Musings from an amateur photographer

I've come to realize that there's several ways to go about photographing someone...

a) Cajole the subject into producing an array of fake, bright grins that don't look natural at all
b) Act as a shadow and allow the subject to react to the environment in his own way, unobtrusively capturing natural expressions

This all seems very obvious, right? And to be honest, I've known it all along. BUT - don't you just love the BUT'S? - I think the "how to's" of photographing a person (or anything, for that matter) have to be worked out in the photographer's mind before she gets a truly flowing photo shoot. At least that's how it works for me. And since my brain happens to belong to a writer (hehe!), I usually need to write down the results of my latest think-fest; cement the idea into place, if you will. I guess that's why I'm so obsessed with writing lists...

When I'm desperate to get the subject to smile, I've found myself resorting to a). In the case of my hubby, the result is disastrous. I don't get natural expressions from Drew this way - I get only the sarcastic look. ;) I'm finding that a good approach is to begin backwards with b) - au contraire! - and proceed to a letter - shall we call it c)? - that involves sharing jokes, suggesting outlandish poses, etc. to see how the subject will react and CLICK! got it on camera. So basically a) but without the fake grin. :D

This process occurred in a very organic way last week when Gintaras and I tramped all over the River District for a photo shoot. Here are a few of my favorites...





















Can you tell Gintaras is happy that the shoot is over?

P.S. A study conducted last year by the British Medical Journal found that there were approximately 32 million more males in China in 2005 than females under the age of 20. ~ WORLD magazine