11-19-11 Melissa

Melissa looks a little sad here but she was one of the more ebullient subjects I had the pleasure to photograph. She was a dancer and actively involved in theater and made posing very simple. And she had many great looks.Here, we are in an abandoned building in Gary, SD, in 2002. I had found a broken window that faced north and told her to pose by the edge. I got beautiful wrap-around Rembrandt lighting.Incidentally, one rule of thumb in portraiture is that you should avoid having the subject show the back of his/her hand to the camera and I break that rule here. Frankly, I didn't know the rule 10 years ago. I did use the "Burn" tool in Photoshop to make the hand a darker shade than the face. Why is there a rule about this? Well, partly because the back of the hand is fairly nondescript and also because any other bright object in a portrait competes with the face. And generally, portrait photographers don't want that.

John

This is a first in my photographic career: I tried taking photos of a child in the studio. But this is not just any child; it is John, son of Kelly, one of my second year photo students.At first I thought John was going to be a tough customer but thanks to Holly, another one of my second year students, John managed to look my way and give me a great pose. I'm not sure that this was a life-changing experience for me but would love to have another chance to take photos of John.

Darcie

I took this portrait the first year I was serious about senior portrait photography. That was almost 10 years ago. The camera was the Canon 1D, which was a groundbreaking digital camera. It cost $5500 and had a whopping 4.4 megapixel sensor!I had a lot to learn about photographing people back in 2002 but I did get a few things right in this photo. First, how could I go wrong with Darcie? I was lucky to have the opportunity to photograph her. While I can take no credit for her good looks, I will take credit for finding the right light and the right moment for this portrait.We were at Terrace Park in Sioux Falls and I knew that the morning light was best for this particular location. That meant we had to leave Watertown pretty early to get to Sioux Falls by 9 am.As for "the moment," I will say that I had no book learning on this but that even from the beginning I had a bit of an intuitive sense of when to press the shutter button. On this particular day, I had already taken over 50 photos of Darcie and so by the time I took this one, both of us were relaxed. And anyone who does this kind of portraiture knows how important that is.(NOTE: This photo was originally posted as a color image but the more I looked at it, the less I liked it. So I have revised my post with a black and white image that does have a little "glamour" applied in Photoshop.)Canon 1D 1/125s f/4.5 ISO250 91mm

The Weld

This photo was inspired by a few welding shots my LATI students submitted for a project last semester. I knew that somewhere in my vast collection of photos, I had one welding shot and here it is.I must say that welding is inherently photogenic due to the great light the welder creates.

06-01-10 Reprise: Helping Hand

I am enjoying a short hiatus from my "Photo A Day" blog and am showing you a few of my favorite posts from the last year and a half. I'll be back on the job with new photos from London and Portugal in a couple weeks.