The Portrait Diaries: Let’s put you into focus

15 Jan The Portrait Diaries: Let’s put you into focus

#1

I’ve taken the next step.

I’ve actually dipped my clumsy feet into portrait photography.

With real people.

What a heart-stopping moment that was 😉

Seriously: I think one of the biggest obstacles – or arguments keeping you from doing portraits – is the moment of interaction. You can prep food however you want to, spend hours while shooting your dish in this or that light, in a minimalistic style or with lots of accessories. The tree, the landscape or the sea you’re about to shoot won’t ever talk back to you or even change position … much.
But this time – facing your human motif – you actually have a living and breathing thing in front of your lens. One you need to engage with in order to make your pictures work. Reasons enough to become slightly nervous.

I’ve successfully hidden from these moments of interaction so far. For over four years, I’ve been an absolute loner with regards to taking photos. But eventually, my curiosity and – finally – my impatience to evolve, improve and touch new territory have won out – overriding my anxiety about handling a situation that includes so much more than me and my camera. I think I’ve waited long enough.

One of my weaknesses is that I’m not super fit when it comes to multitasking. Pragmatic yes, but one thing at a time. And now I’m supposed to handle all the manual settings of my camera and talk to a model while looking for a perfect pose in the perfect location, catching the perfect light all at once? Add in my being only 80% sure of what I’m doing in the photographic department and you can guess how exciting everything may become – in a good and in a bad way.

But upon this note, I remembered something: Who says it has to be perfect? That’s what’s gotten me into Lomography in the first place, right?! Because I was so. damn. tired. of perfect. Bored even.

So I hung up a few posters at my uni that said I was looking for models who’d like to break me into analogue portrait photography and waited a bit. I have a team of 7 wonderful people now and the best thing about them: Their experiences with standing in front of a camera differ completely from one another – some already know exactly what they’re doing while others are starting with me from scratch. Yet I’m learning from each and every one of them.

During winter I’ll do one or two portrait shoots per month, in preparation for the glorious summer glow so to speak. I’ll try different cameras, techniques and angles, attempt different looks as well – lomo, classic, pastel – and hopefully discover the best locations around.

Until now, there have been 3 more or less successful portrait sessions so far and I can’t wait to show them to you – stay tuned for the results!

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Alle Bilder wurden in Stralsund mit zwei analogen Kameras aufgenommen. Kein Photoshop (bis auf das Titelbild), keine Filter oder sonstiges.
Einfach pure Film-Fotografie in schwarzweiß.

Kameras: Sears KSX & meine brandneue Kiev 60 (dank Dani😉

Filme: Kodak TMAX 100 (Sears) & Lomography Lady Grey 400 (Kiev)

Entwicklung & Scan: MeinFilmLab

Alle Bilder werden in geringer Auflösung gezeigt.