'A phone call from a nice couple asking me to shoot some images of their young son left me very excited about the upcoming event. I had been recommended to them by word of mouth and was happy to be doing a paid gig. I packed carefully; balloons, treats, squeaky toys and my funny hats.

Shortly after arriving I realized that all the balloons and treats in the world were not going to make me appealing to a small scared child who was not feeling very well. The more I tried the worse things got. He would not let go of his father so I just started grabbing any shot I could get. In most of the the shots his face was hidden and his eyes were always clenched shut.

We all realized that it was a futile effort and planned to retry when he was feeling better. I almost deleted all the images because I had not seen anything worth saving. I put them on the computer and this one caught my eye. In the original the fathers shirt color was a problem so I tried to change it but it didn't work. I went to black and white but lost the small boy in the process. Finally I settled on a version where only the boys skin color showed through.

I like this one and so did his parents. I learned an important lesson about not deleting the whole batch, because sometimes all you really need is one keeper. !