Portraits

For this portrait assignment I wasn't able to photograph anyone I had negative feelings towards because of proximity. Another challenge I faced was lighting. I took these photos of my family members that I don't know extremely well and although each shoot was only 5-10 minutes it was 5-10 minutes of them talking and maybe 2 minutes of me actually using the camera. I was able to gain a lot of insight and get an idea of how I would photograph each person to capture their essence and who I believe they are based on the stories they chose to share with me. Every shot was taken on a 55 mm lens. The lighting was cloudy in San Clemente the entire time we were there so my camera settings are 400 ISO, f/3.0, Shutter Speed 1/250. Small variations were made on some shots between the shutter speed or ISO but only on shots where the clouds moved and forced in more light.

MIKE SHEFFIELD

Mike is married to my step-sister whom I only ever lived in the same house with for one summer. Although he lives in the same city as me I only see him about once a month. When I think of Mike I think of confidence. When I asked him for defining moments in his life all of them were about building his confidence because that's who he wanted to be. I took all of my shots from below his eye level to give him a slight feeling of power but without over-exaggerating it because I also found a lot of humility in his character.

ZACK SHEFFIELD

Zack is Mike's younger brother and I only know him for this reason. Zack and Mike get along extremely well but are far from the same person. Zack's essence is humor. The defining moment he spoke most highly of was finding his wife who allows him to be himself. Zack has a childlike happiness to him that really brings all of his personality to life. For this reason I took his photos from slightly above him. His eyes are much deeper then Mike's so connecting with them was very hard to do but his smile connects with the camera very well.

MIKAYLA & AUSTIN JONES

Austin is my stepbrother who I got to know pretty well our last 2 years of high school but have not had much contact with since graduating high school in 2013. He is extremely different and had to attribute his defining moment to his parents divorce which would lead him to becoming a part of a blended family with me and later would lead to his wife, Mikayla. Mikayla's defining moment was her marriage and the emotions that she felt there. These two are not very "open" to people other then each other and their parents so this was hard to get even those small pieces of information from them. Having them forget the camera entirely was a very difficult task but I believe in these shots I was able to have them show who they are through their eyes and facial expressions.

The most interesting take away I have from this assignment was how to capture appropriate emotions. I was telling my subjects to think of the moments that define them. When asked how to pose I would tell them just to keep their eyes locked with a spot of the camera and to not worry about smiling or posing in any other form. I used a technique I saw Platon use on the video we watched in class which was yelling at our subjects while not looking at the pictures because I turned my screen off. The picture after yelling out during a quiet shoot took most of them off guard but they found their recovery in the moment they were thinking of. I found this shoot to be one of my favorite one's I have done.