Each month, we feature one of the photos from our 2019 Focus on Woodbury photo contest. This month, we asked photographer Nathan Gubbins to tell us about “Grandma’s First Meeting,” which took second place in our People & Families category.
When and where did you take the photo?
This one was taken in the living room of my home in northeast Woodbury, on my son Cayden’s 6-week “anniversary.”
What kind of camera did you use?
I took this with a D850, 50mm f/1.8G lens at 1/500th sec, 400 ISO (auto), and f/3.2. The sky was cloudy, so originally it had a very chilly tone to it, so I warmed it up and did some very basic sharpening in Lightroom. Pretty hands off, really.
What’s your favorite thing about the image, or what struck you about the scene and inspired you to take it?
I just had my camera out on the kitchen island after I had done some shooting earlier. Somewhat spontaneously I noticed my mom pleased with the circumstances and Cayden as peaceful as could be with nice lighting, so I turned on the camera, fired a shot, and didn’t even look at it for a few days. What a pleasant surprise.
What’s your photography background?
Pretty basic. I played around minimally when I was at college with my phone, tried doing some artistic stuff with polarized sunglasses and a cheap point-n-shoot one day while fishing, then talked my wife into a T5i in 2015. I shot with it for a couple years until I found its limits, sold it, and after my sole Canon lens (my favorite, of course) was stolen, I moved to the Nikon platform when I picked up another camera. I’m very happy I made the choice I did.
Click here to see the full list of winners from our 2019 contest. In August, submit your own photos for our 2020 Focus on Woodbury awards.
