“Can I smile?” she asked on which I replied: ”I don’t know. I know that I can’t, but try it.”

It is rather hard to smile and to keep a natural smile for several seconds. Most of my subjects don’t manage as their mouth starts to tremble, resulting in a blurred image. For that reason, most of long exposure portraits have a serious look. It is hard to smile.

Matea managed to smile for 5 seconds. We took three photos and she was smiling in all of them. Happy attitude.