From a shoot over the summer in a auto repair shop. I didn’t particularly like this in color and didn’t revisit it until November. I like the view from above in this one. It gives a combination of sexiness and dirty work that has the underlying question of what sort of work is dirty, is she the dirty one because of her outfit, or is the photo dirty, is the place dirty?
I am a complete sucker for our elections in general but nothing in my lifetime is as grand and wonderful a statement about us and our predecessors as Obama’s election yesterday. I am not talking about him being a democrat and I am not talking about his policies.
I am talking about the people of America taking our obligation seriously and really paying attention to our world and what we want to see happen in it.
What I love most of all though is that how I raised my daughters, to be color blind and focused on who a person really is, is something that many of our generation taught our kids and it has come home in reality now.
In the end the vast majority of baby boomers and children of baby boomers (including the ones who didn’t vote for him) didn’t care if he was black, white or biracial. They cared that he gave them hope in their country and hope that we can be who we said we wanted to be 232 years ago. And the answer to any who doubt, here and around the world, is Yes We Can.
This week is about black and white portraits. I have a weakness for that look that has light showing off the skin, it’s texture and details. The one yesterday was about that. This one is from around 1990. It is a film shot so the skin details aren’t there the way I can capture them now, but you can still see my interest in getting the feeling of light and heat on the skin.
Plus, what’s not to like about the late 80s early 90s look of hair and clothing, right?
Often I will just play with an image just to keep in practice regarding my Photoshop skills. I spent about 2 hours on this one, just trying different things, not having a particular agenda since it wasn’t commissioned. I like having some time to do that and it is essential for any artist to spend time just ‘goofing’ off so to speak. Without it your work can become so stale and uninspiring that you cease to do it any more.
I spied this couple almost immediately as I got out of my car at the equestrian photo shoot. The woman in particular had that sophisticated equestrian look to her. I waited until after I said hello to the other members of the group to go over to them to ask if I could take their photo.
I predicted rightly that they would assume I wanted take photos of their faces and start to turn to face me so I stopped them before they could by saying I wanted them exactly as they were and that I was going to take the photo from the back.
Not many people get that idea, it is pretty alien to most people, and to most photographers. But I got the shot and that is what is important.
There were 2-3 kids playing on this bar for a quite a while. I waited quite a while until there was just the one girl and she was in just the right pose with just the right horse walking by. I wish I had a chair while I was waiting but it is always worth it for the right shot.
This week will be a number of photos from an Equestrian competition I photographed in Inola, OK.
This is a pretty straight portrait. I waited for her in the shade of the arena knowing that the very bright sunlight behind me would make for a great glow on her face and in her eyes.
I was feeling antsy on Sunday morning of our parent’s weekend at Baylor University. I hadn’t run that weekend, the walking I had done was the slow type that is bad on my back, there had been a bit too much shopping and I had grown bored. Sunday morning I finally just took a photo walkabout on my own from the motel towards Baylor not sure of what I would find.
What I found was the Armstrong Browning Library, a repository of material from the archives of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the poets.
The sculpture out front and the surrounding flora and fauna gave me an opportunity to get lost in the visual world, looking at details that I new would combine to give some meaning. What meaning I did not know, but I knew it was there, nonetheless.
I actually don’t know if this is a sculpture of Elizabeth, but I think it is. I do know I climbed up on it so I could get images looking down on her face instead of up. Iiked knowing that cars driving by and people walking by were looking at me holding her hands and hair and shoulders while I leaned far enough away to get a shot or two.
While we were in Waco, TX visiting Baylor I followed my wife and daughter around while they went shopping at a place that had multiple little spaces within it, sort of like an antique mall but with contemporary items.
This little spot did have older more antique type things and I was struck by the beautiful light flowing over the dress and table. I did just a slight bit of arranging to clean up the composition a bit then took the shot.
It is amazing how many opportunities arise when you have a camera with you, if you only but look with an eye for it.