This is another one of my early experiments in portraiture. Regan had come along on a photo shoot to provide company for a friend of hers I was photographing (whose pictures I can't find :-( ).
After photographing her friend, I asked Regan if she minded if I took a few pictures of her. She grudgingly agreed and this photo may show a little of her reluctance. I didn't know much about portraiture then but I did know that the soft window light I found for this portrait is flattering. I hadn't learned about Rembrandt lighting but it is present in this portrait.
In the process of organizing my photo collection (400,000+!) I came across some of my first portrait sessions. This happens to be of a girl named Ellie and is one of my favorite portraits. I was shooting film in those days and then developing it in my makeshift darkroom. Once the negatives were ready, I used a high resolution film scanner and Photoshop to process the pictures.
We spent a few hours in a Japanese pre-school when we visited my son Brian in Japan a few years ago. I found this when I was looking for something that I might be able to post in the "Look At Me" series. I love this photo because it just "happened." There was no staging or coaching involved. I stopped and she looked up at me with a curiosity I saw everywhere in the children in this school. Of course her beautiful big, dark eyes help make this photo.
Getting a decent portrait of one person is hard enough. Photographing two people increases the challenge. Not only do you have to hope that they both look good/happy/whatever when you snap the picture but there are technical considerations. The two biggest are lighting and focus. In the studio I generally use two light sources to light the faces, though you can tell from the highlights in the eyes that the main light is to my right. Since eyes need to be sharply in focus, I coach the subjects to try to have their eyes on the same plane relative to the camera. I also use a high f-stop (8 or 11), which helps the depth of field.
I have helped take photographs for the Watertown High School yearbook for many years. In last year's edition I did a series of photos for the beginning of each section in the book. This one was for the "Academics" section. Nice skeleton. I'm told that it's not "real" but made from plastic.
Before I begin a portrait session, I will often ask if the subject has any ideas about where and how they want to be photographed. Often they tell me that they'll trust me to figure something out. But sometimes they come up with impractical ideas: "I've always thought it would be cool to be photographed on a camel in front of the Great Pyramid." Or "How about a portrait of me water-skiing in my cap and gown?" Right.
This is a good example of what portrait photographers call Rembrandt lighting. In simple terms, the main light comes from from above eye level and from the side. This results in one side of the face being fairly bright and a splash of light highlighting the cheek bone. This lighting thins and flatters the face, although Jessica's classic good looks needed little flattery.
My good friend, Jack, has convinced me that I should post some of my portraits in this blog. I have resisted, in part because I didn't want this blog to seem like an advertisement for the portrait work I do from time to time. That's never been my intent. Sharing a few photos and a few thoughts is my intent. This week's series will be called "Look At Me."
Of course, to my brother Mike, my sister Barb and me, she was "Mom." I'm sad to say that Mom passed away in the early hours of the morning today (October 25, 2009). Mom was 91 and we had spent the better part of the afternoon yesterday visiting her at the nursing home she lived in. Her passing was quiet, peaceful and appropriate. But I feel pain nonetheless, for I had not expected death to come so quickly.
This is a candid shot of a family photo that Brian and Katie's wedding photographers were organizing. That's why no one is looking at me. I love the light and the soft colors in this photo. The light is late afternoon ambient light sifting in through the east windows on the 22nd floor of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in St. Paul. The people pictured are a few of the many Rausch's that inhabitant our new world. (Thats Katie and Brian in the middle of the group.)