Portraits

One of our lessons in my photography class in on Portraiture. I am learning a lot from the reading and must say-- it's kind of intimidating. There is a different pressure in trying to get a person to look nice in the photo and also with time restraints as your subject might not be as patient with the continual adjustment of settings as is the POND!! And...... getting people to relax in order to capture a genuine smile and sparkle in the eye--so challenging!


My assignment for this section was to set up a portrait session while keeping several things in mind. I am feeling so behind for my assignments (it doesn't matter because I am not graded or anything- but just wanting to do this thing well and not let life crash over it.) Portraits were started in Lesson 6 and I am currently working on Lesson 10!! Anyway, I thought I could kill 2 birds with 1 stone and set up a portrait session at my daughter's birthday party. I tried to set up an area with a solid backdrop and some natural lighting, while wishing for a studio light of some sort.  I did get to practice some of the info I had learned, but quickly realized that my expectations weren't reasonable. I was pretty much handling a birthday party as a single parent and my portrait subjects were here for a tea party not to indulge my learning goals! I had just a few seconds with each guest as I was trying to greet people at the door, settle them in, and simultaneously sneak them off for a photo shoot in my bedroom! 

I plan to post a little more on this, but for now I need to upload these images so that I can post the link to my class assignment board before the discussion board is closed.