Happy Birthday Mina!
Hey guys!
Another week, another few assignments, another party and another week closer to my own birthday.
Wow, I'm pretty tired and another big day tomorrow.
I've been a little more liberal with the photos I take. I've been showing it to other people more and I've lowered my quality control a little; I've uploaded more photos lately that I would have normally.
Ok, thats not true, I'm not sure whether its because I've lowered my quality control or, dare I say it, I've just gotten better at it that or I've grown more comfortable with the style in how I take my portrait photos.
With portraits I don't use flash and I try to take only candid photos. I try to get photos of people in conversation rather than photos where they're smiling at the camera. I also don't retouch. I rather tell the story, rather than a photo where they look perfect.
Don't get me wrong, my portrait taking ability is still not ideal, but at least its manageable now.
If photography has taught me one thing over the years is that context is always important. Especially when you take photos that are unposed.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. True, but really you can't do much with a thousand words.
Candid photos often strips the photos of its context. When you see a girl in a photo, you might not understand that its her birthday, or that she's the birthday girl's best friend. Or lover. Or sister.
With no context, a photo can't tell its full story. Except to the subject. When I go to birthdays and take photos, those photos which I take are for the host. I mean, yeah, sure some of her friends and the people who are there will look at it a day after I upload but at the end of the day, I hope the host gets the most out of the photos.
To the subject and the host, they understand the story behind the photo. To the subject they understand how the flaws, perhaps the bags from last night. They understand the smile behind the photo and understand the shocked experession of when I take the photos.
To the host, they understand the surroundings, the small details in the background; maybe the fairy lights, the beers that the subject is holding or maybe the food that's swirling in his/her mouth.
They understand the context.
And context is important. You can't tell a story without context. I mean, sure you can tell a story about how good the subject look. "Oh look at the pretty lighting and how it bounces of her skin," but that's not the point of why I take photos for. There's a lot of people out there who love taking photos of models who's trained on how to make themselves "look good." And thats fine for what they do.
But for me, that vagueness in the context is what I look for. The photo is special to the subject and maybe the host. To everyone else they understand the story behind the photo. They weren't there.
In that sense, the photo is special to the subject.
~TastyJacks~
0 comments:
Post a Comment