A Better Than Average Portrait IMHO

Shooting an event or crowd is like a treasure hunt. A photographer circulates, eyes open for interesting nuggets. Lighting is catch as catch can and the visual nuggets keep moving.

Sometimes you get lucky. This was back by the food table at the Creatives Pot Luck with some electric lights to camera left. The result was what my superb portrait photography teacher, Bobbi Lane, calls Rembrandt lighting. One side of the face is fully illuminated. The other is mostly dark but turned just enough into the light to catch a highlight on the cheek. The Dutch master used it a lot.          

Repose

Lounging in the so-called fairie area of the Renaissance Festival. The outfit and the chair already has an old fashioned look so I thought a sepia treatment would fit well. The thick hair, deep, languid eyes and slack posture make me think of a young Lord Byron.  However, the youth doesn't look old enough to have anything stronger than Coke in that tankard.      

Open Studios STL 2014 - Portrait Of The Artist As A Portrait

I was visiting the studio of painter John Joseph Hunn and had taken some pix of him with a very large painting. His loft had plenty of wall space. Other areas had pictures in frames that would be appropriate for a Gothic church altar, a very clever idea.

As we were finishing a young painter came in, a woman not long out of school trying to make a name for herself. This is Anna Chekhovskaya. Hunn, who we will see tomorrow, suggested putting her in this frame, a brilliant idea. I'll steal any good ones that come my way.                                     

Laces On A Hat

...among other things. I can't figure out why you would need laces, let alone gears, on a leather top hat.  Or those earrings, that striking beard, the dashiki or those eyes. Must be a studied effect, a bit intimidating.                                                       

Street Porrtraits 2

More street portraits from the two St. Patrick's Day parades. Lots of smiles (some lubricated), some glowers and at least two colored contact lenses.

There are more and more pictures in the St. Pat's set on Flickr. Time to be moving on, though. A few pix about the reason I was in New Orleans. Lots of good pix of the Big Easy itself. Yesterday there was, of all things, a Baconfest in downtown STL. And we may get a lot of snow today (morning trip to the Botanical Garden?). Might break my shutter.

 

 

 

Street Portraits 1

Anyone who has read this blog knows that I love to make street portraits. Approaching people like this is scary for some of us but I've been trained how to do it. My day job has given me extra experience in chatting up strangers.

These were taken up and down Market Street during the big parade last weekend. A few more tomorrow, I think.        

And The Prize For Best Street Portrait...

The opportunities for street portraits were overwhelming at the Mardi Gras parade. These are some of the best, in fact, some of the best I've ever done. The top photo is one of those very rare shots that required no editing at all other than RAW to PSD to JPG. The second required very little, just a bit of recovery in the shadows. The light was so beautifully smooth. A teacher once told me that a cloudy day is the world's biggest softbox.

It's common for people to ask me to take their pictures at public events but, for the first time, one of them insisted on taking mine next (with my camera). If you would like to see the result, click here.

Once more, apologies for few comments this week. Long hours at work and, as I've hinted, Mrs. C and are heading out of town Thursday for 10 days. I'll make it up. The first weekend of the trip will be action-packed - so much to see and do - but the following week will be laid back. With luck, first report Saturday from our treehouse. Yes, that's what I said.

Profile

.

They say that in photography, luck favors the prepared. I got a glimpse of this face at the Halloween party last weekend and whipped my camera up to my eye. (BTW, STL DPB recommends the Black Rapid RS-7 camera strap, which allows you to flip up your camera from the hip like drawing a gun from a holster.) Well, uh, the battery was charged and the memory card wasn't full, the ISO and f stop were pre-set at 3200 and 1.8 on an 85 mm prime lens, and the flash was ready at -1 2/3 stops. The image has not been cropped. Just dumb luck. I think it's one of the best portraits I've made all year.

I've been terrible about comments on my colleagues' blogs this week. It feels like I just can't work enough hours and I'll still never get it all done. When you start law school in this country they fill your head with all sorts of hoary old English legal maxims, since that's the origin of our system. One of them holds that the law is a jealous mistress. So many inflexible deadlines, so many serious responsibilities. Next week looks better. I'll get back to it.

Photo(s) Of The Year 2011

.

Everybody likes pretty pictures (see the comments on my post yesterday) and I'm no exception. However, there is another side of photography that can be both simpler and deeper. In the context of music, Jean Sibelius said, "Whereas most other modern composers are engaged in manufacturing cocktails of every hue and description, I offer the public pure cold water." I like to splash people in the face once in a while.

