Meet Angela

So I decided to try my hand at what at the time I called "model photography." This is Angela, a good friend and classmate of mine who was gracious enough to let me and another good friend (and classmate) Paul photograph her. And boy was it weird asking someone, "hey, can we photograph you just for the hell of it?" I can't even remember how it all came up. We were all on a radiology rotation together, and Paul and I started talking about photography (he's been shooting for years, film first, now digital, and now augmenting with hard-to-find rangefinders). I, on the other hand, was just getting into it. I think Angela overheard us, and one of us just sort of blurted out (half-jokingly, half-serious), "can we photograph you?" THAT felt strange.

She was a joy to work with, and was extremely patient with the both of us. This was definitely the first time for me photographing someone this way, and probably the third or fourth for Paul. And as far as I know, Angela's first time being photographed just for the fun of it. I had also just purchased the Elinchrom Skyport off-camera triggering system for my speedlight, and was just learning how to use it at the time. Incidentally, none of the "keepers" from this session utilized the off-camera lighting, since I was so new to it, and subsequently overexposed EVERYTHING I used it with. For the most part, all of the keepers from this session were sheer luck...

Angela was great to work with, and had a ton of energy. She has this infectious kind of laugh that, when it comes out, you can't help but start laughing yourself. THAT really helped a lot in terms of helping me relax and just think about shooting. Even though I know Angela pretty well, things change once you get behind that camera and photograph someone merely for the sake of photographing them. I had no idea how to pose people, I had no idea what to say when she was doing well, or what to say when she didn't do what I wanted her to do.

My buddy Paul, getting the shot. Sidenote - a lot of vision now, where I want to go with my photography, what interests me, concepts, etc. have very much been influenced by this guy. His style of photography has always been something I've wanted to incorporate into my own. So Paul, if you're reading this, you're an inspiration to the type of photographer I would like to become. Thank you.













































This last shot was my first enlightenment with backlighting. Granted, the backlight was a huge floodlight used to light the Indiana War Memorial, but as I was processing the shots, I noticed how the rim of light created when a subject is backlit really helps it stand out from the background, and gave the photo a lot more depth. I loved it. So what did I do? I went out and bought another speedlight. This can't end well...