Solace
Sep, 2015Views
291
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People's Choice in Black Lives Matter Photo Challenge
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Superb Composition
Peer Award
Outstanding Creativity
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken at a friend's wedding. It was a very vibrant wedding, with guests of different ethnicities and nationalities. The mass just finished and the couple of the newly weds, their family and other guests were arranging and rearranging themselves for group shots. As important as these group shots are, this can be a very tedious time and to counterbalance the tediousness of the situation I started looking for inspiration among the children standing by. The little boy from the photo snuggled up to his mum for a bit of comfort as he patiently waited for the whole 'process' to be over.Time
It was an early afternoon, around 2 o'clock. The sun was quite high up but there was some cloud cover as well.Lighting
The photo was taken when the sun partially hid behind a cloud casting a nice diffused light onto the little boy's face and his mum's dress.Equipment
I used my faithful Nikon D800E and my favourite 85mm 1.4 Nikkor lens. While this portrait lens is not flexible enough at occasions such as weddings where a lot of elements need to fit into a frame, I like to challenge myself and alongside my 35mm lens, use it regardless. While at times I am frustrated for not being able to 'contain' all of the people or objects in the scene, I love to be rewarded with a shot like this one.Inspiration
I have a lot of interest in people. I am a portrait painter as well as a photographer. Children are my particular passion but I am also fascinated with the ethnic diversity of people I meet and those who are around me. I lived in New York City through my late childhood, my teenage years and all through my twenties. I have developed a vision of multi-coloured, multi-ethic world and now living in a countryside of England where I don't tend to see as many colourful faces as I used to see in New York, I miss that a lot. I look for black people among my potential subjects all the time. The beautiful boy in the photo is a child of an immigrant friend of mine, he is very expressive and he has a story - a story of a black boy in a coastal English town.Editing
The photo didn't need much post-processing, in fact I hardly changed anything at all. I usually adjust the colours of my photos a little - I like some cyan in the shadows and some yellow in the highlights - I think that was the case here as well, thought apart from that I don't remember making any changes.In my camera bag
I prefer to travel as light as possible. I always have Nikon D800E with me and the 85mm 1.4 Nikkor lens mounted. I sometimes pack my 35mm 1.4 lens as well. Recently I started taking along a couple of round Lastolite reflectors. My camera and the lenses are quite good in low light. I try to take advantage of the available light as much as possible and rarely use flash, though every once in a while I will have 2 speed lights in my bag - just in case. A little, handsome Nikon Coolpix A with a very sharp 18.5mm 2.8 lens makes the latest addition to my kit. It doesn't look like much but is a lovely, versatile camera and weights nothing so it is very handy to travel with.Feedback
Children, though sometimes hard to photograph, are awesome subjects. If they like you, you are guaranteed to get some winning shots. Having a smile on your face and being respectful of your subject's space is very important. Thinking outside the box and looking for photo opportunities in quirky places also helps in creating strong images. Photograph when you are in a good mood! If you are feeling a bit blue, use photography as a way of cheering yourself up!
