6 posts tagged “portrait”
Tuesday night I had the opportunity to meet with a group of local photographers all wanting to experiment with studio photography, though I have to say I'm still feeling quite out of my element trying to understand the lighting setup, something that has stopped me before when wanting to do studio work. I find myself getting entirely sidetracked by all the technical aspects, worrying I've forgotten something essential, and as I'm not one to multi-task well, I feel unfocused and out of "the zone." What I wanted was to be able to concentrate on coaxing the best from our great model Lizzie.
I find myself wondering if I like the results as well as the less structured shoot with Holly a couple of weeks ago, but I will continue with the group until I feel more comfortable with the technical part, and perhaps decide then. Here is my one keeper image from the shoot (though I only had about 15 to choose from).
This past Sunday was my scheduled shoot with my friend (and fabulous director of my old chorus The Women of Note) Holly, and though I'd thought to do some indoor studio work as well as going outdoors, I decided to stick with outdoors. I'd asked her to bring along something that was meaningful for her, and she did this in spades, making things easy for me.
We set up in a tiny fragment of a field next to our Wellington Mall, and I chose to use my 85mm 1.8 lens, known to be one of the best portrait lenses around, but one I've not had a chance to use as much as I would like to have done because it's a fixed focal length. Inspired by the work I've seen others do with it, I shot mostly wide open in RAW. Because it's been way too long since I've done this, I felt quite rusty and even awkward. The rusty part I understand, but the awkward always puzzles me a bit. I'm a people lover, and yet when I have to direct them photographically I get a knot in the pit of my stomach that interferes with both my techical as well as my creative self. This keeps me from doing my best, from producing work I'm completely happy with. Or is this even possible?
Don't misunderstand me. We had a GREAT time. Holly was fun and totally cooperative, and it was great to have time to catch up with her a bit. And I got some images I was very happy with (hopefully she will feel the same way). It's just that I would like to get to the point where I'm truly in the moment and firing on all cylinders, thinking of all those little technical things, thinking composition, waiting for the right moment, and capturing it.
Guess that will come if I'm able to continue to have subjects to shoot...
Well, now that I've gotten my feet wet again by posting, I'll update a bit more. The past two weeks at my job have been hard because my co-worker has moved on to another office, and I'm having to take up some of the slack, even though my boss has been putting in a good bit of time and effort there too. I'm having to stretch myself to do things I'm unfamiliar with, which can be frustrating because I'm learning by trial and error (mostly error) and this can be slow and often seemingly unproductive. I'm also having to get to work an hour early, so I'm putting in extra time every week. Honestly, I'm often exhausted and frustrated, but won't be much longer.
The GREAT thing is that help is on its way! They have hired a replacement and my new co-worker will be a very good friend who has known me for ten years or so and who helped me when I did this career change to insurance. We are both looking forward to her starting at the first of February. I will be so happy to have someone to work with all day, and in all the years we've known each other, we've been very much kindred spirits, and mostly because we often have the same interests outside of work. This is EXCITING.
Even more exciting, I'm starting to take steps to develop my skills in people photography, something I have neglected. I've been saying I wanted to do more of it for months, but it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I was motivated to do something more than just give it lip service.
Recently I've gotten acquainted with a wonderful guy (who unfortunately lives in another state) whose feedback has helped me remember my goal, made over a year ago, to do more people photography, both for the pleasure of doing it, and to also get paid as well. (Steven, I appreciate you so much for that!) With that in mind, I did two things to make this goal a reality...
First of all, I contacted a friend of mine and asked her to let me use her as a model, and we're planning to meet next weekend. I'm excited and am searching through Flickr for inspiration. Do you have a favorite people photographer? Please let me know who they are and where I can see their work online.
The other thing is that I've gotten involved in a local Meetup.com group of photographers, and have learned there is another one a few minutes away from where I live with access to a studio, and opportunities to meet and learn studio craft with other more experienced photographers. This has thrilled me to the tips of my toes! At last! This reminds me of the Learning to See workshop from over a year ago and how great that was to learn and experiment with studio photography.
