The baby is learning how to deal with his emotions-- it's a natural part of growing up and is why having a toddler is so difficult. Right now he is learning how to feel anger and what to do with it. I'm an emotional person, too, and it's hard not to fall in with him, to spiral down with him into the tough emotions. But I can't. My job is to be his anchor out, to help him through it and to assure him that soon it will be OK.
I don't typically post sad pictures of my children. Rather than be behind the camera I should be next to him, with one hand on his shoulder and not on the shutter. And I was. I did. But, this was today, this has been the past few days, and if this is a journal of our days then his real struggle and painful growth deserves to be a part of it. Hopefully we'll be back to happy photos tomorrow. Or, perhaps it will be a flower.
Shot on my Canon 70D and Sigma 35mm ART lens. f1.4, 1/40, ISO 320. This shot was taken quickly before I had a chance to change any of my settings. If I'd had a chance to adjust, I would have bumped up the ISO so that I could raise the shutter speed and get a clearer shot. This shot is incredibly blurry, but it doesn't bother me so much because you can still see the emotions. I edited in photoshop to increase the exposure and convert to black and white so that the focus is just on his sad little face. Using the sliders in the Black and White layer mask, I pulled the reds and yellows to give depth to the shadows. I used curves and contrast to boost them even further because there is nothing worse than a flat B&W.