Environmental Portrait

I have been out to thee appointments for environmental portraits and so far I haven’t managed to set up a good frame in any of them: car mechanic, Boy Scout Leader, and swim coach.  I got some good feedback from the contact sheets (shooting way too low), but the exposure was decent (bouncing a Nikon SB600) and usually I was clear about the story.  Well, the mechanic was probably more about his oversize gut than the engine hoist.  I have three more new appointments this week, but before that I took time to look at two photographers I admire: Platon and Max Vadukul.



Platon (Platon Antoniou) is a famous portrait photographer but he doesn’t often shoot environmentals.  I consider Justice Stevens and President Bush in that category because they aren’t on a studio set.  Bush isn’t looking into the camera, so that would be a re-shoot in our class.

Max Vadukul’s web site displays more images we would call environmental portraits.  It’s interesting to me that the props are looking at the subjects in the first two pictures.  Keith Richards’ pet snake is probably too distracting, another re-shoot.