephone poles, houses, the fairly small patch of bluebonnets, the early afternoon overhead sun...

Here are 5 things that I did to give me my best shot:

1. One of the gifts that the day gave us was clouds. So, in an effort to not have harsh shadows on his face, I simply waited for the sun to go behind the clouds and give us a much softer light. I only shot when the sun was behind the clouds. If there are no clouds in sight, try shooting in the early morning or in the later afternoon and that should help quite a bit. Cloudy days are also great for photographing outdoors.

2. I placed him in a dense patch of flowers that also had flowers behind him filling the background. I also made sure to have flowers in front of him.

3. I got close (framed out the cars, poles, etc) and used shallow depth-of-field. I shot using my AV (aperture priority) setting and an f-stop of 3.5. If you shoot with a Nikon, the aperture priority setting is A. Because my depth-of-field was shallow, I made sure to focus on his eyes because I always want that part of the image to be super sharp.

3. I used a long focal length lens (85mm), which enhances depth-of-field and compresses the scene a little making the flowers seem more dense and less spread apart. You can do this if you have a zoom lens. Just back up and then zoom in. It helps to have a friend who can be close to swat away bees, reposition if needed and keep them smiling.

4. In one of the shots, I also used my rule of thirds to place him in a more compositionally interesting spot in the frame.

5. Lastly, I got down on his level.

All of these shots are straight out of my camera and have not been retouched or enhanced.

If you are a new reader of these lessons, you may want to go back and read the lessons on Depth of Field, Rule of Thirds and Focal Length. My blog was recently moved from Squarespace to here and not all of my content has made it over in one piece so be patient if you encounter some missing images. We're working on getting it all moved over. The links that I just gave you take you over to the old blog, which will be easier for you when reviewing the older lessons.

In the above left shot, you will see two very common mistakes. The shot on the left is from too high an angle and the depth of field is not shallow enough. Notice how those two things make the flowers look sparse?

In the above right shot we solve some of our problems. The depth of field is shallower and we've gotten down on his level and moved in closer. I am also shooting with an 85 mm lens, which helps compress the image and make the flowers seem more dense. The harsh sun is still a problem though. Luckily, the sun was going behind the clouds periodically so I just waited and photographed only when it was behind the clouds.

The above shot is better and we're almost there. Next, I moved in closer.

Oh, I forgot to say earlier, there were a few weeds right in front of his face like the ones on the left hand side of the picture. I just plucked those out of the ground before shooting.

Just for fun, I tried playing with the Rule of Thirds and placed my subject off center.

Okay, not it's your turn! Would you like to know the spot? It's on a median off of Braeswood between Linkwood and the railroad tracks. I was shooting towards the tracks.

I would love to see your shots. Please post links to your images in the comments section below.