Straightforward/environmental portrait

Anthony "Ace Cutty" Clark, 20, writes lyrics to his next hip-hop album while sitting on the steps of an abandoned building near his house in Spokane Feb. 8. Clark, raised in San Diego by a single mother of four children, was exposed to gang life and drugs from an early age. He began writing songs at age 9 because he found refuge in the lyrics he wrote. He now has several albums out and is a well-known hip-hop musician in Spokane, playing various gigs as a way to support his fiancé and 2-year-old son.

exif: 29mm, 1/250, f4.0, ISO 200

_________________________________________________________________

Here's a quick bit of info about the photoshoot:

I spent about 2 1/2 hours total with the subject and shot about 170 photos. The first 2o minutes were spent at his apartment getting to know him (I had never met him before, he was a friend of a friend who's played a few gigs with him), building rapport and discussing possible places to go for the photoshoot. I got to know him even more on the way to the first place we went. Spending the time to get to know Ace before we got started was a huge benefit and really helped me portray who he is in the pictures and where we should go to shoot them. We both agreed that the urban, industrial area near his house would be a good spot to head to.

The first place we went was a nearby liquor store that had a huge mural painted on it that he was really fond of. As soon as I got my camera out and was dialing it in the owner of the store came out and kicked us out. After that, we went to a nearby abandoned building where I got some of my best ones. After that we basically walked around to nearby places and talked and I would shoot a picture or two if the spot looked cool. We ended up going back to the wall with the mural and snuck in a few photos without the guy noticing that turned out pretty good.

We returned to his apartment after the sun set and shot a few more of him on his balcony, where I took what I consider my second best shot. I picked the other one over this because it had more storytelling elements whereas this one is very straightforward. I like this one so much mostly because of the lighting. I saw a porch light on the wall and had him position himself so the light fell on half of his face.


(50mm, 1/60, f2.0, ISO 250)

I picked him because I hope to someday find a niche in photographing musicians. I wanted the challenge of bridging the obvious culture gap between us and building rapport with a person I had never met. He turned out to be one of the nicest kids I've ever met and it was not as hard as I had imagined it to be. I actually stayed pretty relaxed from the get go which I wasn't sure was going to be the case going into it.

He probably would have made a good candidate for the exposing social issues assignment given his upbringing.

Portrait Photos - Second Shoot

  

Vietnam War veteran, Dutch Vogt of Hayden, prepares to give a sermon in his

home on Thursday.  He was invited to be the guest speaker for the 10am service

at the Community of Christ church this coming Sunday.  Usually he prefers to be

in the dark but today the drapes are open to let in light for this photograph.

Please note:  My lens is a little soft at f/2.8 and it could be that the photos above would have turned out better at f/3.2.  As they are, I do not think they are that bad.

After reading the comments about my last picks for my portrait photo, I decided I needed to give this one more try.  I did the best I could to incorporate all the suggestions into these photos and the two above are the best results.  I tried a few other places throughout Dutch's home but they did not work very well.

Any thoughts on these two?  I like the left photo the best and am either going to select it or the one below from my previous shoot.

Thanks for all your help!

Enviromental Portrait- Anusara Yoga Practitioner

Don Bacon performs the Parsva Bakasana or Side Crane Pose on Saturday at the Garden Street Yoga Studio in Coeur d'Alene. Demonstrating that the execution of the pose requires strength, balance, flexibility and proper alignment, he choses to practice yoga to overcome arthritis in his knees, hips and back.
____________________________________________________________________
Metadata: 18mm, 1/30 sec at f/4.5, 800 ISO

Caption help!

I'm working on my caption right now, and the first sentence is easy... but I'm really struggling with the second sentence. Can someone give me an example of a "why" sentence?? I'm not really sure what exactly that part is supposed to explain...

photo critique

I sat in on the intermediate Kenpo Karate class at NIC. This isn't for my portrait assignment but I thought this would almost work as a straightforward/environmental portrait of the teacher.

I like the composition, with the guy's arm coming in at a diagonal from the left corner. I like the texture of the teacher's face, with the wrinkles and all. If you knew him, you would see that this is a very typical expression for him and I feel it captures his persona pretty well. What I don't care for is the lighting on his face. There's too much shadow. Also it's not tack sharp because I was trying to pull off a pretty slow shutter considering the focal length.

Lemme know what you think.

(145mm, 1/125, f2.8 ISO 1250)


*******EDIT*****
After reading Jerome's comments, perhaps this is a better shot then since it includes the students and has more of an instructor/classroom feel to it. I got this one with my 50mm so I was in closer to the action than the other shot. Unfortunately, the focus is a little soft on his face. His facial expression is what made me land on the other as my best shot.

