The perfect location for a photograph
Some of the best portraits you will ever see more than likely could be a great photo without the subject sitting, running, walking or doing some damn thing. Its about the dream, your photograph. When taking portraits for clients it becomes even more important to have that backdrop be something spectacular. So today I was looking around for something that might make some great lines for some wholesome portraits.
As you may or may not know, the setting is as much a part of the photograph as the subject. You can have a beautiful woman or man sitting for a photograph, but if the background is a power plant, well, those photos aren’t going to impress anyone much.
A few decent lines and I can have them stand in front of the caution signs, might be good. Rule of Thirds will work great here.
Some of the best portraits you will ever see, more than likely, would be a great photo without the subject sitting, running, walking or doing some damn thing. It's all about the dream, your photograph. When taking portraits of my clients, it becomes even more critical to have that backdrop be something spectacular. So today I was looking around for something that might make some great lines for some wholesome portraits.
Every now and again, I go out looking for easily accessible spots in town that aren't too secluded. I used to try and take clients to the craziest places I could think of. Why? Because of the background! I would find the best environments I could. With my tastes, it meant that no one else would ever get that same photograph and probably hasn't yet either. The problem is, I may find that pleasing but the regular Joe doesn't or even worse, it scares them to death.
I once had a couple that needed engagement photos for their wedding. I love water being in all my shots, and I know of a place that's easy to get to and secluded enough that it would be a one of a kind. The path is level with the water. Leaving nothing but a clean horizon line full of a lake, BEAUTIFUL.
I took them out there, we navigated the little path made by the local deer population and got right up to the water's edge just as the sun started to hover above the glistening western horizon. It was going to be perfect. I was so excited that I didn't notice the bride-to-be getting more and more nervous. That is until she let out a little shriek.
“SNAKES! SNAKES EVERYWHERE!”
I didn't see them, the fiance didn't see them but SHE SAW THEM, and that was it. We were off to take the engagement photos in my front yard. Lacking anywhere else to take them other than the local museum turn of the century barn and homestead house, I was out of luck and out of scenery.
After that day, I began hunting for that great backdrop that would allow the client to feel like they are getting something beautiful and I didn't feel cheap shooting it.
This is one of my earliest HDR Photographs of the Shiloh Museum Barn
Yeah, I said it, I don't want to feel cheap. However, I get a few drinks in me, and I stop caring for about four hours, but I always hate myself in the morning. Cheap to me are the obligatory barn photos or the hay bale in a field. Put everyone in plaid and pile them against the hay, not my ideal photograph. YUCK! Ok, if you pay me enough and I'll do it, but I ain't gotta like it. Besides, old barns can be an excellent backup plan. Shoot them right, and you get to keep some self-respect.
That's where I went today, to make sure that the backup plan still existed. To my utter horror, my backup plan is completely destroyed. Well, not completely, but close. Sometimes I like to use the Shiloh Museum to shoot the "homespun" clients in front of. They love it because it feels like the world they wish they could return to. You know, the better days when family cared for each other and ate around the dinner table together. (Secret, those weren't the better days. You worked 12 hour days in the field and momma had to do the laundry outside by hand). It used to be a safe bet and friendly enough place for the majority of the folks but now the only thing left is the barn, and it looks like it's going to fall down. Now what do I do?!
I know what I am going to have to do, find another backup “wholesome” backdrop. Yay me…
Pretty Little Pink Flowers are here today, but they might not be here in June.
That’s when I saw this little gem. It isn’t much, but the flowers seem to be nice, there’s a micro-brewery nearby (two of them actually) so it might do in a pinch. Plus, it’s literally less than one hundred yards from the Police Station. Can’t get much safer than that!
But, there is a downside. Once the spring is over, those little pink flowers will be gone, and the contrast of the background will fade ever so slightly when there is nothing but green. I guess I am going to keep on looking. I wonder if those snakes are still there?
