During the preparatory work for Thanksgiving, I took a photograph of a friends daughter. The part of the composition that really caught my attention at first was the back-lit area behind her as she was sitting near a window. But, this had another beneficial effect as it created a reflection on the dinner table surface and bounced a catch light into her eyes – hence the title “The Eyes have It”.

I believe there were other elements which helped this image besides the simple catch light. For one, there was the color of her hair which was more like fire embers. The color ranged from at times from golden yellow to reddish orange.

The other interesting element was her stare. This is just one of about three shots. But, it is the one where the eyes were directed straight back to the camera and, to me, gave the most dramatic effect. This, in combination with the catch light which reflected of her eyes, drew a lot of attention to her serious stare. By no means was she upset or unhappy, but I could tell in talking with her that she was exhausted from doing her morning jog.

The last element which I believe helped the image was the depth of field. Although very subtle in this image, it is noticeable on the curved part of the wooden chair she is sitting on that there is a soft blur that recedes to the window. This brings her to the foreground in a very prominent way creating a sense of depth to the image.

Of course the back-lit scene created by her proximity to the window also helped immensely in creating a minimalist, airy feeling by painting the background white. However, the combination of all the elements came together to create this rather simple but dramatic image which focused attention on the eyes. Thus, the title of the image – “The Eyes have It”.