More Portraits from 2012

These are a few more of the portraits I’ve taken over the last months. I’m pretty pleased with how they’ve turned out, for the most part. This first one is of a friend of mine, taken at a birthday party. It was part accident, in that he was moving his face across the lens at the time, but the focus worked almost perfectly (could have been tighter on the eyes) and I loved the unusual, spontaneous crop and intense depth of field that resulted- so much detail on the face and such a strong connection with the lens. Nice one, Isaac.

I like this shot. This is T., and he’s a happy baby right here. And look at all that cute baby-fat. Getting these photos took a little effort. We were indoors, in an overhung porch area, so the light was low and therefore getting the little tykes to sit still long enough to be photographed without going blurry was tricky. Additionally, getting the right focus, with shallow depth of field and a wriggly child, was a definite challenge. It paid off for me on this one though. Such a cute face, and I like the texture of the little red chair he’s hanging off as well.

This is my buddy whose daughters I posted photos of in my last set of portraits. On his home in suburban Phoenix, they keep a clutch of hens, a dog, a cat, several goats, and three gorgeous kids. They also have a horse. Timing is everything, and I love the timing of this shot- a little moment of affection, which the horse seems to be relishing. Technically, the picture is sharp and well lit, with the background thrown out a little by depth of field. If my buddy was looking at the camera, his eyes would be in shadow due to the harsh overhead sun, but in this case, it doesn’t matter as much, because (unusually for a portrait) in this moment, the eyes are closed. I personally like this shot because it tells a story, and one that shows a side to him that even I haven’t really seen before; when we were growing up, he was never particularly into horses, but because his wife loves them, they’ve since become a part of his life.

This is my lovely wife. She won’t like me for posting this photo, because as she points out, you don’t usually capture someone’s best side when you photograph them from below. But I like this one, because I guess it’s a little unusual, and also because I love the halo of clouds behind her and the dramatic light. I guess it’s got nice connotations for me too, as we were on holiday at Wilson’s Prom at the time. But really, I just like how the shot turned out. And I like my wife

These two, P and C, are brother and sister, and cousins to T, above. C is freshly-baked, just four months old here, and P thinks she’s great. It was a very cute moment. My only regret for this little photoshoot was that the angle and the space I was shooting in didn’t let me get all three of them in their little chairs side-by-side. That, and the chance of getting all three little ones looking at the camera at one time and looking vaguely happy? Seriously, I don’t know how professional portrait photographers do it.

Oh, well they use those little squeaky ducky things, don’t they.

This is Steph. Steph is awesome. If you know Steph, you know she’s a free spirit, full of character and energy, and a genuinely fun and lovely person to be around. I think this photo captures a little of that spirit. Sure, you can’t see her eyes, and that’s a downer from a portraiture perspective. But she’s got such a big smile on her face that communicates that sense of fun that I think it matters less.

This might be my favourite portrait of 2012. Visiting a dear friend and his family in Savannah, Ga., a couple of months back, I managed to gatecrash a family reunion. Being the resident photographer on hand, and seeing as that meant they could all be in the pictures together, I took some group photos for them- not my forte as a photographer, but I guess it’s all about learning, right? After the shoot, K. stepped away with her daughter and I managed to get this image of them together. It’s a lovely, tender moment, utterly natural and unposed, and I love the affection on K’s face, as well as the crisp focus on the subjects and the almost featureless, blurred out background. You can click on this picture to view it larger.