If you would like to purchase any of the mages in this blog, please visit the store or just click on the photo. I have many different types of prints that can fit in and with almost any decor or color scheme.
What makes a photograph worth buying.
While most people might not immediately understand that these images have actually drawn an emotion out of them, when you contemplate long enough and really relax and feel, you will find that you are actually feeling something. No, really. You are, I promise. That emotion may be good, bad or something in between but its there.
Have you ever thought to yourself “that would be so worth printing” when you took a photograph of your food, your dog or yourself? Why didn’t you? Do you think having it on your phone was good enough? Maybe you just aren’t that interested in doing all the work that goes with getting that great pic printed and framed. Well, that could be a mistake. Having that moment you like so much permanently on your wall, desk, refrigerator or nightstand could actually make your days better overall, Permanently.
Rib dinner I had in Ft. Worth TX about a year ago.
The emotion your feeling when you look at that photo of your “best breakfast ever” will fade very quickly after moving on to the next Instagram post. Think about how your day would be if every time you round the corner to get your keys, take the laundry into your bedroom, make a sandwich or do the dishes is right there, a photograph that brings up that great emotion once again.
No, really.
This is one of the Fine Art reproductions I have laying around my house.
Having something that stirs positive feelings, forever reminding you to feel better, always in your line of sight will actually cause you to feel better over time, permanently. I don’t even have to make a statement that is supported by “scientific” evidence because we all know, deep down, that it’s absolutely right.
Maybe you don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on frames or high quality, acid-free paper, wearing gloves so as not to leave fingerprints on the print? Well then, just don’t. If you have a favorite picture, just print a little one and scotch tape it to the wall. You will see how much you like it and I bet you will want it to be bigger and better.
I have been in a lot of homes, and there are almost always four bare walls with nothing on them. Why did we, as a society, become so negligent of our living spaces? Blank walls, for me, are stressful. They convey no emotion, intent or even style. Our lives are not a bland eggshell colored existence, our lives are intricate and convoluted. Our lives have so many shades of color that exist simultaneously in every minute of every day, fighting for our attention. Why not set the rudder and take the direction we want by lining our lives with beauty and the exact things that make us happy, forcing the day into the kind of day we want it to be? I think that sounds like a good idea. I am glad I thought of it, lol.
If you aren’t that great at photography (you have got to have something on your phone that looks good, I mean, come on) just look around at places like Walmart or Hobby Lobby. They have tons of stuff you may like, and they don’t cost that much. Heck, you could even buy one of mine, if you want. I could use the sale, and I would feel so proud that you actually thought enough of me to buy something of mine. After all, I didn’t take these photos for just my enjoyment, I took them to offer to the world so others can have the experience of emotion and the immense pleasure of looking deep into a photograph.
Really, you can look deep into a painting or a photograph and find something you have never noticed before. This photograph I took of a tree, on the surface, it looks like a really decently made photo but not much else. But take a look at it, really look. What do you see?
First off that tree is crazy. If you look close, there are little fingers all over the branches, almost like a cactus.
There are some crazy, almost cactus looking thorns all over this tree.
Then this thing, it’s some kind of squirrely, crazy swirl of a branch on it. It actually almost looks as if it was made in a factory and not just grown randomly by a tree in the ground.
Swirly thing that just so happened to be a natural tree thing.
While most people might not immediately understand that these images have actually drawn an emotion out of them, when you contemplate long enough and really relax and feel, you will find that you are actually feeling something. No, really. You are, I promise. That emotion may be good, bad or something in between but it's there.
That’s what art like this does. It makes us feel something. Making you feel something is precisely why advertisements look the way they do. It’s why some ads have celebrities, and some have average looking everyday people in them. They are wanting you to relate subconsciously by pulling specific emotions from you that make you feel comfortable and safe causing you to feel the same about whatever it is they are selling.
Use your photographs or browse my photos for one or two you might like and make you feel the emotion you want guiding you through the day. Make it one of the most prominent things in your visual landscape. I know you will not regret it.