anatomy of an image – part 3
Photographs like this don’t happen in studios or exotic locales, they happen in bars in Ft. Wayne, Indiana and on back roads in Kansas. You can’t create them, you can’t even really look for them, you have to go out with open eyes and let them find you.
Although I was shooting something else, I got this shot because I was paying attention to what was going on around me, I had my eyes open. Not only to notice her but to see a spot where the light was better to shoot her.
One of the hardest things for me is approaching people I don’t know and asking if I can shoot them. This was easier because she knew the people I was with and I had a couple of bottles of liquid courage earlier.
It still took me some time to get up the nerve to ask her. It was not until I had thought about it for twenty minutes while making a mad dash back to my friends house to get the camera battery I had left on the charger that I finally did it.
When I got back the band was on break and I introduced myself and asked if I could photograph her. When she said yes I started worrying about how I was going to explain that I didn’t want to include her face in the shot. As we were walking over to the area where I wanted to shoot, she said she didn’t want her face in the shot and I was relieved.
I got her positioned in the light and with her arms crossed the right way to show off the tattoos and snapped 4-5 frames. I showed her what I had shot on the camera LCD so she could see I didn’t include her face. From the time I asked until we were done was less than five minutes and I had a great shot.
cort
tonight’s music, joe bonamassa
