Paco_X
Stranger 165 : Kelly
“People are always stopping me to ask if I am a vampire.”
“Are you?”
Kelly’s fashion sense certainly grabbed my attention as we passed each other walking opposite directions down the sidewalk, but in reality it was not her goth style that made her a desirable subject for my project. It was her eyes that I found most striking… to the point that those eyes provoked a visceral reaction within my psyche. Whenever this type of feeling comes over me, I know it is time to go into stranger hot pursuit mode. And hot pursuit was what it had to be, because in the couple of seconds it took me the get my mind right, a considerable distance had opened between the two of us. As I switched gears into a quick trot, I was afraid I might lose her. Fortunately, she broke stride as she stopped a stranger herself. She asked the stranger if she could pet their dog. This gave me a chance move ahead of her and compose myself for the now imminent encounter.
Once we began the photoshoot, I demonstrated to her exactly how I wanted her to pose and how I wanted her to hold the reflector (I was trying out my new Sunfire reflector). Once she got into position, it was then that she rearranged her hair so that it fell over her left eye. Fireworks immediately went off in head. “That looks fantastic” was my response as I began capturing her image. As stranger models go, Kelly was a dream come true.
I’d like to make a quick comment about one aspect of this portrait, and that is the soft bokeh light circle over her left shoulder. I captured about a half dozen exposures, and this was the only one that contained that bokeh circle (it must have been the reflection of a passing car headlight). I chose to use this image specifically for that bokeh circle as I thought it added a bit of interest. However, the other night I entered this portrait in a club photo competition, and the judge absolutely excoriated the bokeh as a major distraction that he could not get past. I am a strong believer that distractions should be minimized in any photograph, and I strive to achieve that end whenever I compose shots in my viewfinder as well as when I process and crop the image files. My take on this composition is that Kelly’s eye is obviously the main focal point, and that is supported by strong framing by her hair line and jacket. That said, I believe a viewer can let their eye roam around and explore other points of interest such as her eyebrow, lip jewelry, neck wear, and that soft bokeh circle without losing sense of the main composition. So in summary, I understand that judge’s point and critique, but I am going to stick with my initial artistic instinct and keep this version with the bokeh circle…to each their own. Frankly, my take is that anyone who does not become bewitched by Kelly's hypnotic eye just because of that soft bokeh light is probably a vampire themselves.
Check out the rest of the stranger street portraits in my project at Paco's 100 Strangers Project and find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page.
Stranger 165 : Kelly
“People are always stopping me to ask if I am a vampire.”
“Are you?”
Kelly’s fashion sense certainly grabbed my attention as we passed each other walking opposite directions down the sidewalk, but in reality it was not her goth style that made her a desirable subject for my project. It was her eyes that I found most striking… to the point that those eyes provoked a visceral reaction within my psyche. Whenever this type of feeling comes over me, I know it is time to go into stranger hot pursuit mode. And hot pursuit was what it had to be, because in the couple of seconds it took me the get my mind right, a considerable distance had opened between the two of us. As I switched gears into a quick trot, I was afraid I might lose her. Fortunately, she broke stride as she stopped a stranger herself. She asked the stranger if she could pet their dog. This gave me a chance move ahead of her and compose myself for the now imminent encounter.
Once we began the photoshoot, I demonstrated to her exactly how I wanted her to pose and how I wanted her to hold the reflector (I was trying out my new Sunfire reflector). Once she got into position, it was then that she rearranged her hair so that it fell over her left eye. Fireworks immediately went off in head. “That looks fantastic” was my response as I began capturing her image. As stranger models go, Kelly was a dream come true.
I’d like to make a quick comment about one aspect of this portrait, and that is the soft bokeh light circle over her left shoulder. I captured about a half dozen exposures, and this was the only one that contained that bokeh circle (it must have been the reflection of a passing car headlight). I chose to use this image specifically for that bokeh circle as I thought it added a bit of interest. However, the other night I entered this portrait in a club photo competition, and the judge absolutely excoriated the bokeh as a major distraction that he could not get past. I am a strong believer that distractions should be minimized in any photograph, and I strive to achieve that end whenever I compose shots in my viewfinder as well as when I process and crop the image files. My take on this composition is that Kelly’s eye is obviously the main focal point, and that is supported by strong framing by her hair line and jacket. That said, I believe a viewer can let their eye roam around and explore other points of interest such as her eyebrow, lip jewelry, neck wear, and that soft bokeh circle without losing sense of the main composition. So in summary, I understand that judge’s point and critique, but I am going to stick with my initial artistic instinct and keep this version with the bokeh circle…to each their own. Frankly, my take is that anyone who does not become bewitched by Kelly's hypnotic eye just because of that soft bokeh light is probably a vampire themselves.
Check out the rest of the stranger street portraits in my project at Paco's 100 Strangers Project and find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page.