PORTRAITS
While I shot a lot of sports, I found the process a little sterile. I knew the games, I knew the gear, stand in the right place and let the athletes do their thing.
But with portraits, you're stealing a little piece of someone's soul. There are cultures that believe that. And yeah, if you can do it right, you do. Just a little piece, and I'm sorry for that, but look at the picture we're going to put in the paper of you.
I love natural, available light. You should always look at that as your first option if it's available.
This gentleman was the first black principal in some local school district. We made it in his living room while the reporter interviewed him. I loved those situations. No matter how hard you try, you can't be quiet enough, so I went the other way. I tried to be as quiet as I could, but I'd shoot a bunch of pictures. Generally a roll, sometimes two. It's awkward as hell at first, but then everyone settles into a rhythm and I'm just part of the whole. That's when magic is allowed to happen.
He was sitting in a chair opposite a window to the back yard. Indirect sunlight. I suspect I shot this with a 180mm 2.8. Best lens ever.
Southern California terrain is canyons and hills. One Sunday afternoon a brush fire started in a canyon and swept up the hillside into a residential neighborhood. Destroyed some 20 homes.
I found Linden sitting on a sidewalk curb. He told me, I'm more tired than I've ever been.
They evacuated the neighborhood but I had credentials, so they let me in. Not all the homes caught fire. On my way out a couple asked me if I knew about a house around the corner at the end of the block. I said, the one with the pirate flag in the yard? YES, the one with the pirate flag in the yard! That one's OK.
So I got to deliver a little piece of good news that day.
Sometimes there's just no available light. The only light I carried with me was a Vivitar 283. Had a home-made bounce card made of photo paper, photo paper box and gaffer tape. Held it on with a vacuum cleaner belt. Still have it. Carried 2 cords. One like a phone cord, coiled. Another long, 6m plain PC cord.
Like I mentioned, photographically, I'm Rip Van Winkle. When I woke up there was a thing or a group or a style or something called 'Strobist.'
This shot was made at a pipe-smoking contest. In a mall. Outside the tobacco store. Personally, I never acquired a taste for a pipe although I did kinda see the appeal of a good, aged Meerschaum. Apparently it's tough to keep a pipe lit. That's the contest. Last man burning wins. But it's a quiet contest. Appears to take concentration, patience and finesse. Entrants compete in silence.
I hooked up the long cord and sent somebody off to hold the flash behind him while I snatched a bit of his soul. I was a Strobist and I didn't even know it. Bet the guy didn't see all that coming when he walked into the mall.
I always carried 2 cameras. I'd put a 24mm F/2 on one of them and on the other, something else. I love a 24. 28's not enough. 20mm, why bother? And this is one of the best things a 24 is good for. The environmental portrait. A person in a place. A thing in a place.
This was shot in the 80s. Sex Pistols, punk. These kids are siblings. Their father owned a shoe store on Main St, Someplace. He gave the kids a little corner of the store for them to sell punkwear. Within 6 months they took over the whole shop. Capitalist success story.
Here's another shot made with that 24mm.
This is Vicky Aragon, first female jockey at the local racetrack, sharing a carrot with a mount.
The light here is all wrong, but she surprised me. She just did this and I grabbed it and then it was gone. Sometimes, a lot of times, you have to work with what you get because just getting it is never a given.