Tag Archives: portraits

Photography

The portrait you make can mean a lot

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Samantha Aarts, Mary Pope’s 18-year-old daughter modeled for one of my lighting classes last year. She passed away from an accidental morphine overdose.

I have my days when I think of what I do for a living to be a joke.

It takes but a fraction of a second to make a picture.

While I was at the newspaper, except for natural disasters which affected many lives, the importance of my photography was seldom real.

Often I would ask myself, “Why am I being dispatched to traffic collision especially if it happened hours ago?”

Was it ever going to change how people drive?

Would people think twice about texting or drinking and driving after reading about it?

I highly doubt it.
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Photography

Snake Jagger artist with a Whimsical Surrealism style

I met artist Snake Jagger in 2003 at the Blue Coyote Grill in Palm Springs where he had just completed a mural. Notice the lighting of the scene especially the mural which is in the shadows behind him. Compare that with the next picture where I lit the scene ever so so subtly.

I can’t draw or paint.

Maybe it’s because I never took it up seriously.

But I’ve always admired practitioners of the arts.

I met artist Snake Jagger  in 2003 while I was still at the newspaper and didn’t contact  him again until recently when I saw his Facebook page.

I remember not knowing anything about him other than what was in my photo assignment.

The typical photo assignment is one short paragraph about my subject, where to meet, the time and a phone number in case I run late. Continue reading Snake Jagger artist with a Whimsical Surrealism style →

Photography

Head games in portraiture

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Twice the fun--Working with multiple subjects can be doubly intimidating like it this case when I photographed Congressman Jerry Lewis of Redlands and his lovely wife, Arlene, at newly opened pool in San Bernardino.
Window light--For this portrait of French muslim scholar, I kept the situation simple. Fortunately for me, Islam was not new to me having grown in Malaysia. Ultimately the more life experiences you can bring to each portrait situation, the better off you will be.

Whether your subject is children, the hot person you just met on the street, someone you hired as a model, or the CEO at a large institution, a portrait is always a collaborative effort between you, the photographer, and your subject.

Note, I’m making an BIG assumption here.

I’m assuming you, the artist, know your brushes, paint and canvas: your entire arsenal of gear, camera, lens, lighting gear.

So your challenge is to get your subject to relax and trust you.

Most subjects who don’t know you worry about how they’ll be immortalized in a still picture.

It’s totally understandable.

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Photography

Children’s Portraits 2

Adding some color to the scene can make pictures more interesting. Don’t forget to show your subjects a preview while you shoot to boost their confidence. I added a red gel on this shot.

Now that I’ve decided on the location of my makeshift studio, a stairwell, it’s time to break out the light stands and speedlights.

Before beginning, I set the zoom setting on all my speedlights/ flash units to 105mm so that the light is more focused and not scattered all over.

Continue reading Children’s Portraits 2 →