Again, this wasn't for my portrait assignment, but for my internship for NIC, so the majority of my shots weren't focused on the instructor, but rather on the students. I should have taken away some better pictures of the guy had I been shooting with the purpose of solely getting portraits of the instructor.

Check this photographer out!

Hey guys, kind of a cool story (for me anyways). This past summer, my second cousin & her family came up from CA to visit. Knowing that I was very interested in photography, she mentioned that her best friend was a photographer and she told me to look at his website. I did look it up, and was blown away by his amazing talent in sports photography, as well as other types of photography.

Just a few minutes ago, I looked up the website again. Upon viewing the images, I realized that we have all seen many of his photographs before. I.e.: The "water under the bridge" swimming photo we saw in that video about Sports Illustrated. Anyways, he has won many awards for his work, and has received 1st and 2nd places pretty religiously for "The Best of Photojournalism" for the past few years.

I thought it would be appropriate to share this with all of you since we talked about sports photography last time in class. So here's just a little taste of what he is all about. Check out his website and let me know what you think!

www.donaldmiralle.com

New Inspiration

Below are four portraits by the famous Yousuf Karsh, one of my new favorite photographers. His photos are a true testament of what it is to be a photographer. He was able to capture the essance of an individuals personality in one photo. My favorite on of these photos is the one of Pable Casals, one of the only photos I've seen where the subject having their back to the camera is a good thing. It's very simple but that's what makes it interesting. It makes you wonder why he's sitting in a chair in what looks like a cell playing his cello. I think its simplicity is also what gives it depth. What do you all think?

George Bernard Shaw- Irish Playwright

Pablo Casals- Cellist

Audrey Hepburn- Actress

Humphrey Bogart- Actor

Discussion Photos

 “Running from Gas,” a Pakistani lawyer runs from tear gas, Pakistan.

© Emilio Morenatti.

A young boy peers through the barbed wire fence of a refugee camp

in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, in the wake of the South Asian earthquake of 2005.

Why I picked these photos
The first photo has drama and clearly captures a moment of fear or panic.  There are several graphic elements such as the man running ringed with gas and the barbed wire he is jumping over.  The details at the right and left edge of the photo keep the eye in the middle of the image.  However, the included caption really gives very little of the information we talked about in class.

The second photo is quite a compelling photo but as a portrait (I am not sure it is intended as such) it provides insufficient surrounding detail to stand on its own without the caption to give it context.  Still, I find the caption provides insufficient detail to round out the photo.

I guess, over all I picked these photos to find out what others thought.  By themselves, the photos are interesting but with the included captions, I felt each set as a package is somewhat incomplete.  The photos, along with their captions, each won awards of some kind (I did not keep the details).  What do you think?  Do they make a complete package of photo and caption?

Portrait Photos - Need some opinions

Vietnam War veteran, Dutch Vogt of Hayden, prepares to give a sermon while sitting

in his home on Thursday.  He was invited to be the guest speaker for the 10am service

at the Community of Christ church this coming Sunday.  Usually he prefers to sit in the

dark but today the drapes are open to let in light for this photograph.

The first two photos show more supporting information around my subject than the bottom two photos but my personal favorite is the bottom one which would not cooperate in Blogger to display in portrait mode.  The first, I think is the best choice but it is a little soft.  The second photo is not bad but the others show more personality.  The last photo does not show too many details around the subject but I really think there is enough and I really like its simplicity.

Have you got any input on which photo to choose?

Does anyone find the fruit in the painting in the last photo behind the subject's head distracting?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

February 4th, 2011 - A later addition

After an extensive couple of conversations with Marily, she thought the following photo, which I had not considered originally was my best option for my portrait photo.  It does not show very much surrounding stuff but maybe it is enough.  Is the light switch above his ear distracting?  That is why I rejected it at first.  Any other opinions?

Thanks for your help, Marily!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

My photo shoot experience in case it is helpful to others

It took me about two hours and 160 photos to get four photos that worked out somewhat.  What you do not see is that I spent many hours at home shooting an empty 2-liter bottle with a photo taped to it.  I put the bottle on a stool, under similar lighting conditions to practice for my photo shoot so I would be ready and would not be fumbling with the camera taking up my subject's time unnecessarily during the actual shoot.  The practice helped me figure out distances, shutter speeds and apertures for the look and feel I wanted before I went on sight.  Once there, all I had to do was adjust my ISO to compensate for the lighting differences which took almost no time at all.  I needed a very wide angle lens for much of this.  At 17mm, my 17-50mm lens was still not wide enough so I had to resort to a 10-20mm lens for half the shoot.  If anyone needs to borrow it, give me a call at 208-818-8184.  It is a Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 with a Canon mount.

