This picture won't be in the photoshow that opens tonight from 7-9 at the Meadville Council on the Arts on the second floor of the Market House feature the work Harmony Motter, Richard Sayer and several others who are part of the first Regional Juried Photography exhibit, but I did cut my hair today and thought this picture of Shannon with her new do from a couple months ago would better than showing mine! SayerMotter Photograph by Richard Sayer.
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I wasn't a very good high school student, I wasn't even going to have my picture taken for the yearbook. It was only when one of my best friends, who happened to be yearbook editor, sorta forced me to do it that I went to the school photographer and did the turn to the right, turn to the left and look here and smile head and shoulder shots. And I'm not even sure if I ordered any. Now today I'm learning what people are doing for senior portraits and it really isn't anything like that anymore. They are actually fun to have made now. I try to approach it much like a fashion shoot and try all sorts of things. Outfit changes and sometimes having multiple sessions is how I approach it in order to find that right photo for our client. This portrait session was a sort of quick one, Erik had to return his tux after the prom and we met for about a half hour to shoot some pics with his tux and a football. We'll have another more informal session later on, but when an opportunity presents itself--sometimes you just have to take it. SayerMotter Photograph by Richard Sayer.
Sometimes I find myself torn between trying just document a person as close to natural as I can, in their setting so that they are where they would be if anyone came to visit or trying to find some other way to make a portrait using light and design in order to try make the person stand out. My training to document often makes me want to keep a person in their office at their desk as if they were simply taking a break and looking up from their work...but they are not doing that. All of our portraits in the newspaper are arranged meetings. So ethically if I make a portrait that looks this way I am sort of leading the reader in a wrong direction. A portrait should look like a portrait. Recently I was sent to make a portrait of this gentleman who was named the new head of local service agency. His office looked like an office of a person who does work, it didn't have particularly good light and it was difficult to find something to wrapped my little photographic mind around. I suggested maybe going outside and perhaps find the agencies sign. I wasn't thrilled about this, but it seemed I'd get a better picture than in his office. Then I saw this little corner with this light coming and thought--thats it. I'm not hugely excited about what I ended up with--I tried to pop a little fill flash in to soften some of the shadows, but I struggled to get that right and ultimately didn't. I don't carry a reflector, but am considering doing so from now on because that certainly would've improved this shot, but I was happy with myself for trying to think differently about portraits at the newspaper and hope I remember to try this hard next time I'm assigned a portrait to take. I learned a few things and hope to start making better and better environmental portraits. Meadville Tribune photograph by R
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