Three Amigos - Forever

These are my nephews, Jake, Eli, and Issy. They're the sons of my brother's daughter, Leslie, and her husband, Jake. Every year, for a while, Leslie and Jake would ask me to do a family photo shoot. It's a very sweet family. They really like each other. It's not something that they have to... that they look at each other and go, "C'mon, mom. Do we havet have to go see Uncle Tony and do another photo shoot?" It's not like that with them.

It isn't like they asked to do it, but whenever Leslie would arrange for us to be together and do this little family gig, I always embraced it because they're such good kids. They like each other, and they never have a problem going where I want to go. Because when I'm comfortable, they always get better images. Heck, family photo shoots can be tough sometimes.

It's always been a big deal for me to be comfortable with the people I shoot for portraits and the like. Because what happens is, when it's a chore or a duty, many people get “selfie face.” And when you're not comfortable with the people that you're shooting, they never relax. Well, these kids are always relaxed. They don't stiffen up, and they honestly enjoy each other.

So, about this image... the fun part about doing something with Leslie is that she likes what I like. We were shooting at the San Fernando Mission, and when I shoot, I like to go places where the light is good, and there are many interesting kinds of light. The mission offers fountains, beautifully manicured lawns, and a chapel. Just lots of great settings that create great light. And when you have great light and comfortable people, you get great images, and this, to me, is a great image.

I love backlit. I love the emotion in Eli's face. At the time, Eli was going through a phase where he never wanted to be on either end of any three-kid photo. He always had to be in the middle, and it used to crack me up. Anytime we would shoot anywhere, you could just see him elbowing his way in between Issy and Jake. This is the perfect example.

I knew that it was going to be a great black-and-white image. So I wasn't surprised at all about what I ended up with. Just the looks on their faces tell the whole thing. You can see that they are so comfortable with each other that this was an easy image to capture. It reminds me of a line from the old TV series The A-Team, where Hannibal used to always say, “I love it when a plan comes together.”