Discussion Photos

I chose the following image of Afghan illigal inmigrants protesting in Athens, Greece because it combined many of the elements our book discusses. It has a a powerful combination of artistic elements--Selective focus on the center protestor, contrasting black tape as opposed to the other members, dynamic angle, emotional expression and excellent framing.


This is a picture are of Afghan "Immigrants and asylum seekers with their mouths taped protest in Athens to demand asylum. An estimated half a million illegal immigrants and asylum seekers live in the Mediterranean state of about 11 million inhabitants." John Kolesidis/Reuters



Now the second photo from GettyImages covers the same topic from a different angle has a different feel and impact. There is less of an emotional connection on this picture.

Same center subject different impact.

Portrait example I'm fond of

This is a portrait of jazz musician John Coltrane taken by Jim Marshall in 1960. I think this picture is a great example of a straightforward portrait. I like the expression on his face. I think it reflects the level of sophistication that was reflected in his music. I love the texture on his fingers. The framing is great and the soft light hitting his face works well. Honestly, for 1960 technology this photo looks pretty impressive to me. It was shot with a Leica M2.

Jim Marshall is an interesting guy and I highly regard him as a photojournalist. He's responsible for most of the iconic images from music in the 1960s and '70s. One skill that he definitely had was a way to establish rapport and get people to like him. The result was that he gained more access to musicians and concerts than anyone else at the time. He took a very famous photo of The Beatles at the last concert they played. He was the only one allowed access with a camera at the concert. He got in the dressing room with them and everything. I think having this personality and skill set to establish rapport and likability plays a huge part in any photojournalist's success.

Another impressive thing about Marshall is that out of all the photos he took over the years, he only cropped two. He was a firm believer of cropping in the camera.

This picture of John Coltrane was one of his first portraits of a famous musician he had taken. He get the opportunity to shoot him simply because Coltrane asked him for directions to a man's house, so Marshall offered to drive him there if Coltrane would agree to let him take a few photos of him once they got there.

Once this portrait of Coltrane was published, the doors opened for him to shoot other famous jazz musicians such as Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. From there, things just took off and he became the number one music photographer at the time.

Here's a link to his official site with his images and bio info, etc.
http://jimmarshallphotographyllc.com/

Need some help please!

So hopefully some one can help. I can't think of annything to take photos of, does annyone know of events or annything that I can go to?

Thanks a bunch
Rob Bauer

Project Homeless Connect

Unlike Andreas, while I obtained permission from the individuals involved, I failed to retain their names, last names and ages. I went to this event with the goal of shadowing Jerome and learning how to approach people in a way that makes them comfortable. I noticed Jerome observes first and he keeps his camera inconspicuous before he approaches people.

In the area where they were providing veterinary care for the dogs or pets, Jerome established rapport with the dogs first and then he approached the owners. Once the dogs approved of him it was like the owners and Jerome had and instant connection. It was eye opening to see how much pride the homeless took in taking care of the dogs. They took better care of their pets than they did of themselves. I noticed in my nervousness I engaged in conversation longer than I should have, becoming overly involved with the people instead of practicing being a passive observer. I find this to be so difficult to balance.

I picked these pictures because they were the ones that had the least camera shake. My camera's higher ISO is 1600 and my lens lowest f-stop is 3.5 I was so overwhelmed trying to capture some form of emotion that the graphic/artistic aspect is very much nonexistent. I am beyond frustrated!!!!

Manual Shooting Tips

Here's a quick and dirty write-up on understanding apertures, shutter speeds and ISO when shooting in manual mode.

Using Shutter and Aperture Together

Discussion Photos

Kenji Nagai was fatally wounded in Yangon by the soldier in the photo.

He continued to take photos of his killer as he lay dying.

Uganda - Story and photographer unknown

Why I picked these photos:

1.  I picked the first photos for several reasons.  It shows the risks photojournalists take to do their job and it is an example of a situation where a photojournalist became part of the story rather than remaining an observer.  The poor guy certainly does not lack dedication.

2.  This tragic photo was interesting because of its simplicity.  I was looking for examples that showed the PJ artsy stuff we talked about in class and this caught my attention.  While it may not show a face or facial expression or any direct emotion, I think it conveys it very effectively.  It certainly is an interesting, attention grabbing moment from an uncommon perspective.  Graphically, the lines in the hands are reinforced by the shadows behind it.  This photo creates such a strong reaction in me that it is very difficult to look at it objectively.