I still find it hard to ask a stranger to take their photo. In this case, it took me approx 45 mins to work up the courage after staring at this young boy across the campsite. I was starring because of his amazing colouring, the hair, the skin, and the sunburn on his face, all stood out to me as portrait-worthy.
I eventually asked his parents if I could shoot and enter their son’s photo in major art prizes this year. So here we go, Portrait of Zachery is my number one selection right now.
So how did I get that expression from him, I hear you ask? Well, I asked him to turn the side on and look at me without a smile. I didn’t quite know the magic of this image until I downloaded it and started editing with darker exposure. I loved it, from the deep colour and moody tones to the orange flowers in the background that mimic Zachery’s hair. Later that night at the campsite I carried over my laptop to show his grandmother and the laptop was passed around the family with everyone expressing joy for such a special portrait of their family member.
The next thing you know, I had his sisters lined up for photos the following morning. See below Evie 9.
Evie 9
My Camera : Nikon Z fc
This is Evie aged 9, she was so happy to pose for me, I made sure of course I captured the happy version of both the children for their parents to frame but the static, moody portraits really show an ‘unchildlike’ feature in their expression. That’s what I think I like most about both of the above images.
On a separate occasion, I photographed my neighbours and her kids. My idea for the supermarket image didn’t turn out to be ‘competition worthy’ but these two images below did. Once we explored other ideas within the supermarket we came up with this black and white shot titled: Immersion examining the thoughts and experiences our children will have to look back on the pandemic, the lockdown life, and how things changed overnight. This image shows a young girl, half in, and half out. Which resonates with how life was during the height of the pandemic.
I will keep you posted when there is news about any of my entries this year. You know me, I never keep these things secret.
