Images of My Thoughts

From politicians to athletes, Platon has shot them all.  With one simple front light, he is able to show the personalities of the portraiture.  How does he do it?  Communication.  Portrait photography to me is one that causes much more difficulty than any other genre of photography because of the concept of posing people and being unnatural.  First of all, I am uncomfortable of telling people what to do; how to place their hands, how to tilt their heads; how to sit a certain way in order to achieve the shots I want.  Even if all the poses are the way I wanted, I am rarely happy with the images that come out because everything seems forced.

Platon on the other hand, his ability to talk to the subjects and able make them comfortable in front of the camera amazes me to no degree.  The posture, expression as well as the level of confidence that all the subjects possess in his photographs, and then to capture that in a confined time and space, it is a gift that I would gladly have without a second thought.

So, I am going to try a new way to shoot portraiture.  Whenever I am shooting portraits, I am going to set up everything and then sit the subjects down and try to connect with them so that they are able to show who they are really are and at that point, take the shot.

The more I look at photographs, the more I am amazed how something that seems so simple can be the most difficult thing to achieve.  Photography takes discipline, that includes the patience, the ability to take control of the situation, the skill to see what the camera sees instead what our eyes see and the knowledge that everything can be improved upon.

Here are some images of Platon, I might try to include some of mine with the idea of mimicing Platon’s style later on, but we will see =P.

President Vladimir Putin

David Beckham