The final portrait
I love all aspects of photography, from landscapes to macro, and from street shooting to portraiture. Whether my subject are mountains, running streams, rivers, forests, architecture, anything with wheels on it, people, kids, dogs and bugs; bugs not so much.
My favorite is environmental portraits, and I’ve shot them from Timbuktu to Kalamazoo. For me, this is just about the most fun someone can have, and I’m going to milk it for all it’s worth…what do I mean?
What I mean is that when I look at submitted photos from my online classes with the BPSOP, I always know when someone has done the least required effort when taking portraits of people; usually because they take them from too far away. When I’m watching someone in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I also see my fellow photographers doing little else than walking up to someone and asking permission to photograph them; they’re leaving out so much.
When I see someone I want to photograph, first of all I don’t ever run up and stick a camera in his or her face; that’s a great way to get a hand up and aimed at you shaking vigorously in a ‘no’ kind of international way, A little discretion will go a long way so keep the camera over your shoulder but behind you so as not to be intimidating; if the hand doesn’t immediately come up you’re at least in the door.
Conversations during the shoot keeps things loose.
I personally love to talk to people before, during, and especially after taking their pictures. Milk it, you bet. I will often have my photo taken with them so when I get back home I can relive that brief encounter. It will always remain a wonderful memory no matter how much time goes by. I need only to bring them up on my computer from time to time and it’s just like D’eja vu all over again. It’s a feeling one should not miss out on.
I’ve selected these three photos taken a very long time ago as good examples of the fact that there’s no time limit on the feelings you get when looking back.
Looking back in time are great memories
Having said all this, it’s a great way to not only promote photography, while spreading good-will around the world, but to leave a smile on the face and a long lasting experience as to have just had their picture taken; let them know that photographers are really good people…most of them!
Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime. On July 30th I begin my 29th year at the Maine Media Workshops. I’ve had the same week since the beginning. It’s the week of the Lobster Festival down the road in Rockland. It offers a completely different set of photo ops than one would expect when coming to photograph the coastline, lighthouses, and fishing villages of Maine. Come join me and spend a week completely immersed in your love for photography.
Send me a photo and question to: AskJoeB@ gmail.com, and I’ll create a video critique for you.
JoeB
