A quiet room, a comfy chair, and some soft light is really all anyone needs at the end of a long day, am I right? This is the scene that I regularly see now while putting my son to sleep at night. The Daylight Savings time change might have totally screwed up my kids’ sleep schedules, but at least I now begin my son’s bedtime ritual in this gorgeous soft light, as opposed to the darkness of just a week ago. Just walking into a room filled with this diffused light puts me at ease and makes me want to sink right into that rocking chair. (And did anyone notice that open window? Yes, we’re officially at the open window stage in pre-spring!)

To make this photo, I opened up the aperature on my 50mm lens all the way to f1.8 on my Nikon D40x to allow the maximum amount of light in (at 1/250 seconds and 800 ISO). I knew it would still be a dark image because there was not a lot of light to work with in the room, but that was the feel I was going for—dark, calm, gentle, sleepy. The exact things I want to remember about this time in my baby’s life as I lay him down to sleep.