Portrait/Black and White

Let me start off by saying that Portrait and Self-Portrait photography are not my favorite. Nor are they my strongest area. I guess I would rather work with inanimate objects or still life. I do like voyeur style photography, but I find the setup or staged portrait photography a little boring. In my opinion any way! I love the shots other people can get with studio work or being creative with people, but it’s just not for me. It may be I need to learn more or study more about the area. On the other hand, I really love black and white photography. I think the absence of color can make pictures very dramatic and keep the viewer thinking deeper about the picture. I liked how composing the shot with thinking about how no color would affect the pictures. I’ll break down how I went about composing my shots.

                For the portraits and self-portraits I went about it as a outside person. Trying to think about what others would like and be engaged by. Most of my shots are taken in nature since I love nature photography so much. I like the aspect that nature brings to pictures. I tried to focus on the person while providing some interesting background without letting it clutter the picture. I’m not going to lie, I spent more time trying to compose the black and white pictures then I did the portraits. I overall thought my portrait photographs lacked personality, and me being my own biggest critic, hated them.

                However I really did love how my black and white pictures came out. I like the contrast in darkness and light I got. I waited to late afternoon to get some interesting shadows and tones in the pictures. I found subjects that had a range of dark and light areas and tried to play on them with the camera. I actually took 3 times as more black and white photographs as the ones I did for the portraits, which gave me much more to work with. One of my biggest inspirations in my photography creative eye is Ansel Adams. I love how his photography controls the image and the viewer and draws them into his world. He is a master of both landscape and black and white photography.

                Overall my pictures came out ok for this assignment. I guess the lesson I learned the most was learn what you like, and try to improve what you don’t. I now know I have to learn more about portrait photography and that I love and I believe have a great eye for black and white photography. The best thing about learning the basics of photography is learning what you like, and understanding how to do it. This class has helped me grow as a photographer and understand myself and the strengths of my photography. Going forward I will have a great understanding of how to compose portraits and learn what to focus on and off of. As far as the black and white photography, I’ll keep pushing the envelope and trying to get more out of my shots.