9.23.2014

Creating portraits is an interesting occupation. So much depends on the kindness of strangers---and on your kindness toward them.


I love portraits of young people because they keep my own connection with the joy of my own youth strong and present. A portrait of a young person can seem filled with promise and energy. But then so can a good portrait of someone at any age.

I did this image of Victoria in Denver a year and a few months ago. I was using a Sony a99 at the time and almost certainly shot this with a 70-200mm Sony lens. I've moved on since then but it was a camera with a lot of promise. As was the lens.

For me the camera was less important than the realization, even as I was shooting, that the image needed to be in black and white. I could see the tones in my mind as I set up the lighting and looked through the finder. The rest of the process was just going through the steps to get what I could already see onto the sensor.

I find a big, soft, directional lighting design so comfortable...

2 comments:

  1. It certainly *is* a nice portrait of a beautiful young woman, and I can see why you went for a film look here. But the sensor wasn't big enough ;-) How about a 4x5, or at least a 6x7? (Sorry couldn't resist)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Two very lovely B&W portraits, both with a wonderful Hasselblad-ish feel to them!

    ReplyDelete

We Moderate Comments, Yours might not appear right after you hit return. Be patient; I'm usually pretty quick on getting comments up there. Try not to hit return again and again.... If you disagree with something I've written please do so civilly. Be nice or see your comments fly into the void. Anonymous posters are not given special privileges or dispensation. If technology alone requires you to be anonymous your comments will likely pass through moderation if you "sign" them. A new note: Don't tell me how to write or how to blog! I can't make you comment but I don't want to wade through spam!