Inspiration and collaboration.

Between crunch jobs and tight deadlines,  it's invigorating to try something new and collaborate with another artist.   This portrait is the product of doing just that.

This all started when I read the New Yorker 2-15-2010 issue and saw Platon's photo essay on leaders of the Civil Rights movement.  Kind of a "where are they now" portfolio.  Click on this link, and you'll see the stunning black and white images with audio of the leaders sharing their memories.

Platon's images for the New Yorker inspired me to seek out his personal website.  There, I saw the origin of a portrait style that lately is all the rage.  You see it on magazine covers everywhere.  Kind of a uber-halo on the background behind the subject and placing the camera at a low angle.

The funny thing about this style is that the low camera angle breaks one of the classic rules of portraiture.  It might not be the most flattering camera position for everyone, but it conveys a sense of gravitas or importance to the subject.  Kind of like putting the subject on a pedestal, above the viewer of the portrait.

About this same time, local writer and fellow Church Hill resident, Danita Roundree Green, contacted me about creating a new author's head shot.  Danita said she wanted a portrait that "expressed her personality".  So, inspired by Platon, I showed her some of his images in the style I was interested in exploring. 

Danita turned out not only to be the perfect subject but a great collaborator.  Since she's always in front of people presenting her work, reading aloud, engaging in discussions, it was easy for her to sit in front of the camera and just talk.  She also came to the studio with a change of wardrobe and jewelry and was willing to play with her hairstyle.

For me, this kind of exercise is good because it forced me to reverse engineer another visual artist's work: breaking it down in to components.  Hopefully, it'll help me think in ways I didn't before and jump start some creative juices. The process of using Platon for inspiration and collaborating with Danita for the final portrait was certainly rewarding.   It's always a challenge to make time for these kinds of projects...but whenever it do, it's well worth the effort.

More "off camera" + hands + blur.

Two of my favorite things is to get folks looking off camera and using their hands to talk.  It looks so natural, but is so hard to get right.  When it works, it's great.

We created this image at the offices of CRT-Tanaka, in Richmond, VA.  The gentleman is Steve Clementi, Director of External Affairs for Verizon.  He's involved with "Great Expectations" a scholarship program for foster children who enter the Virginia Community College System.

If you look through Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company or Wired, you'll see this approach with some regularity.  Personally, I get tired of just asking folks to look into the lens.  Photo editors chose these off-camera, talking shots to publish because the subject looks like they do in real-life.  

Once we set up our lights and figured out where to place Mr. Clementi, I asked my client, Natalie Smith, to sit to the right of the camera.  I kinda felt bad because to get the angle I was going for,  she had to sit on the floor.  But she's a trouper, thank goodness.  Steve was terrific to work with, he seemed to enjoy simply having a conversation with Natalie, off camera. 

The other thing that gives this image some liveliness is Steve's right hand, which even at a 60th of a second caught some motion blur.  Some of that blur is because we were shooting at f2.8 (shallow depth of field) trying to hold the focus on his eyes.  But since I encouraged him to "talk with his hands" there was just enough fast movement to pick up a blur in his right hand.  Of course, our naked eyes wouldn't see that blur.  But in a still image, a little motion blur gives a sense of movement and credibility.  Like my yoga teacher says: "our bodies never stop moving."

Hassan Pitts (assistant) and Winifred Halliday (stylist) crewed this shoot.  Hassan & I set up the lights, and had a lot of fun working in this historic warehouse which has been renovated for office space.

Copyright 2010 Elaine Odell for Church Hill Photography, LLC.