As I've read about best practices for running a blog over the past year, one thing I consistently come across is to know your audience and to always offer content that is of interest to them. I tend to mix the content of this photography blog between my current projects, things I find inspiring, guest posts from people I'd like to introduce you to, and how-to type posts with ideas or suggestions.
I try to keep my reader in mind as I write, but I thought this would be a good time to conduct a short survey in order to offer better and more interesting content. So, dear reader, why do you read this blog (even if it was only one time) and what content are you most interested in reading? With your help, I can offer things that are beneficial and worthwhile to you.
I know there may be people who stop by and read an occasional post but never comment. So, if you have ever read any of my posts, I'd love for you to leave a comment below:
What do YOU want to read about and what would you like to see from this blog?
Which posts have you enjoyed the most?
Thanks for your help! I sincerely appreciate your comments and your time, and thanks for reading!
Monday, May 16, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
Capturing Natural & Complimentary Portraits
One of my recent freelance jobs was to photograph Montana State University faculty who received a promotion and/or tenure this year and who didn't already have a portrait on file with the university. Of the 34 or so who received this honor, 21 did not already have a portrait. Even though the portraits were mostly head shots, each new environment was a challenge. I really loved meeting each person and the varied environments in which I met them. Upon arrival, I needed to quickly assess the location and lighting and how to make the most pleasing portrait within a fairly limited time frame. One of the main challenges was to help the person get comfortable and relaxed with me in a short amount of time. Capturing a casual, relaxed, and real smile was key. Making this happen, however, depends on several variables.
Here are a few tips on how I work with people to try and help them relax in front of a camera:
1. If the person seems busy and stressed, I do my best to assure them I will not take much of their time and I express my sincere thanks for meeting me in the midst of their busy schedule.
2. As I'm setting up and assessing the location, I also engage them in small talk about their work or hobbies (if something in their office suggests a pastime). I try to find and express a common connection. This can be anything from places I've traveled, things I've studied, or hobbies I enjoy.
3. It can be difficult to be funny on the spot with someone I just met, but I try to be as light-hearted without sacrificing professionalism. What I say or how I do this just depends on each person and how they are responding to me.
4. If I give a compliment, I make sure it's 100% sincere. I never say "Oh, I love that shirt you're wearing!" or "I love that painting behind you!" if I don't mean it.
With this project, I would sometimes ask them to give me that big promotion smile...or that "I'm finished with that grueling tenure process" smile. That would often illicit a genuine smile, although sometimes brief if I had to move my camera too much to put it in front of my face. In other words, I had to be READY for it. That smile can quickly melt when they remember I'm photographing them. :)
Here are a few of my favorites I picked for different reasons:
For this portrait series, I used a variety of lighting set ups including window light with a reflector and a flash head on a light stand with a "shoot-through" umbrella.
When photographing people, it's very important to determine the best pose, angle, and lighting that is most complimentary to the subject. In a previous post, I gave some tips on posing for portraits. The importance of using these things to the advantage of the person being photographed can be illustrated by the following example. Look at these two portraits of the person in the first portrait above. The following portraits were made back to back. However, slight changes that occurred to the angle of her body, lighting, and her hair in the moments between the two images resulted in photographs that almost looks like two different people:
Here are a few tips on how I work with people to try and help them relax in front of a camera:
1. If the person seems busy and stressed, I do my best to assure them I will not take much of their time and I express my sincere thanks for meeting me in the midst of their busy schedule.
2. As I'm setting up and assessing the location, I also engage them in small talk about their work or hobbies (if something in their office suggests a pastime). I try to find and express a common connection. This can be anything from places I've traveled, things I've studied, or hobbies I enjoy.
3. It can be difficult to be funny on the spot with someone I just met, but I try to be as light-hearted without sacrificing professionalism. What I say or how I do this just depends on each person and how they are responding to me.
4. If I give a compliment, I make sure it's 100% sincere. I never say "Oh, I love that shirt you're wearing!" or "I love that painting behind you!" if I don't mean it.
With this project, I would sometimes ask them to give me that big promotion smile...or that "I'm finished with that grueling tenure process" smile. That would often illicit a genuine smile, although sometimes brief if I had to move my camera too much to put it in front of my face. In other words, I had to be READY for it. That smile can quickly melt when they remember I'm photographing them. :)
Here are a few of my favorites I picked for different reasons:
 |
| ©2011, Leslie McDaniel |
 |
| ©2011, Leslie McDaniel |
 |
| ©2011, Leslie McDaniel |
 |
| ©2011, Leslie McDaniel |
When photographing people, it's very important to determine the best pose, angle, and lighting that is most complimentary to the subject. In a previous post, I gave some tips on posing for portraits. The importance of using these things to the advantage of the person being photographed can be illustrated by the following example. Look at these two portraits of the person in the first portrait above. The following portraits were made back to back. However, slight changes that occurred to the angle of her body, lighting, and her hair in the moments between the two images resulted in photographs that almost looks like two different people:
 | ||||
| 11:20:40 AM |
 |
| 11:21:08 AM |
As you can see, I chose the first photograph of her at the top of this post over either of these because I felt her smile, pose, and the lighting in that one was the most natural and complimentary.
