365 Project - Day 337

"When you catch a glimpse of your potential, that's when passion is born." Zig Ziglar

The teen headshot is my favorite photographic project. I believe, however, that the course of this project requires me, as the photographer, to deliver photographs that help the youth visualize their future. To do this, we include a few photographs that reflect the client's passion, their potential for greatness ... their imagined future. Photographs are powerful. And, IMHO, these can be some of the most powerful.

In any work activity, we are most engaged when we understand the underlying rationale for our efforts. This is as true in my business professional activities as it is in my nonprofit and artistic ventures. My corporate employees were more fully committed when we were clear about the direct connection between the actions they took each day and our clients' success. I can draw that same parallel between the headshot photograph and my client's career success. Yet, my Type A tendencies needed something more, hence the silhouette.

Best wishes!

Today's Photo: A Bright Future

“Begin to weave and God will give the thread.” German proverb

365 Project - Day 207

"Everyone ... is born with the privilege of being definite, but 98 out of every 100 people lose this privilege by sleeping on it." Napoleon Hill

This photo is for a new project I have underway. Unfortunately, I did not have a large enough space to create the perfect effect, but my son seemed to be pretty happy with his silhouette. It took quite an effort to fit the two of us, the lights and my camera into the roughly 6x8 space we had available. I ended up standing on a chair to get the shot. Not a safe option for a woman with a newly bionic leg. I need a few more photos to complete his portion of the project, but the two silhouettes we worked on are a good start. Frankly, any time, I can complete a photo shoot before he wears out and get a thumbs up and "that's cool," I will declare success!

The importance of this photo is the illustration of his talents with definiteness. I want him to look at this and envision his future with unwavering clarity. His goals are clear and his path has purpose. We are not designed to do everything well. We are, however, uniquely designed to do our own thing exceptionally well. And those unique gifts and talents are needed to improve the world.

Best wishes!

Today's Photo: Definite Purpose

"God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well." Romans 12:6







EXIF: Nikon D7100
ISO 100
50mm
f11
1/180s

365 Project - Day 127

I am so happy to be back shooting cast headshots. This time I have 115 youngsters to photograph. We started this afternoon with just a few members of the Pit Orchestra for the upcoming Newtown High School production of City of Angels. I marvel at the fact that no matter how much I might practice beforehand, something goes wrong. So this afternoon, after 2 days of preparation with few glitches, I could not get my Einstein to fire consistently. After the session, I switched from an octabox to an umbrella and had no problems. Once I sat down with my husband to analyze the situation, we discovered the technical problem. I have the luxury of space in the Art Studio I requested for the photo sessions. Something I do not have at home. Since I had the space, I raised the octabox and stood in front of it, but the optical trigger was behind me. The unit seemed to flash. Maybe that was the modeling light or a delayed flash. The odd thing is the photo below was shot with me facing the octabox, two days ago and I shot a similar photo last night. There must a small, but highly relevant blind spot! Regardless, I was getting more dark photos than I was interested in seeing. With the umbrella, the trigger is in front so I do not have the same problem. Just need to workout the intensity of the catchlights.

In the end, my objective is always clear - produce photographs that delight the subject, particularly for teenagers. This is why I anguish over such things. I can never forget that my artistic expression is their reality.

To continue to improve my headshot and portrait photography I bought a doll. I wanted one much larger than this one, but short of buying a life-sized Barbie that I did not want, I couldn't find one to my liking. My husband and younger son seem somehow tortured by this cute little "journey girls" doll. This is Kyla, "an amazing artist." She'll likely pop up from time to time in my 365 work. For now, I wanted to try a silhouette while I was working out the headshot set up. She is photographed with the octabox as the background. With more space, I would increase the distance between Kyla and the background as the octabox is lighting her too much to create as deep a black as we need for a silhouette. Not bad out of the gate, though.

Best wishes!

Today's Photo: Artistic expression

"Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better." Andre Gide






EXIF: Nikon D7100
ISO 100
50mm
f16
1/180