This woman and some friends were attending a public party at a downtown plaza last summer. After I struck up a conversation, she abruptly asked me, "Hey, wanna see my new tattoos?" Well, to quote a famous Alaskan moose skinner, you betcha! She struck these poses as if they were choreographed.

The images carry something at once obvious, fatalistic and peaceful. My associations range from Doris Day singing Que Sera, Sera to Laurie Anderson's singspiel Let X = X (just lyrics; no audio or video available online) to Paul McCartney crooning Let It Be. The inked words are quite Buddhist, but also a bit irresponsible (the lady was rather tipsy). It is work I am very satisfied with and I offer it as my personal favorite of 2011.

In turn, I look forward to seeing your best of the year. To see the top 2011 images from City Daily Photo members click here.

Pridefest: Portraits

.

People on the street at Pridefest. I ask permission to photograph individual people in public. Most say yes, a few decline, but at Pridefest nobody has a problem with it. Just be polite and friendly.

I'm thinking of Bobbi Lane, my portraits teacher at the Maine Media Workshops, as I write this. I could never have made these pictures without her instruction and inspiration. Best teacher I ever had in my life for anything.

Downtown St. Lois 365 observes, sits, sips and mends.

Portrait of Ivan

.

This from a week ago, at the opening of the Labor of Love Show at Soulard Art Market. You see Ivan at a lot of arts events. His wife, Jane, is one of the resident artists at SAM and has been featured here in our artists' portraits series. Ivan also works on veterans' issues. If you are interested, stop by the fundraiser he helped organize for Guitars For Vets on Sunday, March 20 at 4 PM at BB's Jazz Blues and Soups, 700 S. Broadway. It's worth looking at that link to see the good these people do.

Wascally wabbits today on Downtown St. Louis 365.

A Perfect Model

.
I mentioned yesterday that I was a little nervous about my first assignment shooting high school senior pictures. Tillie, my subject, was terrific. Her mother is an old friend, a colleague in my legal specialty in central Missouri. We spent a few hours shooting in Forest Park and got some really good results. She was a perfect model.

By the way, I couldn't have done any of this without the instruction from my adored portrait photography teacher, Bobbi Lane. She da best.

Young And Cool On Cherokee Street

.
I saw him in a small flea market on Cherokee Street sponsored by Binge & Purge. Very cool, very self assured and happy to pose. I didn't notice her at first but she wanted in the scene quickly. I'm glad. They're beautiful.

SABBATICAL, SORT OF: I hoped it wouldn't come to this but, well, it did. In my long career in this dismal profession, I've never had such a high work load for such a sustained period as the last two months. Sheesh, in a week and a half I have a hearing on a case in which the evidence file is over 3,000 pages long. The juggler can't keep all the balls in the air. I'll be posting just occasionally through our Thanksgiving holiday in a couple of weeks. Then I get a couple of days off for a trip to Kansas, always fertile ground for photography.

Infowars

.
This man first attracted my attention because of the way the light was hitting him from the side of the tent. Then I saw his tee shirt. I asked him what infowars.com is. He said something about alternative media. The man was very friendly and happy to let me photograph him, but he struck such a strange pose. When I got home I checked out the web site. Oh, wow. Paranoia and conspiracy theory still run through our body politic.

Flower Child

.
Still wandering around at the Renaissance Faire. The light here was just kick-ass gorgeous, under a big umbrella with bright sunlight coming in from the sides. There was a little bit of embarrassment on this shot. The flower vendor caught my eye and I went over and did my usual "Gee you look great would you mind if I..." routine. After I took a few shots I was making complements about how beautiful and flattering the light was on the hair and face. From a distance I had assumed this was a girl. Only after I got my eye unstuck from the camera did I notice that the hair was probably a wig, the pointy plastic fairy ears and that this was, in fact a boy. Oops, sorry kid.

AND BY THE WAY, for an interesting little story about getting started in photography, click here.

Ole Blacksmith

.

I got some pretty good candid portraits at the Gypsy Caravan flea market and this one is a favorite. This man and his brother make black iron ornaments and implements for home and garden. He insisted his wife come sit on his lap for the picture and you can just see the affection. I'd love to send them a copy but their card doesn't have an email or web address. Tom or Jim, you have my email on my card. If you see this send me a message and I'll be happy to make you a print.

Yesterday's post received the least response in a long time. I really like it. Well, I once used the nickname Strangetastes. If you think Friday's picture was strange, wait till theme day on Monday. That photo hasn't actually been made yet. Hope I can pull off my idea.

