Photo Mood Board

These are a brief selection of some of my favourite portraits at the moment. The photographer I have used most in this set is Conner Allen, an American photographer who is not so well known, however I am very attracted to his work. Other photographers include Kai (Digital Rev), David Bailey and Laurence Howe, a friend of mine whose photos I admire. Laurence does mainly club work, like me, however he does amazing portraits also. It's important to experiment with photography, and not stick to just one genre. Though I like doing club photography I am always eager to take photos of the interesting things I think up, whether it be an interesting landscape I've walked past, architecture or street portraits. This is one of the reasons I chose to expand on portraiture in this unit, because I had not taken many portraits before and I wanted to expand my photographic knowledge and experience by being a fish out of water. We were all told to do a task, each different which appealed to us most. Though this was a project to show our development, in my opinion it is teaching us all to try something new and trying things you've not tried before. Others have stuck to using film and carrying on the subjects that they have done before hand, however I felt it was important to do something I was less experienced in, developing my photographs and finding a final outcome I was happy with. Photography is different to every person, like all art forms, and every person's style is not the same as the next's. I, a club photographer mainly, felt I needed to take a step out of my comfort zone and experiment with portraits so I could perfect my photography skills. I am confident with my camera use, I can use manual mode effectively to any environment with my D7000, I have had models willing to let me take photos of them, one thing that I struggle with with portraiture is finding the underlying pragmatics that each photographer thinks of before or when taking the photo.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/connerallenphotography/8075675231/in/photostream

To use the photographer Conner Allen, a Nikon user like myself, in this photo he has incorporated a kind of retro theme in this photograph. This has probably been intensified by making it black and white. From looking at this photo, the most aesthetically prominent feature is the strong lines on the model's blouse that blend into her reflection. Something I like in this piece especially is the eye that peers over the shades that model is wearing, it is a small detail that is powerful in this image. To focus more on the props in this piece, I like the glasses she is wearing. I believe that using what she is wearing in combination brings a 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'/Twiggy-esque vibe to the piece, further proven by the fact she looks like she is sitting in a booth at a cafe.