November 18, 2009

Portraits



I. Love. Portraits. I always have. I know they're tough, but that's why I like them. People are beautiful. Portraits show expression, where no other photo can.
Apparently I love to make it extra challenging, because I love to shoot kids. They are HARD. They don't follow directions; that's why Slade doesn't like portraits of kids. But I can't resist; they're so natural. They don't care about the camera, and they act how they would any other day when in front of the lens. I love my challenge, and my goal is to defy Slade's dislike for children portraits.

While shooting portraits, I babysat for a mom with six kids under the age of 12. Her husband recently got called to fight in Iraq, and has just left. It's been really tough on her, and so I wanted to simply give her a day off, a day to herself. Here is what I came up with:

This makes me laugh. He's pissed. He wants to play with me, and all I want to do is press a stupid button. Later he softens up and loves the camera, but here, nu uh. :) I love the eye contact. The background isn't too bad, and his expression is priceless.
I think this is the favorite shot. Slade helped me crop it to tell a true portrait. We got rid of the unimportant distracting background, and only told the story that Evan's telling me. He is an explorer. He's serious about it. And he's ready to go. I love how his hands are dirty. They add so much to the shot for me. His eyes, and expression show how dedicated he is. Love. This.

This is tells the same story, but it's a little bit more innocent. I still love the eye contact, but the expression is different. Now he's asking me to come along exploring with him. I love this too.
Here is Chase. He was terrified of the camera, and this is about the only shot I got of him. It's adorable, because his expression tells you one thing: busted. He got caught. I love how he's doing something so unexpected and so childlike; why is he even climbing the washer? No one knows. Composition could be better but again, priceless expression.
This is a little bit boring. Not a very interesting story. But I still love the eye contact.
This was a disagreement between Slade and I. If you can't tell, Ava is on a slide, and she's scared out of her mind. Here is a priceless expression. Slade wasn't convinced, he said it was just a cliche baby on a slide. But I'm fighting for it. Not to the death, it's not nearly my favorite. But I like it. I like how she's holding on for dear life. She won't even look at the camera, she's looking to her brother surely thinking, "HELP ME!!"


This one just about makes me cry. He's being an 'army dude' just like his Dad. He knows what his dad is doing out there, he loves, supports, and wants to be just like him. No matter what. That hat was actually one of his dad's old ones, and Evan treats it like a security blanket. Love this.

Alrighty here are the rest of my portraits. I know there are more than ten I just wanted to show all the work that I did.

This is exceptional. I don't know how I got this lucky, but I am in love with this photo. I know it's all I've been talking about but these are the things I love about portraits: eye contact and expression. This basically defines a portrait in my head. This tells a story through her emotion. She's wondering what in the world I am doing there. The focus is beautiful. Light is gorgeous. Expression is unbelievable. This is one of my strongest shots of the entire term.


Here is how simple minded I am. This is my only self-portrait. I could've worked harder at it, but I'd rather shoot others. Interpret how you will. I like the position of the shadow in the photograph; I like it on the far right.


This is romantic. A run-away bride. Obviously, I made it blurry on purpose. Gorgeous dress. Interesting story. *notice how her feet are bare. I like that*



Here is another blur shot, that I did on purpose. No one else really appreciates it, but I do. He was actually late, and actually didn't have time for a photo shoot. He's checking his little pocket watch in his fancy attire. I like the story. Actual photo could be better though.


This just tells you a little bit more about the image above. It's not very strong at all, I just wanted to extend the story. Here you see more of his fancy attire, snobby expression and stance. There you go.


I love portraits. I want to get better at them. For my final project, I'm shooting the Colmere family. I'll do a sole shot of each child, and give them to the mother so she can send them to the father in Iraq. Heartbreaking, life-changing I know. :) I can't wait. Thanks for the idea Slade!




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