Queenpins

.One of the most interesting things about the late International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame is the large area devoted to women bowlers and the Women' International Bowling Congress. The greater part of it contains scores of portraits like the ones you see here. They are all formulaic but there are interesting little differences. Who gets blue and who gets gray backgrounds? What's with the one in pink? What if anything do these paintings tell us about the subject? I think the best one is the Italian-looking woman on the right of the top photo, who looks like she is about to leap out of the plane of the picture. By the way, IMHO the last photo is the best image I've made in some time. Your results may vary. Which portrait appeals to you the most? Why?

WHAT I FOUND OUT TODAY: St. Louis has an ambitious little semi-pro opera company, New Opera St. Louis, that puts on one or two productions a year in church halls or school auditoriums. We just heard that they are doing a rarely performed gem this weekend, Camille Saint-Saëns' Samson and Delilah, in the sanctuary of a local Jewish temple. We say: be there or be square. This burgh has three opera companies. How about that?

TOMORROW: they say white men can't jump. But they sure can bowl.

COME BACK THURSDAY FOR A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Portraits of St. Louis Artists: Danielle Spradley

She looked up at me as I took this picture with an expression that seemed to say, "Excuse me? I'm trying to get some work done here, okay?" However, Spradley, master printer and shop manager at Evil Prints (see the first post in this series about Tom Huck, the proprietor), could not have been nicer about letting me photograph her at work. In this picture, she is using tools and techniques similar to Huck but she has a very individual style. Her images remind me of the original pictures of the aliens in War of the Worlds as revised by R. Crumb (one of my cultural heros) and remixed by Marcel Duchamp. Check out her work here and here.

That's all for St. Louis artists portraits for now. Let me know if you liked the series. I've got a couple of leads and it may return on an irregular basis in the future.

WHAT WAS GOOD AND BAD IN MY DAY TUESDAY: Good - I got my precious Canon 5D back from the factory service center after the third repair for the same problem. It $%#^@ well better keep working this time. Bad - I had to talk to more crazy, annoying people at work than anyone should (and I never even looked in the mirror.) I guess I signed up for it.
TOMORROW: The Thursday Arch Series Returns.

Portraits of St. Louis Artists: Amy Thompson

This is as much an action shot as a portrait. Amy Thompson is a printmaker with an intense vision. She is also a craftswoman. In this picture she works at a manual press, full of wheels and levers and gears. The machine reminds me of the complex, non-electronic gizmos in Terry Gilliam's movie, Brazil. Thompson knows what to do with all this steel. She is developing a web site for her prints but take a look at her stunning photography on Flickr. Her pictures of China and Vietnam are fabulous. Note particularly the portrait Danny and the untitled photo here in the Vietnam set. I'd be proud to have takes pictures so good.

WHAT I MADE FOR DINNER LAST NIGHT: stir fry with yellow squash, eggplant (aubergine), chicken, carrot, portobello mushrooms, garlic, almonds and whatever herbs were lying around. I'm not much of a cook (and don't have to be in this family) but, hey, it was my night. Throw it in a wok and see what happens.

TOMORROW: St. Louis artists portraits continue with Danielle Spradley, printmaker.

Portraits of St. Louis Artists: Gary Passanise

When I was looking for Gary Passanise's combination home and studio, people up the hill around the spaces of Craig Downs, Sarah Paulsen and Stan Chisholm told me to follow the lane down the hill and look for the hobbit hole. Around a bend, in the lowest of the old commercial buildings built into the hillside over the Mississippi, was a door leading still further downward.

That's where I found him in an office/sitting room. The living quarters and studio were down yet more steep steps. Loft-style living and working space blended into one another. Passanise is a painter in the tradition of abstract expressionism. The work hanging there, perhaps still in progress, reminded me a bit of Anselm Kiefer and Clyfford Still. Visit his sophisticated web site to see a variety of his work. His biography is worth a look. Besides his own art, Passanise is director of painting at the Leigh Gerdine School of Fine Art at Webster University in St. Louis.

I'm still inviting St. Louis artists to contact me if they would like to be part of this series.

WHAT I'M TRYING TO FIGURE OUT TODAY: How to use the Vanishing Point filter in Photoshop to paste text shaped in perspective into an image. Come back on Friday for Theme Day and grade my work.
TOMORROW: St. Louis artists portraits continue with Amy Thompson, printmaker.

HEY, WAIT A MINUTE - I just realized that last Saturday was my 500th post! Are we there yet?