Category: Portraiture

A Happy Accident

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This picture is the second in my antique brass lens portrait series. The subjects are model Amy (who I’ve photographed before) and her boyfriend Jerrod. The exposure was about 5 seconds, so there is a bit of movement, which I like, especially in Amy’s eyes. The good news ends there though; I had issues with light leaks (probably my homemade lens board holding the old lens) and some chemical contamination on the paper negative. Even after a fair amount of Photoshopping out the damage, it’s still pretty rough. In this case though, I think it adds to the image. I certainly can’t rely on being lucky every time though!

Amy and Jerrod

Starting a New Project

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With this image, I kick off a new project: portraits taken using a roughly 100 year Busch Rapid Symmetrical brass lens on my 4×5 view camera. I love the vintage look I get from this lens, especially the swirling of the out of focus areas in the corners.

 
dk007

A Different Path

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Last Friday, I took part in the PAB 2011 Content Walk. The idea was to walk around central Ottawa with cameras, audio recorders etc. to create content and tell stories. The weather rapidly became the story, changing seemingly every ten minutes, but mainly rainy. We spent some time outside, and I got some pictures taken around the canal locks, but soon we had to retreat to the safety of a pub. The weather got steadily worse, but in the basement of the pub we were having a great time. We got some great light and my favourite is the image below. I had to push the film to E.I. 1600 but in this context I don’t mind the grain.

june2011Ottawa018

More of the Best of Both Worlds

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Today another image from my photo session with Mysty. Again, I used the hybrid approach of shooting on film, and then using digital post processing; this is really becoming my favourite workflow, as I take advantage of the best of both the film and digital worlds. What a great time to be a photographer!

Along the Wall

Dimensions

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Another image from my women and classic cameras series; my friend Andrea Ross agreed to pose for me with a 1950’s vintage Stereo Realist. For most of its history, mainstream photography has been an exercise of two dimensions, but cameras like Stereo Realist allowed photographers to shoot in three dimensions. Effective portraits remind me of the search for dimensionality, in the sense that the goal is not merely to show what the subject looks like, but to find some insight into who the person is.

Andrea and Stereo Realist

Andrea is a fascinating, complex person, who has been through much in her life; she is a combination of both strength and vulnerability, openness and privacy. I’d like to think I captured some of that in this image.

Mirror to the Soul

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Here’s an image from the latest shoot for my Women and Cameras project. My model Amy is holding my Argus A, a 35mm camera from the mid-1930’s, and very important in the history of 35mm photography. What really grabs me about this image though is the eyes: they dominate the picture, and the mood.

Argus A

An Interesting Request

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“I’d also love to throw a location nude black and white in there if you’re comfortable shooting nudes?”

While arranging a shot for my women and cameras series,  I got this response from a model, so in the middle of June I will be shooting my first nude session, and it certainly gives me pause for thought, as I consider the issues I mentioned in my last post. My main objective will be to avoid cliche, and female nudes are particularly difficult in this area.

The shoot isn’t for another month, so I have some time to think about it.

Breaking the Rules

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A good rule of thumb is that when shooting a portrait when you have very shallow depth of field, you should make sure the eyes are in focus. This image, taken yesterday during a session with a model for my Women in Camera series, breaks that rule. The camera is in focus, but the model is out of focus. Although this particular image likely will not be the final selection for the series, I do like the effect and the resulting mood of the image, and the model made a great wardrobe choice with the hat, to give me the vintage look I was going for.

Voigtlander 1

I suppose one could say the lens, or “eye” of my Voigtlander Avus folder is in focus so in that sense I’m not cheating 🙂

Update On My Photographic Resolutions

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In my Photographic Resolutions post at the beginning of the year, I listed a number of things I wanted to accomplish photographically speaking by the end of the year, and one of them involved a photoshoot with a hired model, and I’m happy to say that item is close to being checked off, as I have hired a model for a shoot for next week.

This shoot is for a new photo project that involves portraits with vintage analog cameras (both for picture taking and prop!) As the project progresses the images will be posted here.

In the modelling world, there is a term “Guy With Camera” or GWC for short, referring to a creepy man who uses the pretext of a photo shoot to attempt to engage in a certain other kind of activity with the model. This is a real concern for many models, especially when they are working with a photographer for the first time. I am tempted to call this series “Girl With Camera,” but I’m not sure I will; it might make light of a serious problem in the industry.

Update: If you are female and would like to participate in this series just let me know; no nudity etc. required!

Self Portrait

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I don’t do a lot of self-portraits; it’s not something I’ve been comfortable with. I always knew I wouldn’t end up on the cover of GQ, and as I hit middle age, gravity and my appetite have taken their toll. Nevertheless, having followed a couple of photographers and their approach to self-portraits (especially the amazing, intense work of April Lea), I’ve been so impressed with the open and honest nature of their work that I feel compelled  to revisit self-portraiture. It will be a difficult, self-confrontational process to force myself over to the other side of the lens, and deal with the insecurities, and the echos of schoolyard taunts of decades past.

It starts now.

iPhone Self-Portrait