Portrait Photography

Still cutting mats, and still finding ?? prints I had printed out and forgot what drawer I put them in!  Hah!  This just gets more fun as time passes on.  When you're not sure of a printed image - as to whether or not you liked the paper you printed it on, or was it worthy of being printed, it's a good idea to just leave it alone for a while and then go back to it.  I wasn't sure if the Velvet Fine Art Paper was the right choice for one of my black and white digital images of the hillside of Oia on Santorini.  Now I look at it, and I'm thinking...wow, not so bad after all.

I've always enjoyed portrait photography and I like to do it in the individual's home or space they are comfortable in.  I like spontaneous.  If I were to do it in my studio I would have to move a lot of furniture around which wouldn't be so easy.  What I'm getting at is I'm getting in the mood to do that.  Just black and white film, black back drop, subtle lighting.  Now I need to find a guinea pig! ; )  Here's a funny story I've never shared.  I did a boudoir shoot for my girlfriend years ago.  She wanted to surprise her husband for their anniversary.  So I load up on film, we're using my four poster bamboo bed and also I had several Shoji screens as back drops.  She would change into different outfits as we went along.  I'd tell her what poses and she would have some of her own.  It was very casual and spontaneous, and took about an hour and a half.  We were laughing and having a good time.  When we got done, I told her I think we got it!  Your husband's going to love these!  Then I said, "Dang, why do I feel like I need a cigarette!!"  Too much!

Celebrity photographer Jerry Avenaim did a color photo spread on Jeff Bridges in the Rangefinder Magazine two years ago.  I just loved those.  They were mostly of the face and shoulders, different facial expressions, mostly black background, subtle lighting, very simplistic and yet striking.

Here's the black and white Oia, Santorini image I was referring to.  Now, back to mat cutting!!