I’ve featured my step-daughter on my blog a bunch of times- because although I don’t put too much personal stuff on here, she’s a photogenic little thing and a lot of fun to photograph. In fact, there were pictures of her up on this blog long before she was my stepdaughter. I’ve referred to her variously as M., or more recently, as my wife has taken to referring to her over on her blog, as Magic. However, I’ve recently decided that from now on, she will be called Tangled. For the uninitiated, Tangled is Disney’s latest Princess movie, featuring Rapunzel, she of long blonde hair fame. It’s actually a very cute movie- probably my favourite of the Princess cartoons (yes, I’ve seen a bunch of them now…), and because one of my step-daughter’s most prominent features, together with her bubbly personality, is her epic mass of tangled blonde hair (tamed like it rarely is in this photo), I think it works. The movie Tangled is one of her favourites too, and people who’ve seen it often tell her she reminds them of Rapunzel, so all up, that’s the way we’re going with this for now. These two shots were taken in Thailand. In the one above, she’s getting stuck in to a serve of whipped cream on top of her banana smoothie, definitely a preferred past-time. In this last one, she’s giving us her puppy-dog expression, which is generally synonymous with her being very excited about something (such as finishing off the whipped cream from a banana smoothie).

Yeah, she’s a real cutie.

A[nother] Day at the Beach

The other week I went down with friends to Sorrento Ocean Beach.  It was mid-June, and in true Victoria fashion, the weather was changeable and shifty, so that when the sun was out it was warm enough to strip down to t-shirt, and when the clouds rolled across its face and the wind blew, you were hugging your jacket.  I took the camera for a walk to see if I could get some landscapes, and I got a handful, but the light was a long way from ideal, so I quickly called it a day.

However the same flat light which makes landscapes a bit dull is ideal for portraiture.  Strong sunlight gives faces angles and contrast, while softer light, especially diffused through a thin cloud layer, is just what you’re looking for; there’s a reason flashguns often have a diffuser on the front.  It gives enough light on the foreground to make subjects stand out, but little enough that features look smooth and natural.

I was with friends J. and A., and A.’s four-year-old daughter, M., who spent most of her time climbing up rocks and waiting to get helped down, exploring caves and holes in the rocky foreshore.  She also succeeded in misjudging one leap and landing two feet into a rockpool (I take considerable blame for this), and managed a pretty impressive tumble down a series of rock platforms (she and I are clearly kindred spirits on some level).  While the tumble did trigger tears for several minutes, the beauty of children and their frustratingly short attention-span is that before too long, the tears and their cause were forgotten, and life went on.  I think we big important grown-ups could learn a lot from our youthful little counterparts…

I had fun shooting with A. and M.  M. is completely comfortable with the camera and didn’t pay too much attention, and they were both really good sports about my photography addiction.  I like natural, spontaneous shots first and foremost, but on a couple of occasions mum and daughter lined themselves up nicely and I had to ask them to hold their positions for a few seconds while I reeled off a couple of shots.  I was shooting with my beloved 85mm f/1.8 , a standoff lens ideal for candid and natural-looking portraits, and when it’s wide open, the bokeh is delicious- crisp, sharp detail on the subject and a beautifully-blurred background.

It still takes me a bit of courage to delve into the world of portrait photography.  It helps having friends like these who let me practice on them, and I hope that over time it’ll become more natural and comfortable for me.  For any other aspiring photographers out there who want to get into portraiture, I can’t stress how important having the right equipment is.  Most compact cameras focus far too slowly and inaccurately to be able to fire off spontaneous spur-of-the-moment portraits at that beautiful moment when everything works right, while shooting with wide-angle lenses that distort features or low-quality zoom lenses that blur the moment the light drops off a smidgen will tend to frustrate and discourage.  I have found both with my 60mm f/2.8 and 85mm 1.8 that having a fast, responsive lens with narrow depth-of-field has made portraits a joy, and almost every portrait I feel proud of has come from these lenses.

Now stop reading, get out there, and start shooting!

Photos:

1. Mum and daughter pose atop a rocky rise beneath a windswept moody sky.

2. M. works on her ‘Supergirl’ pose.

3. A. & M. pause on the rocks in front of the southern ocean.  One of those shots which turns out almost exactly how you wanted it to.

4. M. gets a spin from J. on the foreshore.

5. Scrambling on the rocks.

Thanks J., A. and M. for being such good sports!