Greetings from the studio!  It is late February and still much too cold here in Central Connecticut.  But then March is just days away.  And that means Spring and in-line skating time.  Hope you will stay warm and enjoy our eNewsletter.


Why I photographed it this way

enlarged photo from website

As you can probably guess, the background for this photo is actually the ceiling of the building.  The gentleman is standing on a ladder, and I am tilting my camera way up to get him in the frame.

I love using ceilings as backgrounds.  Nobody is going to walk behind the subject just as I snap the shutter, I can get unusual and dramatic angles, and ceilings can be pretty darn interesting.  In this case, the blue daylight and the green fluorescent bulbs create some nice cool hues to counter the warm toned man.  And by shaking the camera slightly as I take the picture, I get this neat subtle blur.

You also will notice that the man has been positioned off to the side.  Traditional thinking states that the subject must be centered (or nearly centered) in the frame.  And that may be just fine at times.  But often, the composition comes across being hopelessly static.  A subject unusually positioned can make for a more dynamic and exciting photograph. 

This applies to props as well.  In this case, I needed a computer keyboard somewhere in the photo.  Placing it directly in front of him created too passive a look.  Holding it where he did made the photo a lot more interesting.

Details from a recent photo shoot

I recently completed an assignment at Foxwoods, a large gambling casino here in Connecticut.  A magazine had hired me to photograph a national poker tournament.  My assignment was to shoot the final nine (out of about sixty) participants while competing, and then a cover shot of the winner.  

This was my first assignment photographing gamblers.  And it was really quite something.  Spectators, officials, reporters, and square-jawed security officers surrounded the table.  The players, though, looked pretty calm.  But they were pulling out all the stops to psych out each other.  They sneered and they sniped and did what they could to break their opponents' concentration.  One player made it a point every few minutes to stand-up, start a conversation with someone, then leave the area for a little while. 

The cover shot was just as interesting.  The winner, costumed in gold jewelry and dark blue glasses, was really wound up.  While we were shooting, he offered several people (including me) decent size sums of money.  Moreover, with only the slightest encouragement, he grabbed his wad of cash in both hands and proudly flashed it to the onlookers.  It was easy getting him to perform for the camera.  We finished with a wonderful variety of poses for the cover.

A tip for the weekend photographer

If your camera has a zoom lens and you have not yet done so, spend some time playing with it.  Here is what I mean.  Let’s assume you want to photograph your favorite pet (which might include your spouse). 

Place your subject in front of an interesting background.  Then, look at your subject with the lens zoomed all the way in, all the way out, and at points in-between (move yourself closer or farther away as you zoom, so the size of the subject in the viewfinder remains the same).  You will see how the shape of his/her face as well as the relative size of the background changes as you move forward and backward while zooming.

When you are zoomed all the way out and standing very close to your subject, his/her face will look quite distorted.  This can be an interesting effect, but it will not make for a very flattering portrait.  Now zoom all the way in.  Stand farther back now so his/her face remains the same size.  Notice that the face is much better proportioned and that less of the background is visible.  Now try zooming somewhere in-between and see what you get.  An interesting experiment is to photograph your subject while doing this and then to compare the results.

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