Focusing on the unexpected thing

About This Photo:
Aperture: f/2.5
Exposure: 1/60
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 200
Lens: 50mm f/1.4

I love baby legs, baby feet, baby toes ... all the baby parts!! When I was incredibly pregnant with Austen, BabyLegs had a huge sale on their legwarmers: 75% off of $75 or more worth of those delectable little stockings. I bought seven pair. I mean, how could I resist?!

For this particular photo, I chose to focus on the legs. Not typical for a portrait, is it? It changes how it feels to look at the baby, making something other than the face the focus of the photo. It's not because her face isn't important (or cute). We can still make out her face, and that she's smiling, but as blurred as it is, it's not meant to be what first draws the eye.

One of the primary reasons for me to take a photo like this is that it draws the viewer's attention to something different and unexpected -- something that's not typically the subject of a portrait.

It draws our attention to new and fun details that we might otherwise overlook.

And sometimes it's fun to draw attention to the unexpected, isn't it?

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Lessons Learned or Affirmed:

• Even if I don't think it will work, I try setting my focus points in different places for photos like this. Sometimes it doesn't work, but sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised with the results.
• Geesh. It's hard to go wrong taking pictures of babies, isn't it?