irene
vancouver bc
Irene was one of the participants in Bryan Peterson’s workshop last weekend. I have a bone to pick with her but more about that later. This portrait was taken in a hotel parking lot in downtown Vancouver which goes to prove that a good photograph can be created almost anywhere. I feel comfortable calling this a good photograph because Bryan helped us set up the shot and walked us through some of the things we need to think about when taking portraits.
First and foremost, pay attention to the background. I moved around until I could get a good angle with just the trees in the background eliminating the trolley wires, traffic lights, and passing trucks. With my new 300 mm f/4, it was easy to blur the background and give some depth of field to the image. Bryan’s second tip was to crop the head to avoid a high school type portrait. The brain will fill in the missing portion without too much trouble. Unknowingly I did this with one of my shots from the Vancouver Photowalk and with much the same effect. This shot of Irene was taken around four in the afternoon when the light was still quite harsh so Bryan had another participant hold a reflector above Irene’s head which helped diffuse and even out the light on Irene’s face. One thing that I think is missing from this shot is catchlight. Since reading David duChemin’s book Within the Frame that’s something I’ve been looking for in photographs of people.
So here’s the scoop on Irene. She is 79 years old, is learning photography, and bought herself a Macbook installed with Lightroom. She puts me to shame! Throughout the weekend she made it seem that she wasn’t having success with her camera. Then came showtime on Sunday when we had to present twelve of our best images from the weekend. Irene wowed us with her images. Every single one of them showed that she has a great eye and a creative soul. Thanks Irene for posing and for sharing your talent with us!
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