What process do you go through to make the most complimentary portrait of a person?
Monday, May 2, 2011
Rethinking Landscapes
I recently wrote a post about using landscape photography as an opportunity to slow down. I sort of lamented about my inability to make interesting landscape photographs. I'm also generally not drawn to the landscape photography of others.
On a recent trip to nearby Yellowstone National Park, I decided to take my medium format camera to attempt landscapes in squares. I'm not sure why I haven't tried this before. Even though I completed an entire non-portrait project entitled I Heart America with a medium format camera about a year ago, I've never considered capturing landscapes in squares. I think I've found a way to give landscape photography a try.
The funny thing is that I'm still more interested in landscape photographs that have people in them, such as the first one. After this little experiment, I'm thinking about starting a project with the medium format of the tourists I encounter in the park. This would allow me to work with both people and landscapes with a non-traditional landscape format.
What do you think of these images?
On a recent trip to nearby Yellowstone National Park, I decided to take my medium format camera to attempt landscapes in squares. I'm not sure why I haven't tried this before. Even though I completed an entire non-portrait project entitled I Heart America with a medium format camera about a year ago, I've never considered capturing landscapes in squares. I think I've found a way to give landscape photography a try.
Here are a couple images from the Mammoth area of the park:
The funny thing is that I'm still more interested in landscape photographs that have people in them, such as the first one. After this little experiment, I'm thinking about starting a project with the medium format of the tourists I encounter in the park. This would allow me to work with both people and landscapes with a non-traditional landscape format.
What do you think of these images?
Monday, April 25, 2011
Guest Blogger: Photographer Dan MacDonald
Today I'm pleased to have a guest post by Dan MacDonald. I attended the School of Film & Photography at Montana State University with Dan and had the opportunity to witness his creativity through his photographic projects and the installations for his work at our senior shows. Today Dan shares his new project with us:
Sometimes I Stop Along the Way
I started this project while on a trip this past summer, but the idea had been germinating for sometime before that. I should also start by saying this project is probably an outgrowth of a larger interest I have in architecture. I am not so much interested in the technical aspects or even the design of buildings, but I am interested in them more as a potential physical expression of personal, social, and cultural feeling. Which leads me to the rest areas. Some are utilitarian, some are quite elaborate (sadly none of the ones I’ve shot so far), some have extremely trendy architecture that screams out which decade it was designed in and some are for more modest with a specific era of design and construction difficult to pinpoint. What I find interesting about them is their purpose is extremely utilitarian, primarily a sanitary place to dispose of bodily waste, and secondarily a place to stop along the way for rest from a journey. Yet many states have used them to showcase quite a bit of local pride, and often the designs of these areas reflect some version of the local culture of the region they’re in. Yet I think they’re often overlooked, people are usually in a hurry to get wherever they’re going on a trip, and I mean honestly it’s a place to poop. Yet someone, perhaps a team of someones, spent hours designing this unusual space and yet oddly purposeful place, and more people spent many hours constructing it.
So I’ve set out to document as many rest areas as I can, my criteria for the project so far has been to only shoot ones that I actually have to stop and (ahem), rest at. I’ve tried to shoot them in a straight-forward documentary fashion that doesn’t try to make them more than they are, but I am taking a more considered shot than just jumping out of the car and snapping the first angle I see. Usually I’ve taken no more than 5 shots at each one and these are shot digitally but have nothing but the most modest of color correction comparable to what would be easily achievable with color film and C-prints. The rest areas seen so far in this project are mostly in Montana, but there are some from Washington, Oregon, and California as well. I see this project continuing for quite some time to come as my travels hopefully take me all over the country.
Sometimes I Stop Along the Way
I started this project while on a trip this past summer, but the idea had been germinating for sometime before that. I should also start by saying this project is probably an outgrowth of a larger interest I have in architecture. I am not so much interested in the technical aspects or even the design of buildings, but I am interested in them more as a potential physical expression of personal, social, and cultural feeling. Which leads me to the rest areas. Some are utilitarian, some are quite elaborate (sadly none of the ones I’ve shot so far), some have extremely trendy architecture that screams out which decade it was designed in and some are for more modest with a specific era of design and construction difficult to pinpoint. What I find interesting about them is their purpose is extremely utilitarian, primarily a sanitary place to dispose of bodily waste, and secondarily a place to stop along the way for rest from a journey. Yet many states have used them to showcase quite a bit of local pride, and often the designs of these areas reflect some version of the local culture of the region they’re in. Yet I think they’re often overlooked, people are usually in a hurry to get wherever they’re going on a trip, and I mean honestly it’s a place to poop. Yet someone, perhaps a team of someones, spent hours designing this unusual space and yet oddly purposeful place, and more people spent many hours constructing it.
