Bear in mind this is not titled Tucson in 60 seconds. It is 60 seconds of photographs taken in Tucson.
Please give me your thoughts on whether the transition at the halfway point works. For every comment on any subject I will donate a can of food to Pawsitively Cats here in Tucson.
This post explains assignment #9 in the Facebook series Using photography to open your eyes.
Children usually enjoy being photographed, but it is less so with adults. This assignment is to work with someone on the fringe of willingness. By this I mean a person who usually tries to avoid being photographed, someone you have to coax a bit.
Take your time. Think about a way to approach that person that will not provoke them to be even more uncomfortable. By now you know that you don’t have to use a standard approach. Photographically you can now think in new ways. In assignment number four you photographed something “unworthy” of being photographed. In assignment five you photographed movement itself. You can use your cellphone to be less conspicuous, and less formal.
As you work with your subject, or subjects, try to appreciate what they are experiencing, and make an effort to match their level of energy. Speed up, or slow down so that your tone and presence align with theirs. If they are mostly silent, then don’t say much. If they want to chatter, come right back at them.
The most famous picture of a reluctant subject was taken of Winston Churchill. It simply shows his back as his sits on a log while wearing a bulky overcoat. He refused to face the photographer.
This is a photo by Irving Penn. I include it here to encourage you if you encounter a grumpy face and don’t know what to do with it. Don’t look for smiles where there are none.
An Irving Penn photograph of Frederick Keisler and Willem de Kooning. They don't appear to be interested.
Note: This post provides instructions for exercise number 8 in my Facebook workshop titled Using photography to open your eyes.
Let’s take pictures of buildings!
I have photographed some magnificent buildings, but my favorite architectural photo is this snapshot I took on 4th Avenue in Tucson. The mannequin in the window appeals to me, and the colors are warmed by the late afternoon sun.
You have to photograph a building on its terms, not yours. Consider the time of day carefully. Catch the building in the light that is most flattering to it. Often this is near dawn. Notice the shadows, and light streaming through windows.
Buildings have rhythms. In a busy building people rush in and out at both ends of the workday. Maybe that affects your approach to taking a picture. The real joy of photographing a building is first coming to understand the life of the building itself, and then adjusting to its needs and pleasures.
The assignment is to take a picture of a building in a way that shows you spent some time coming to understand the building and what goes on there. Have fun!
The train station in Los Angeles
Rachelle Robin Zysett
Every subject matter brings its challenges to the photographer. Some of the challenges are technical, and others relate to interpreting the theme and the model in an authentic and revealing way. I have done about a dozen yoga shoots now, and I decided to review what I have learned and to share it here.
My subjects have all been yoga teachers. All of them wanted head shots and other images suitable for fliers and advertising in general. They also wanted photographs of their perfect poses. The latter statement means a perfect photograph of an imperfect pose is a reject. Lesson number one is to understand that critical difference.
Rachelle Robin Zysett, yoga teacher, Colorado Springs, in a playful publicity photo.
People choose their yoga teachers based on many criteria, and some of them can be conveyed in photographs. An obvious measure is technical ability. Yoga teachers can assume some awesome poses at a jaw-dropping level of difficulty such as the photo of Jenn shown below. Advanced students will appreciate these abilities.
Some students want a teacher with a sunny disposition. This can be conveyed through appealing portraits and with the use of humor. I look for opportunities such as the pile of yoga blocks to provide an element of playfulness that shows the teacher likes to have fun. As a yoga student myself I value fun in a lesson, and I want to know that the teacher is capable of working it into the syllabus. Rachelle is particularly good at this.
I give my yogis the same instructions I give all models. I start by saying don’t worry about smiling. The shoot will be fun, and smiles will come naturally. I also encourage them to relax and enjoy our time together.
We begin with low intensity activities that include head shots and meditative poses. I want to record the full range of states associated with yoga from vigorous and challenging poses to contemplation and serenity. It helps if suitable natural light is available to support a variety of moods. I’m not a fan of studio lighting for yoga shoots. I may bounce some flash for fill, but I much prefer natural light for yoga photography.
Jenn Zupancic in mayurasana, one of those attention-getting poses
When we get to the more active poses I like to arrange them in a sequence that enables me to reduce camera movement. In other words, I like to group near-to-the-ground poses in a sequence. Then we do standing poses one after the other. This way I am not constantly chasing them to frame the picture.
This image of Stephani Lindsey was exposed for a sixth of a second with the camera on a tripod.
I take loads of photos during a yoga shoot. I took more than 300 shots of Rachelle Zysett. The reason is that the yogi will be quite discriminating about the precision of each pose, and a lot of seemingly great photographs can be eliminated through no fault of the photographer.
I prefer to shoot on aperture priority, usually wide open, in order to get the fastest shutter speed. Most of my work is done with my favorite lens, a 24-70 Carl Zeiss f/2.8 zoom. I sometimes use a monopod, but I find a tripod too confining for this kind of shoot.
I like to get some blurred images because they convey the energy required to get into many poses. Poses can appear static, but the experience of the pose is far from it. A great deal of energy is expended during a pose, and some blur helps convey that experience. Of course, to include blur you must surrender the relative security of a faster shutter speed and depend a bit more on luck.
Yoga teachers make a tremendous investment in time and effort to master the poses, to learn how to teach to others who may know a little or a lot, and to develop the personal presence that enables them to create a sense of harmony and wellbeing in a group of people who may not know one another. It is a big responsibility for me to photograph them in a way that bespeaks appreciation for all that they have done.
I am honored by the yoga teachers who have presented themselves to my camera. I hope there will be many more.
I’m convinced that publishing video is an important new form of literacy. Its use is growing by leaps and bounds, and the need for it is too as more people find themselves free agents in a world of shrinking employment opportunities. With that certainty overheating my brain, I determined to plod on with my efforts to tell my story using sight and sound.
This video advertises my services as photographer, writer, and bookmaking geek, all in one minute and 23 seconds.
My decades of experience is in still photography. With regard to video I’m the equivalent of a point-and-shoot photographer. My first efforts rallied my friends, and they issued stern warnings not to embarrass myself. I did anyway, but the payoff was a lot of great help from people who know so much more than I do. I will gladly admit it is painful being a newbie all over again.
My offer to provide a meal to a homeless cat for every comment logged here still stands. Meow.
Maybe this valve opens the flow of what you have been looking for. Go ahead. Give it a spin.
Happy Sunday.
The figure on the right is a person wearing a chicken costume. She greets people at a winery retail shop.
Note: This post describes assignment #7 in my Facebook workshop titled Using photography to open your eyes.
I have fun photographing people at work. I am not limiting the definition to paid work. Cooking dinner counts too, and so does volunteering, as the preacher demonstrates.
All Souls Procession in Tucson
The assignment is to photograph people doing some kind of work. I encourage you to avoid the obvious choice of photographing someone where you work. That will not make you think. Here are a few examples from my collection.
This man appears consistently at the 4th of July parade in Huntington Beach, California.
Ashley Bowman, choreographer, leading a rehearsal at the University of Arizona.
Click! by Daniel Wilson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
