Photographer Emily Wilson recently headed out with her Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 lens to document local dads as they idled away the hours with their offspring. “The 28-75 is just a workhorse of a lens; I use it for everything,” says Wilson. “It lets me blur the background so I’m able to keep the picture clean if there’s a cluttered background, and in tighter situations I’m able to pull right back. Plus it can handle low light great and still focus real fast.”**

If you’re interested in taking images of your own favorite photogenic patriarch, Wilson recommends following him around as he spends the day doing what he does best—being a dad. This can involve heading to the playground, observing him reading to his children, or even tagging along as he takes his toddler for his first haircut. “Actually, this was George’s second time getting his hair cut,” laughs Wilson, describing one foray she took into a local barbershop with a father and his son. “He wasn’t able to sit in the seat and wear the little cape, so the lollipop was crucial. If your barber will let the dad hold his son or daughter like in this scenario, it can be the perfect chance to snap shots of the two of them together.”

The 28-75mm lens helped Wilson keep the focus where it should be: on Dad and his boy. “There was a lot going on in the background of the barbershop (it was pretty busy), so I kept my ISO at 400 and the f-stop a little higher than I usually have it (f/4.5 at 1/60 of a second) so that father and son could both be in focus,” she says.

Use a fun game or toy to your advantage to engage the child and Dad, especially if Dad’s somewhat self-conscious in front of the camera. After the haircut, Wilson followed the duo back to their apartment. “Kids love bubbles,” says Wilson, who shot an image documenting an impromptu bubble-blowing bonanza at f/3.2, 1/80, ISO 800. “It’s the perfect prop to keep them engaged, and if Dad has trouble smiling, this usually does the trick to loosen him up.”

Incorporating multiple generations into a Father’s Day portrait lends an endearing perspective that shows off more layers of a family’s dynamic. “You can do something like a close-up of Grandpa’s hands, for example, as he hugs his grandchild from the back,” Wilson suggests.

Or you can dig up the family album and try for what Wilson calls a “photo reenactment.” “I asked one of the dads I was shooting if he had a photo of him and his dad from many years ago that was memorable,” Wilson says. “I wanted to try and re-create that image with the dad and his own son.”

They managed to find similar apparel for the father and son to wear (right down to the son’s plaid shirt), and Wilson kept the picture handy during the shoot so they could try to duplicate all of the original photo’s mannerisms as closely as possible. She positioned the two in the shade for optimal lighting. “It also helped that we had one of the other siblings there,” Wilson says. “The sibling stood behind me while I was shooting and more or less entertained my subjects with some banter. It was just a natural interaction that kept their minds off of the fact that they were being photographed.”

Because all of the dad’s other kids came in toward the end of the shoot, Wilson was able to get the whole family involved in a posed photo to remind them of the day. “We went to the front of the house, because I knew that stoop was there,” she explains. “It’s so much easier to group people on steps. Plus, if there’s any kind of little hill or something else that they can step up on, it’s always so much better than just being positioned on a perfectly flat surface. I just wish there had been more of that window in the door, because there was such a beautiful reflection in it to give you a sense of the scenery in front of them.”

Showing the essence of what it’s like to be a dad can be achieved through composition and posing. “You can position Dad behind the family, for example, with his arms stretched out or his hands on the shoulders of the kids to show his nurturing, protective side,” says Wilson. “For another shot of one of the taller dads I photographed, I took the shot from below (f/3.5, 1/50, ISO 800) because I knew it would be more dramatic and emphasize his stature. His son, who is a fairly large 22-month-old, still looks tiny in his arms.”

Wilson used a handcrafted vignetting technique for an innovative Father’s Day look. “Not everybody has Photoshop CS5,” she explains, “but you can still get creative without using any software by taking a bunch of environmental shots with a vignette.” Wilson recommends cutting a piece of transparency or vellum to the size of your lens, cutting a hole right in the center (“the hole I cut was about 1/2 inch wide, which worked best for focusing on just one person”), and then positioning the transparency between your UV filter and the lens.

“This creates a milky-white, circular diffusion on the edge of the photo,” she says. “You can also put a piece of transparency through the copy machine or printer, which results in a black square there; this creates a darker, more classic vignette. I also loved the Dad’s big, strong hands helping his son with the camera. If you’re looking for something for the dads to be teaching their kids in your shots, a quick camera lesson could be just the thing!”

For more of Emily Wilson’s work, go to www.emilywilsonphotography.com