A Sign of the Times

Several months ago I returned to my hometown located in the central valley of California.  Something I noticed was the use of sign spinners to promote local businesses.  These folks stand on the corner with small signboards aimed at passing motorists.  Methods of varying degrees of involvement are engaged in attempts to attract attention.  They range from simply standing or pacing holding the sign to the more acrobatic.  Some dance with the sign while flipping and spinning it a la throwing a pizza dough in the air.  Some wear costumes and some border on performance art.  Some are even sign acrobats.  Take the guy at left for example.  Here he is doing a head stand holding the sign between his feet.  He also jumps and flips off the nearby wall all in the name of getting you to buy a six dollar pizza.

Would You Like Some Special Sauce with That?

One of the characteristics of human behavior I find most interesting is the way people think and reason in  certain situations. I'm very curious about other's decision-making processes and fascinated by how and why they choose to act in various situations.  This is probably the primary reason why I find talking about gear and technique so fundamentally unstimulating.  However there are times when I'm working that I feel I have a sudden insight or epiphany that is worth talking about.  This is one of those times.  

I Might Be a Portrait Photographer

Over the past year or so my focus has shifted toward portraits. For quite some time I viewed portraits as the weak link in my repertoire. Perhaps one reason for this perception is that I like to have a fairly controlled and ideally conceptual scenario to photograph.  Shooting models in an environmental setting allowed me to do that.  In this kind of scenario a model is akin to an actor -- a skilled individual who uses their talent to work toward the common goal of the creative situation.  Often that entails working toward the director's vision.  As the photographer doing self-directed work I was essentially the director.

For a very long time I held the notion that a portrait sitting removed all artifice and artistic constructions and left the photographer alone with the subject.  It was sort of "Photography Unplugged" -- stripped down to the basics. Add to this the fact that the common thread in the world of portrait photography involves the building of rapport with one's subject.  I don't think you can swing a dead cat around the photography blogosphere without knocking down scores of posts on that very subject.  I found this all very intimidating because I felt as a person my greatest weakness was my ability to relate to others, especially strangers.  The whole thing scared the hell out of me.

I can't say that I necessarily pursued portraits as a way to strengthen a weakness.  I think it just sort of happened.  My general interest changed, I grew and matured as a person, and I just gravitated slowly toward portraits.  I have always had a difficult time describing my photography.  I think Avedon said it best (and I paraphrase) that if I could describe it, I would have been a writer.  But nowadays I feel a certain amount of comfort in stating that I'm a portrait photographer.

The really cool part of this is that as I have grown I've been able to relax my view of what exactly a portrait is.  A portrait sitting doesn't have to be a magic act where I try in a very short amount of time to discover and display some fundamental truth about the person I'm photographing.  I'm a photographer not a shaman.  I can build as much artifice and artistic license as I like.  I can build a set or find one that suits my needs.  Everything I do is my choice and an extension of my vision.  I just hope that my subject is willing to dance to my music.

Speaking of which I'd like to thank my friend and neighbor Topher who is shown above for sitting for me.  I've made it a personal goal to try to shoot a formal portrait once every week or two.  I'll be posting more of these as time goes by (I've been doing it for a bit so there's some catching up to do).  But until then, here's another shot of Topher.  Click the pics to see them large.

The portal to the divine is temporarily closed.

The portal to the divine is temporarily closed. We’re sorry for any inconvenience as this outage is unexpected and took us completely by surprise.  You have to understand that in the creative world this happens.  The circle of creativity is much like the circle of life.  An idea, like a child, if lucky is born and born into a nurturing environment where exploration and development are encouraged and supported.  Creativity to me is a bit of a mystery.