It's time again for Carly's Monday Photo Shoot! The assignment this week is to hit her with your best shot. If you want to play too, click HERE.
I knew immediately what shot I'd use for this assignment, and yes, it's one from my archives, specifically, 1982. In those days I kept a roll of seamless paper hanging from the ceiling in our dining room, and I'd regularly pull it down to shoot various objects, including our cats and our daughters. I took this shot of Alex and Katharine, who were then 6 and 3, in early November, for our Christmas card that year. 27 years later, it's still probably the best pic I've ever taken, or certainly my favorite. I took this with an old Nikorex with a Nikon lens, and used two umbrella flashes for the light.
I prefer to photograph living things: people, animals, plants as opposed to taking photographs of buildings. Of course, I take pics of buildings too, and in fact (a moment of shameless self-promotion here) I just got notice that a shot that I took of the Robie House at U of C last December has been selected for inclusion in the sixth edition of the Schmap Chicago Guide. I didn't get paid, but my name is on the shot, which is pretty cool. The most challenging aspect of photographing people for me is to catch the personality behind the face. I think I succeeded in this shot, and that's why I like it so much. A part of that aspect (capturing the real person behind the face) is, of course, lighting, which is why I'm ready to move on to a digital SLR as soon as my budget allows.
