Treehouse
May, 2014Views
66
Likes
Awards
Top Shot Award 22
Staff Winter Selection 2015
Categories
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
I was attending a summer street fair in Detroit, when I saw this young girl climbing a small tree, and hoped I’d be able to make a good portrait of her.Time
About 7:30 in the evening, not long before sunset.Lighting
A cloudy evening made the lighting conditions tricky, especially with an active child climbing a tree. I tried a few shots with flash to help freeze the action, but preferred the image without extra lighting. I generally don’t use flash unless I can move the flash off camera, to avoid a flat, uninteresting light. I generally don’t pose my subjects, I’m looking for more natural body language. You can see a little motion blur in this portrait, as the girl was constantly moving, and climbing from branch to branch, and my shutter speed was not as fast as I’d like. But her curiosity and intelligence really came across in this image.Equipment
I made this portrait in 2001, with an early digital camera, the Nikon 990. No tripod, as a street photographer I need to work fast and be agile, reacting to any situation. I adopted digital technology early, in 2000, and the 990 was a great point and shoot camera, and allowed me to experiment and learn digital’s strengths and weaknesses. Even at three megapixels, with a small, noisy sensor, I think this portrait shows that equipment is never as important as the photographer and I could make a moving portrait with minimal gear.Inspiration
I’m concerned with portraying light and emotion, usually involving people or animals, and this little girl, looking almost feral in the tree, offered a perfect chance to give us a glimpse into her world.Editing
In this case, almost no post-processing, just some sharpening and then converting to black and white.In my camera bag
In a situation like this, I try to travel light, now with a Sony RX-100 or a dSLR with a sharp zoom. Otherwise, I use a Canon 5D MarkIII, with various Canon and Tamron lenses, both primes and zooms. I don’t like to focus too much on gear, since I’ve made good images with dozens of different cameras and lenses.Feedback
I think my real technique is just patience and being ready for anything. Lighting and gesture are the most important part of the image for me, and I wait for it to feel right. I can shoot for many hours and not have much to show for it, but when it works, I hope I’m ready. I try to make sure each image I show is the best I can do, and self-editing is one of the most important and difficult aspects of being a photographer.
