You don’t have to spend much time with your camera in order to realize that its most challenging subjects/objects to shoot are not buildings, landscapes, cats, dogs, pigeons, lions or the like, but PEOPLE. People, in their natural habitat, are extremely difficult to capture. I’ve come to understand that the photographer must take one of two forms in order to effectively take naturalistic, convincing portraits. The first form is the “fly on the wall”. The photographer must lurk behind bushes or hide behind furniture in order to go unnoticed by his subject(s)…. kind of like a paparazzi, except more subtle and less creepy. Key to success: relative invisibility. The second form entails actual and conscious interaction between the subject and the photographer. The photographer’s presence is acknowledged. The key to success in this case is making the subject feel comfortable within the presence of the camera and shooing away those contrived smiles.
Personally, I’m not really close to mastering either, though I feel that every now and then, I do manage to catch genuine moments or facial expressions. I am posting some of my better efforts here. Most of the pictures are of my friends of acquaintances….I still can’t get myself to start pointing away at strangers. In the near future, I hope to do just that.
I’m not crazy about the way I framed this shot, but my host grandmother looks just darling here, so I wanted to include it.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: Faces
My Life in Pixels 
