Take your best shot
June 2006 - Cindy Boykin

Byrd Williams IV – fourth generation Texan with as many generations in the photography business – inherited the family fortune: great eyes.

While he can lay claim to some impressive credentials (his work has been shown at the Dallas Museum of Art, Amon Carter Museum, and in many publications throughout the United States and Germany) his photographs need no resumé. They need no words at all. Stories are told, emotions are revealed, and family histories are recorded all with the click of a camera.

Williams, who also chairs the photography department at Collin County Community College, is revered for his commercialand fine art photography. But he also values the spirit of novice photography captured by everyday observers of life. He encourages anyone with a camera to take advantage of the moment, experiment with style, and tuck away photos that will tell future generations, We were here.

June is a great time for taking pictures: Father's Day, June weddings, summer vacations ... opportunities all, to take your best shot.

Reality shows
Most of us have had formal family portraits taken in perfect settings, with perfect lighting, in our perfect clothing selections, flashing perfect smiles. But if you want to capture what your life is really like, who your family really is, you needn’t utter the words, "On the count of three. ..."

Rather take advantage of life's spontaneity, whether it's a quiet afternoon nap with your worn-out toddler or a festive family gathering. These are the moments you will want to relive with generations to come.

"I'm careful to do candid pictures that reflect relationships," Williams said contemplatively. "Instead of getting people prepared and posed, I try to get moments where there are hugs or somebody is leaning into another person. When there is direct access – and as a family member, an insider, you have comfortable access – you take pictures in a very insider way. You keep an eye on what's going on and try to catch little moments of a grandfather with his granddaughter, the relationship between cousins, the kids playing ... things like that. My dad was a photographer and we did all the formal portraits and everything, but the only valuable ones to me now are those of my family at Thanksgiving dinner, at holiday events, my cousins."

He also likes to pull the camera back and get the background. It helps tell the story. "I like to show the cultural trappings of the time – the way people dress, what's on the walls, socio-economic standings; all of these things are important historically to the future and to the family."

Technology aplenty
When it comes to the technological advancements in photography over the past few years, Williams is very pleased.

"For all of my life I've shot film," he said, "and I shot a lot of black and white. I like black and white, but now I've decided that in this era, we don't see in black and white: we see in color. There's a certain sort of romanticism that is artificial to black and white. So I've kind of been embracing digital and color and all that it does. Of course the thing that keeps black and white around, like for museums, is that it's the longest lived of any film: a thousand years. So you truly are speaking of the future and the same longevity as sculptures or paintings. But I have confidence that these 200-year digital prints we are making – the important ones – will be saved.

"The biggest problem with digital is the sheer number of files and images begins to boggle you after awhile. It's overwhelming how many pictures you end up with ... and you end up not giving enough attention to individual pictures. Now when I shoot, I use the same restraint that I had with film. I got over that sort of frivolous shooting, because you can end up with more than you can look at in weeks. What usually happens is they get lost in the digital netherworld and you never look at them again."

That's why Williams suggests printing favorite pictures. You are more likely to look at them, share them, obviously you can frame them, and future generations won't hold a silver disc in their hand and ask, "What is this?"

Well, shoot!
Plying through old photographs is truly an anthropological excavation. Williams said that when you take pictures, you are "handing down to posterity what it was like to be alive now. It's showing grandchildren and great grandchildren family moments of their heritage."

Sometimes, to capture the true moment, Williams turns off the flash and turns up the ISO, which will make the photo grainy, but it can also provide a stunning visual.

"I do that in order to preserve the sweet light. It could be a single bulb over the kitchen table, kind of glaring, but it gives that feeling of sitting around the kitchen table in the evening after dinner. Or it could be in front of a picture window with the soft, evening sunlight coming in – what we call Rembrandt light – that gently flows in and lights half the face, and the other half is dark. It gives the faces' shape, and everybody has texture and feeling. They look real."

So this month, when you shoot photos of the special dads in your life or other summer events, experiment with content and style. Look for quite moments, raucous emotion, tender glances. And leave the "Cheese!" for the buffet table.