I'm excited when change is on the horizon, especially when it is in a creative direction. More to come.
He arrived a couple of days before the workshop was to start, and I did my best to show him the beautiful beaches, rivers, old downtown sections and the like that are not far from here in Stuart and Jensen Beach. Weather was hot with bright blue skies and was perfect for putting the top down and enjoying what South Florida excels in, stunning weather.
The workshop started on Thursday with an introduction to design principles; aka what makes for interesting images, complete with assignments and image critique. Friday we had an excursion to the Morikami Gardens to put some of what we learned into practice. When we returned in the afternoon we had a chance to see Lightroom in action, and I decided to start using it in postprocessing my images. Saturday was when (for me at least) the workshop became even more fun, as we focused on portrait photography and in the afternoon, we had a model come in so that we could play in a real studio setting. This was for me the highlight and I got a number of images I was very pleased with. The model was someone I know who's asked me to do a portrait of her but we'd not been able to get schedules to coordinate, so perhaps it was a bit less intimidating to interact with her. That is the one part of portrait photography I feel I need the most help with, this letting down of my guard, this connecting with a subject so they can relax, so that I can capture them in a natural way. I know I get nervous, concerned they'll realise that sometimes it's me just acting as though I know what I'm doing and I'll get caught out, even though I know they can't see this. (even if they did, it wouldn't matter) I know that if I want to be good at portrait photography that this is a skill I must hone - that is, if I want images that are more than just straightforward, standard portrait fare. I've posted one below as an example. I love her lovely skin, the shape of her eyes and her beautiful lips and she was not difficult to get to look very pretty.
I know, I've been neglecting my Vox, and I am sorry for it. To be frank, I've been Twittering on a regular basis, and enjoying it more than a little. At first I thought it pretty lame at first, comparing it to a room full of thousands of people, with people standing up and announcing, "I love to pet my cat!", "I just had a double espresso and boy was it yummy!", "People piss me off!" with no interaction amongst them usually. But now at least a few of us talk to each other, responding to our random twittering, making it much more interesting. And now I have to say it's become great fun, mostly because it is so very fast, so very immediate, and because I don't need to (nor can I) form long sentences. I simply need to answer the question, "What are you doing now?" I do wish more of my friends were there. But I admit it...I'm hooked on it. It is not a replacement for Vox, nor are they mutually exclusive at all. But I guess at the moment I have the feeling my other friends who read my blog entries have not been reading this at all.
I've not had much of any import going on. Yet little things have been moving. Promise of a job at the end of the month. A little bit of the land we have for sale is selling (two pieces). Now if the house in Port St. Lucie will sell. I was talking with a good friend today, and was saying how the new job was making me nervous, when I should be thrilled. It would seem that when you dream about something that all you can think about is the excitement of it as some far away thing, but when it happens...BAM! All I can think of is the uncertainty it will bring instead of the good. And he confessed to being the same way. Some attitude adjustment is in order, I would say!
I'm still working on getting my lighting setup functional. I've had two or three obstacles so far, and today it seems the wireless transmitter is not doing its job telling the flashes to fire, and since I don't have the miniscule screwdriver needed to take it apart, I'm out of luck until I can borrow one tomorrow.
I have one image to share, but it's not related to anything I said above. It's a picture of my writer friend Michael, who has a very expressive face. I told him to look thoughtful, and I think he pulls that off quite well. I am aware of some technical issues with the background, but I like it just the same.
I know I've posted more than one image of her. But my cousin Jan is, to be honest, a great deal of fun. Not only great to talk to and get her insight and advice, but fun to photograph as well, so I am posting the last pic of her for a long time most likely. It may be a couple of years before we connect again, though we keep in touch by phone and email.
And here is one more rose as well. I had not considered white roses that striking compared to the pinks, reds, yellows and peach colours, but I really loved this one, so mature and open as well as a joy to smell.
