June 24, 2007

Portrait Philosophy

I'm a big believer that a portrait photo should capture something significant about its subject. One of the rules that a photography teacher of mine had for portraits was that no matter what the subject's hands needed to be in the photo. I've never been a concrete rule type of guy when it comes to photography, but his words rattle through my head whenever I shoot a portrait.

While this portrait of The Mad Fishicist doesn't prominently show his face, it does portray his fishing face. Like an athlete has a game face, Bolokai has a fishing face.

This shot of Noveau Riche (sic) was, as a lot of my pics from yesterday were, from 30-40 yards away through a zoom (so smiles aren't staged, but merely side effects of a great morning of fishing). I'm not particularly happy with the composition on this photo because of the subject being centered. Cropping could fix that faux pas, but the reason I like this photo so much is because of the blur of the ferns as a backdrop. The colors in Alaska are vibrant this time of year. It's not very often that I get my picture taken with a fish. Generally I'm the one behind the lens. Yesterday Noveau Riche made an extra effort to grab my camera out of my pack, switch out the lens, and shoot a proud me and a proud Rainbow. Incidentally, it wasn't raining as you might deduct based on The Mad Fishicist and Riche wearing raincoats...the hoods work with the polarized glasses in tandem to help see the fish.

2 comments:

Jesse and Sarah said...

It makes me excited to see you guys fishing up there. One of these days I am going to have to make a trip up there. If I do, you gotta be my guide for the weekend.

Matt said...

sure thing, Jess!