Wild Hair... and a Smile
She was in a festival in Chicago. Where else would you wear hair like that. She definitely stood out in the crowd! ...and that smile!
Location: 41.880323...
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She was in a festival in Chicago. Where else would you wear hair like that. She definitely stood out in the crowd! ...and that smile!
Location: 41.880323, -87.618166
Read less
Location: 41.880323, -87.618166
Read less
Jul, 2014Views
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Awards
Superb Composition
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Absolute Masterpiece
Outstanding Creativity
Superior Skill
Peer Award
All Star
One Of A Kind
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken decades ago, in a section of Grant Park, Chicago Illinois, (41.880323°, -87.618166°). I was a photographer working in City Hall out of the Mayor’s Department of Photography.Time
It was around noon. Another festival with another parade and I was assigned to photograph it. Where else would you see someone with a hair style like that. She definitely stood out in the crowd... and that smile! I was young and smitten and that wouldn’t be the last time that I used my camera to break the ice with a lady. So I showed her my city credentials and I asked her if I could take her picture. She smiled and said yes, and if I remember correctly, in between our bits of conversations, I took a lot of photographs. I mean, “A Lot of Photos”! So much so that when I got back to the office, my boss asked me “Why did you take so many photographs of the same person?”. Then he looked at the picture of her and said “Ohhh… Ok??”.Lighting
It was the Noon Day sun. I remember that I was a little worried about blowing out her facial features, so I did a lot of metering readings of her face, to make sure that I had the right exposure.Equipment
The shot was taken with a Nikon F4 with a 35-70 mm lens. No Flash or Tripod.Inspiration
A "Smile"Editing
One of the sad parts about being a City Photographer, is that most of your shots went right into a file, never to be seen again. If you were shooting for a city department, they would use your photos, but very rarely did anyone else. When I left the City Photography Department, one of the negatives I took with me was “Wild Hair”. Decades later, I decided to digitize that negative, and I think that I did so because, I just wanted somebody to see the photo. I used Photoshop to tone down the background and to brighten up her face.In my camera bag
As a City Photographer, I didn't carry a whole lot of equipment with me. A camera body, maybe two, depending on what I was shooting. I liked zoom lens. A 35-70 mm was my favorite because it gave me a nice wide and normal shot in one lens. I would carry some Prime Lens with me like a 55mm and sometimes a 20mm. At sporting events I always carried a long lens that covered at least 200mm or more. It to would be a zoom lens. A flash, meter, batteries, lens wipe, pencil and paper for names, a light Tripod and a small shoulder bag, rounded everything out.Feedback
One of the things that I always try to do back then was to find something in the event that I was shooting that could describe what was happening, in a photograph. I was always looking for “The Shot”. Sometimes, you know when you have “that shot”, and sometimes you don’t, until later. I think that what makes this shot work, is that I was willing to talk to her and she became comfortable with me. I made her laugh, and she smiled.
