Thinking about where my work is heading { Hudson Valley Editorial Portrait Photographer }
I’ve really been excited with the direction of my photography lately. I’ve been getting hired more and more to shoot editorial portraits of people, and it’s so much fun to work on these projects. I really like trying to capture the character behind someone. It’s not only the challenge of finding the right look, with regards to lighting, and posing, but also really pulling the person out of their shell, and capturing a unique and characteristic moment out of them.
Yesterday I had an amazing opportunity to work with a local R&B singer, and honestly it’s one of the most fun shoots I’ve had in a while. I can’t wait to start working on those shots. I already started poking around with them, and I really like how they came out. This guy just had so much personality it was crazy easy to get cool shots out of him. This is why I love working with artists on their projects. They always seem to know what they’re going for, and they’re excited when they see their project come to life.
The other great thing about working on editorial portraits is that there’s usually not a specific right way to do things. It’s all about how creative you want to be with it. I think when I work on my fashion photography it’s got a specific look, that I really need to make sure I aim for. When I shoot portraits though, it’s more about catering the shoot to the person, and not the other way around. You’re trying to tell a story with the images, and sell a character. Something more genuine.
For the shots I took yesterday I worked on getting something that he was really going to like, and at the same time something that I could use for my portfolio. I want more artists to come to me to do their portraits, and get cool shots for them. I’ve also been trying to switch up my lighting a bit. Something, that I’m learning might pay dividends in all of my photography. Yesterday I used more reflectors than I normally do, and I really liked the way that it looked. It came off quite a bit more polished. One light is great and all, but a reflector just makes things pop. I’m going to have to start using them more often in my other work.
I’m still waiting for the day when someone books me to shoot some portraits of them on film. I feel a little bit bad, because my film cameras are just collecting dust. This is especially depressing when I think about how much money I spent on them. Film cameras are cheap by comparison to the really high end digital cameras, but that doesn’t make them cheap. And my poor leica, by far my most expensive camera, is probably getting really tired of hanging out in the camera bag.
