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Great video from 99u on directing creative people.  I found this to be a passionate talk. 

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Awesome link about Still Life photography and how it’s now showing up in photography.

I would like to do a series like that at some point.  Seems interesting, like the veggie series I did earlier.

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Day 36 and Day 37

Day 36 and Day 37

I’m still working through these, but I am taking more than I am editing at this moment. This means I’m working through a bit of a backlog. Today is day 45, and I’ve edited up to day 37.

Through this project, I know that I will get behind occasionally, and I hope the lessons will be there regardless.  It’s been an interesting experience so far.

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Inspiration Article: The Man From Another Dimension

Inspiration Article: The Man From Another Dimension

The Man From Another Dimension

There are people and stories in every human you run into.  It’s occurring to me that finding those stories, taking photos, and writing about them are very important.  Also, if you see a man with sparrows eating from his mouth, always stop to take a photo!  😉

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Day 31 and 32

I’m catching up with my portraits. So I’ll be grouping them a bit more.

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Great PetaPixel article on capturing photos that grab attention, by Christian Hoiberg.  

Composition and visual storytelling are tough.  There are times when I feel my own photographs are just ‘snapshots’ and not something larger.  I’ll be practicing with these tips later!

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Great article about finding and taking a photo from the best angle.

I have a nice 50mm prime on my D90, and my x100T is of course a prime lens, non-interchangeable.  Using prime lenses is a great way to really work on how you relate to the space where you are taking photos.  99% of the time, the photo is about the positioning of the camera and the subjects in the frame. 

Honestly, I’m sharing this so I can also remember for myself.

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Awesome shots of Tokyo through a fractal lens. 

I love photos that have a bespoke style.  While the gimmick of the piece is the fractal lens, the style sells it.  The shared color scheme, the framing of people amidst the space behind them, and slight urgent feeling in each shot... all of these work together to really make this group of photos stand out.

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Day 30

“I’ll do a photo about whatever my fortune cookie says.” 

Well, here it is.

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Day 28 and Day 29. 

I’ve honestly been tired, and playing video games.  Sometimes I have to let the photo editing rest for a few days.  But here’s these days. 

I’m learning a bit about how even a quick snap can have some nice qualities that I admire.

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This is a goal for me. 

I come from a small family.  I try to capture the small moments with my immediate family, and occasionally when I visit my father.  However when I gather with my chosen family in the area, I note how shy I am to take the camera out. 

I don’t have many answers about how to overcome this.  Some people have a very serious aversion to being photographed, and I always want to be sensitive to that.  I want to do some thinking of how to balance the two outlooks.

Part of my self portrait project is born from wanting to be comfortable on all sides of the camera.  After that, maybe I can give other people a similar confidence if I want to capture candid photos of them. 

If you’re a photographer and reading this, or even just someone who wants to capture more memories, let’s all try to get one candid shot of our families in the next month.  I’ll update on the blog once I do this, and I’d like to see your shots as well.

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Day 27

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Another shot from the rain this afternoon!

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Cafe on a rainy day.

Getting better at getting a camera out when I see these moments.  My first thought here was, “Dang, I should have brought my camera.”  But then, you know, I paid good money for my cell phone, and while we should be more mindful of our photos we take on mobile devices, this is a mindful pursuit. 

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Days 23, 24, and 25.

I’ve been busy and had my mind on a lot lately, so the portraits have suffered a bit.  I do love a bathroom with good lighting though.

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WUNC In the Rain

We had this epic rainstorm at work, and luckily I’m keeping my camera around for just this kind of moment.

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Lessons Learned from ‘The B-Sides: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography‘

     Last week I watched ‘The B-Sides: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography’ by Errol Morris.  Originally I tuned in looking for inspiration.  Over the course of the film, I can say I found inspiration and a lot more.  I thought it would be good to talk about what I’ve learned from this photographer.

     Note this post won’t have photos in it.  I urge everyone to visit Elsa Dorfman’s website.  There is a lot to read, and view.  I don’t want to post photos without her agreeing that it would be okay.  (Her website has the proper protections, and I will respect that.)

Don’t let inconvenience stop you from doing what you love.

     The medium Elsa chooses to work in, is large format Polaroids.  She has a 20 x 24 camera, and has worked with even larger.  Being Polaroids, they need to have film, and you can bet they were expensive.  She talks a great deal about not being part of the “in-crowd” at Polaroid.  She kept on pestering them until they rented her a camera for portraits.

     Polaroid only made a handful of these cameras.  Polaroid also stopped making the film for them.  You can imagine that because of this, she’s had to press on, find film when it’s rare.

     A portrait session with Elsa was priced at $10,000.  Much of this is due to film being expensive, camera maintenance, studio rental, and the worth of her experience and time.  In her documentary she comments that she had to do this, because of the expenses. 

There is no one way to capture a portrait.

     Have you looked up good ways to pose people?  Have you helped loosen folks up for a portrait before?  We all have done that.  Elsa has a very interesting “Come as you are” approach to her photography.  In her words:

"I cant' really explain it too much, but portraits have always been what's interesting to me.  And I try to make people feel comfortable so that they'll give a lot of themselves, but I'm not, don't want to invade them, yet, more than they're willing to give.  I like to say to people, 'You're responsible for how you look to my camera.  You can't come in front of my camera and expect me to do it all.  I've had adolescents that say, 'well this is what you're gonna get' and it's like fuck you, this is what you're giving me, this is what you're getting back.  This is no airbrush studio, this is what you're gonna get."

Another great quote from her about making portraits is as follows:

"I'm really interested in the surfaces of people.  I am totally not interested in capturing their souls.  I'm only interested in how they seem.  That's how I feel about my portraits, and how for me, portraiture works."

Mistakes show charm.

     With 20x24 Polaroid film that’s well over $100 per exposure, you don’t throw many away.  While flipping through photos she would often ask “Why didn’t they want these?”  She appreciated the mistakes, because the mistakes showed true charm.   

     In one photo, there was mottling from the chemicals, which applied a yellowed pattern over her self portrait.  Elsa recalls that it felt like the film almost knew how she felt.  She took this self portrait right after getting off the phone with her mother, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease and it was a very trying time.  She also commented on the beauty of some of the yellowed photos that happened due to film mistakes.  At 20 x 24, I imagine most of the mistakes still looked pretty pristine.  

Just keep going, and do what you enjoy.

     From being hassled by the police when she was selling prints of her 35mm work, to having to pay for every bit of Polaroid film, and never being recognized by them, Elsa kept going.  She found what she loved, and worked at it every day.

"What amazes me, is you just have to wait long enough.  My work was so rejected and so put down, it adds to the pleasure of people liking it now.  For so long I was at the bottom of the list.  Even at Polaroid I was at the bottom of the list."

     Elsa Dorfman had the sort of drive that looks effortless day to day, but from the present, looking into the past, you can see the way in which her life took her, and how she fought against the odds to keep taking photos. 

     Elsa makes me smile.  She feels like someone who you would want to sit and each lunch with, and it would be very casual and relaxed.  She instilled in my the want to photograph friends and happenings in my life.  I feel more confident in taking self portraits after watching this documentary.  I highly recommend watching this documentary, available on Netflix now.  

Also for more reading on this subject, check out this great article on the large cameras from 2011, the New Yorker.