Ann was kind enough to give up some of her time for me to photographer her for this project. So far I have photographed 5 people for it in between client work and I am not done yet.
These sessions are not always planned out or premeditated. Sometimes you just have to get together with a person, camera and some light and make portraits.
That said I did have an idea that I wanted to try for this session… more on that later.
Ann was a gem to work with, such a nice lady.
As you can see, I stuck to the red background for this session. No big reason other than I like the colour and it’s been a while since I had shot on it.
One thing I am realising with this project is you learn a few things about yourself and the way you work whilst shooting them. Some good, some bad… ultimately, it’s all good because I am learning.
On to some images.
Red on red just works.
The last set of the session was something I have wanted to try for a while. It’s nothing technical camera or light wise but instead something different to draw something from Ann / my portrait subject.
I had Ann put a fav CD on (which was Luther Vandross by the way) and I made the studio dark. No overheads, no modelling lamps. The camera was locked down, manually focused and dialled in to F11.
A simple 3 light setup was dialled in and I just let the music play and Ann enjoy listening to it.
No talking, no direction. This was just Ann and her fav album.
Now I understand that this situation can be somewhat unusual. “ Hi you don’t know me yet but I would like to turn all the lights out, play your music and shoot some images of you”. I know it won’t be for everyone, but Ann took it in her stride and as you can see even had some fun during it. Thank you, Ann, for being a great sport.
I checked the first 2-3 frames to make sure things were firing ok then I ignored the LCD just shot when I felt the need to. Below are the results.
One thing that this does is disconnect you form the person you are photographing, that’s a given. But it can allow them to go elsewhere and maybe yield something different.
The music could remind them of a time in life or a loved one. It could open a can of worms or something amazing.
Did the music inform my shutter timing or was it both that and the conversations had before this final set? Who knows.
It’s very interesting.
Portrait photography is a psychological game on both fronts, and it takes time to connect and work the images along with trying some new things from time to time.
Thank you for reading.
Rick
If you would like to be part of #makeportraits you can sign up here.