Portrait by Noura A.A.

Bouldering

These two photos were two of my final ones. What are your thoughts on them? 

Russell Helgeson III, 24, enjoys a sunny afternoon of bouldering at Tubbs Hill on Wednesday February 9th. He has been an avid rock climber since 2008 and when he can't get outside he climbs at the Salvation Army Kroc Center.  

Independent Lab Time for Feb. 9th Class

    Sorry I won't in class this week, but I had a family emergency that required me to fly to California for the week. But being the tyrant that I am, I have something for you to do for class.

    It's time for peer editing in the Mac lab.

    I want you to team up in pairs (not the people you sit next to in class) and look over each others whole take for the portrait assignment and see which one is the best that you can find.

    Skim through them to see which one(s) captures your eye and make note of them. Then go through each one and look for those visual elements we discussed in class (moment, emotion, mood, perspective, surprise, quality of light, etc.) and make notes on the portraits and the elements they contain. Make notes (kudos and criticism) on the focus, exposure, composition, framing and the edit from the outside edges of the frame inward.

    Now see if the picture that you picked as the top image matches what the photographer chose for their final edit and discuss the image. If it doesn't, discuss the differences and add that to your comments.

    Send me an email (jerome@jeromepollos.com) with your comments before leaving the lab for the evening.

    Then I want you to read Chapter 18 about Turning Pro and then we'll discuss this and the "Assignments" chapter in class next week. And start thinking about your "Person at Work" assignment due Feb. 23.

    Your person at work assignment should be someone who has a job that offers a lot of visual elements with either the location, tools, activity, etc. Remember, don't set yourself up for failure by highlighting someone who sits in an office all day. Let me know if you have any questions or have an idea, but need some direction.

    I'll try to get critiques and grades for your portrait assignment out to you by the end of the weekend.

    Good job crew and thanks for working independently this week. I really appreciate it.

Portrait Assignment

A portrait goes beyond the mug shot and expands on more than just the "who" of an image. A portrait should give us an idea of some of the other "W's" that journalism presents. Portraits give us an idea of what a person does or represents. It should give us some insight into why they do what they do. If you're working on an environmental portrait, it should definitely give us some clue to where they are.

Get some insight into their career, hobby, or whatever attracted you to them for the portrait. The more information you can get, the easier it is to build a portrait and write your captions. Hopefully you do this before the shoot.

Captions should include the five W's in the first sentence. The second sentence should offer some insight into why we should be interested in this person. If you're feeling bold, go for a quote from the person in the third sentence about why they do what they do or some anecdote that gives the viewer some additional insight.

Make sure before you decide on who you would like to feature in a portrait, you're thinking of those adjectives and adverbs and building communication points from them. You want to have those come across in the image. Remember, if you're thinking of how you can shoot nouns and verbs, you're images are going to be boring and will look more like a snapshot than a well thought out journalistic image.

Don't forget to be a little creative to make it graphically appealing and look at the scene from 10 different perspectives if you're visually stuck.

And lastly, make sure your portrait subject is able to give you enough time to give you. Ten minutes won't be enough. For most of you, it will take you ten minutes just to calm your nerves and get your camera settings where they need to be. Show up early, scout out the location, check the light, double-check your equipment and then talk to your subject. Calm them down and calm yourself.

The baseline requirements for this assignment are the usual: properly composed, a good exposure, sharp focus, correct color balance. The rest of your grade depends on the items we talked about in class and earlier in this post:  communication points, accurate representation, well thought out idea or concept, creativity and those adjectives and adverbs that come across in the image.

Shoot with a purpose, always be editing and work that viewfinder from the outside in.

If you have any questions or need some guidance, feel free to contact me via email or cell. We'll be going over more information on portraits in class on Feb. 2.

The due date for this assignment is Feb. 9.

Below are examples of the three types of portraits:

Straightforward

The straightforward portrait focuses on facial features, tools or equipment that represents the persons trade or personality, and gives some insight to character or demeanor.

Environmental

The environmental portrait should enlighten the viewer by provided some information about the area or workplace the photo subject works or live in. 

Conceptual

The conceptual portrait is your opportunity to do something a little crazy, while still maintaining an accurate representation of the photo subject. Try some cool lighting ideas, work in their personalities even more if they are over the top.

Music Running Through Her Veins

Singer/songwriter Hanna Schwarz, 18, plays one of her songs at her home in Coeur d’Alene on Sunday afternoon. Her passion for music drives her to practice daily, and she loves performing her songs to the public. “My favorite thing about writing music,” Schwarz said, “is that I’m one step closer to changing the world.”

Portrait

Tyler Rowan, of Spirit Lake, Idaho, shows off his dirtbike that he's put over $1000 into on Monday, February 7th, 2011. Rowan prepares to take his dirt bike out for the first time in 2011.

Straightforward/Environmental Portrait

Bryan Arndt, 23, shoots pool at Paddy's with girlfriend on Feb. 9; a relaxed Wednesday afternoon for the two of them. Arndt started playing pool at age 21 due to extreme boredom. He is now one of the most skilled players in Coeur d'Alene, ID. He also plays on Lakers team #1 of the Kootenai County Pool League.

During this shoot I heard Arndt say that he, "...would never spend a thousand dollars on a pool stick... well, maybe."

Danny Burt of Burts Music Cda is setting up a display for new interchangeable pickups this friday evening. This specialized guitar lets players swap out diffrent sets of pickups letting them change there tones and sounds without buying a new guitar. Burts Music is located on Sherman Avenue in downtown Coeur d' Alene they have been providing locals with musical insturments and repairs for years, and hopefully years to come.

(86mm, 1/100, f/4.2, ISO 640)

Portrait Photo

NIC Sentinel Sports Editor David Humphrey, 20, reviews the latest issue of the paper outside the newsroom in the Seibert Building Feb. 9. David has been on staff of the newspaper for three years and has been an editor for two.

Portrait Assignment

February 8th 2011, Theatre Director and Instructor at NIC, Joe Jacoby, staring into a comedian mask in his empty classroom.

Joe has been a teacher at NIC for many years and has been the director of such plays as "The Laramie Project", Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure", and "Almost Maine" among many others. His unique teaching methods, quirky sense of humor, and rapport with students, along with his retro peacenick persona, has made him the most highly regarded "hippie" of the NIC staff.

Volunteer Freelance Gig

If anyone is interested in helping out a non-profit by providing free photo coverage of an event in return for a free dinner and a nice, warm feeling you get from donating your time to a charity, contact Phil in his office or at 769-3419.


The event is this Saturday so you need to act quickly. The rest of the info is below.


An Evening in Paris
Dinner/Auction/Fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity
“Big Shots in Black Tie” – so dress well.
6:30-9:00pm
Coeur d Alene Inn
Photographer gets free dinner.

Photographs to be used for promotional materials for next year.

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

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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.
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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...