In “Things I Kept Meaning To Do But Never Started” news, I have instated a new house rule that anyone visiting my apartment for the first time must let me take their picture in my little studio. My first victim inaugural model is Anna, The Gal What Cuts My Hair. Anna is the sweetest, nicest, awesomest hair-dresser-lady ever, and I’m so glad to have photographed her. I normally get my hair cut at her place, but today she made a house call and got to be my first subject (it wasn’t a trap, I swear!). As she stepped in front of the lights she confessed, “I’m not photogenic at all!”
Clearly.
I hardly had to direct her once. I made some small adjustments here or there, shower her a quick tip or two, but otherwise it was all her. Click, and then she’d move into a new pose. Click, another pose. She did the work, I just stood there and pushed the button.
I’m looking forward to doing more portraits of folks that come to visit. It’s a ton of fun and it’ll be good practice to work in such a short timeframe. When your shoots tend to run for hours, it’s easy to get used to having time to build rapport with someone and figure out just how you want to capture them. But you don’t always have the luxury. It’s not at all uncommon for a photographer to get ten minutes with a subject (if they’re lucky), and this’ll be great at helping me learn how to connect with and capture my subjects in minutes instead of hours.