So I’ve set out to document as many rest areas as I can, my criteria for the project so far has been to only shoot ones that I actually have to stop and (ahem), rest at. I’ve tried to shoot them in a straight-forward documentary fashion that doesn’t try to make them more than they are, but I am taking a more considered shot than just jumping out of the car and snapping the first angle I see. Usually I’ve taken no more than 5 shots at each one and these are shot digitally but have nothing but the most modest of color correction comparable to what would be easily achievable with color film and C-prints. The rest areas seen so far in this project are mostly in Montana, but there are some from Washington, Oregon, and California as well. I see this project continuing for quite some time to come as my travels hopefully take me all over the country.
More of Dan's project and other recent work can be seen on his blog.
Monday, April 18, 2011
From Homelessness to Home: The Young Family
This is a continuation of a series. You can see an explanation of the project and the first family here and another family here.
Today I'm pleased to introduce the Young Family:
Karen is raising her two sons, Bryan (12) and Nathan (7), in this apartment that she's had for the past four years. It's the very same apartment they moved in to after their Family Promise experience.
Click here to hear from Nancy and her praise for Family Promise:
The two boys (Nathan, left and Bryan, right) share their room equally, each getting a wall to decorate as their own with posters and memorabilia.
Nathan was super excited to show me all of his favorite things, although sometimes he had trouble choosing his favorite. :) His bed is made up with a quilt each boy received from Family Promise.
I had a great time hanging out with the kids and trying to capture their smiles. Even 12-year old Bryan starting loosening up a bit towards the end...
...even enough to show me his mad hacky sack skills.
What do you think of this project and images so far? I'd love to hear any feedback you have, positive or negative, or ideas you might have to share. I understand that your comments will won't have anything to do with the families I photographed. One thing I miss about being in school is having regular constructive criticism of my work. Thanks for any comments you might have!
What do you think of this project and images so far? I'd love to hear any feedback you have, positive or negative, or ideas you might have to share. I understand that your comments will won't have anything to do with the families I photographed. One thing I miss about being in school is having regular constructive criticism of my work. Thanks for any comments you might have!
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Landscape Photography as an Opportunity to Slow Down
I recently had an email conversation with a friend who asked my advice about photographing a particular scene he had come across while hiking. He was frustrated with the photographs he made because he felt like he wasn't able to capture the beauty of what he saw. I admitted that this is actually one of the reasons I do not like landscape photography very much - it seems like I can only make boring landscape photographs. I can relate to the frustration. However, after giving him some suggestions of a few things to try, I came across this blog post by photographer David duChemin. I love this advice from his short blog post:
"Don’t allow yourself to be seduced by your subject matter. A beautiful scene isn’t necessarily a beautiful photograph." He goes on to encourage us: "Instead allow yourself to be seduced by, and fall in love with the light, the moment, and the geometry of the frame."
When I first started really concentrating on photography and learning about light, I felt like the world was new. Potential photographs were everywhere! In other words, I paid attention to how the light fell on things and I noticed the beauty in the things around me everyday. One of my daily prayers now is that I will be more aware of my environment and my surroundings. I don't want to surf through life without taking in all the little beautiful details. I want to find things to love about every moment.
What are your frustrations with landscape photography and what tricks or tools have helped you to make the photograph you want?
And finally, how do you make yourself slow down and take in the fleeting moments of your life?
"Don’t allow yourself to be seduced by your subject matter. A beautiful scene isn’t necessarily a beautiful photograph." He goes on to encourage us: "Instead allow yourself to be seduced by, and fall in love with the light, the moment, and the geometry of the frame."
When I first started really concentrating on photography and learning about light, I felt like the world was new. Potential photographs were everywhere! In other words, I paid attention to how the light fell on things and I noticed the beauty in the things around me everyday. One of my daily prayers now is that I will be more aware of my environment and my surroundings. I don't want to surf through life without taking in all the little beautiful details. I want to find things to love about every moment.
 | ||
| This is one landscape image that I feel did turn out the way I had hoped. I photographed this herd of buffalo hanging out in the fog while traveling through the southern section of Yellowstone park early one morning. The fog was so thick it felt sad and heavy yet peaceful. ©2011, Leslie McDaniel |
What are your frustrations with landscape photography and what tricks or tools have helped you to make the photograph you want?
And finally, how do you make yourself slow down and take in the fleeting moments of your life?
Monday, April 4, 2011
From Homelessness to Home: The Reuter Family
Meet Nancy and her son Austin. Nancy's story from homelessness to home involves going from living in an unsafe roommate situation to living in a warehouse. Finally, she was connected with Family Promise and has now lived on her own with her son for a couple years. She and Austin both loved their experience in Family Promise, but were obviously ready for their own place towards the end. Even now, they remain connected to Family Promise who also helped them to find a working vehicle when their old one died.
Austin loves having his own room and has decorated it to represent the things he loves. He also has a goal to climb Mt. Everest one day so he hung the Nepali flag above his bed.
Listen to Austin's response when I asked him how Family Promise has changed him:
In the hour and a half I spent with these guys, I could tell this mom & son duo have a great time together.
Nancy & Austin pose outside their home.
Do you have any ideas or suggestions for ways to photograph my future project participants?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)