Our recent session encouraged me to push the boundaries of my comfort zone. Anxiety and social awkwardness proved to be a challenge, but admittedly, the discomfort began to wear off towards the end of my shoot. Below are the photos I feel were most successful.
Woman walking dog at church graveyard
I enjoy the content of this portrait, as the woman is looking down focused on her dog, who is posing sweetly for the camera. I decided to do a quick edit to see if it would work better cropped, and ended up changing the colour of her coat to better match the warm colours of the dog's fur and brick wall behind her, as well as changing the curves a bit to stylise the image with some lofi shadows.
Farmer at Waitrose car park
I'm glad I didn't choose my 50mm lens, because I would've instinctively relied on the shallow depth of field it would provide for typical portraiture. Using my wider angle zoom lens ensured that I think about the background of my images, and I feel that though simple, this one works well, with the ageing autumn leaves and buildings characterised by that classic Farnham brick colour framing him. While I like that he's looking away from the camera, perhaps I should've spent more time with him so that his expression would become more relaxed as he talked more about himself.
River Wey researcher
In hindsight, since this man and his colleague were conducting research on part of Farnham's natural features, I should have stepped back and taken a wider shot of the river bank, showing the audience why he's holding a clipboard and clueing them in on what he's doing. However, the blue in his jacket pops really well and I enjoy his cheery expression, as well as the way the twiggy trees behind him act as a backdrop specifically for his head.
Elderly woman waits for husband
Again, I might have thought to step back a bit to encompass more of the background here, because the subject is standing in front of an art gallery store of sorts. I like how the work on display literally frames her head, and the dark blue of her coat giving the image some visual weight in contrast to her silky pale hair. The first photo shows her thinking about her husband when I asked what she's up to, just standing by the storefront. I think her sweet personality oozes out of these shots.
Costa woman
These are the last and first shots of my encounter with this subject. This woman was amused at first when I asked for her photo, and went on to explain that she'd been observant of students over the years with DSLRs strapped round their necks pacing awkwardly through the streets around this time, taking photos of the town and sometimes, its people. I also enjoyed her more serious expression from a different angle, especially against the darker background of the sweet shop interior seen through the window.
Coffee shop window seat
While it's a shame that the outdoor shots aren't that successful due to the strong reflections, as well as one of the indoor shots being focused on her phone rather than her face, I still think these images have an atmosphere about them. Her top matches the autumnal colours of the shots (especially the brick wall behind her), and it was interesting to experiment with obscuring the subject from outside the window. Overall, these shots encapsulate what I would change about my approach next time - particularly spending a little more time with the subjects and not being afraid to ask them for subtle changes.
Comments
Post a Comment