As a photographer who considers himself an artist, it's important to step outside my existing skill sets for an occasional challenge.
Once in a while you need to face failure by testing new waters, new techniques, new thinking and a new way of seeing the world. In this situation, we were going to learn to see light better. We could only create portraits in open shade with no strobes. Ambient side light was to be our only source of illumination.
By committing to a weeklong photography session with Carl Caylor, a well-known Michigan environmental portrait photographer, I'd be putting my ego on the line. It would be five days of lecture, creating portraits and critiquing work in an intimate photography class with only 15 people.
As Caylor said on the first day, check your egos at the door.
It was time to learn a new way of seeing light and life. Among the my fellow photographers taking this class, some were advanced advanced pro-sumers looking to make their living as a photographer, while most of us were already paying the mortgage, putting kids through school and enjoying our roles as professional photographers. We all checked our egos, waiting to see who had an eye, and who could learn to see and develop an eye.
On the first day of shooting we all stumbled along and managed to come back with reasonable images. Some people struggled, some people thrived, but we were moving forward. On the second day we had all of 45 minutes to find our light and create some portraits. Ultimately this meant we had 12 minutes each to create some portraits of consequence. Few of us, including me, did well that frustating day (though one image you see here -the young man- came from that day's portrait sessions.)
We roared back on the third day though, with enough time to seek out locations, light and backgrounds that make sense for portraits. Working in San Diego's Balboa Park, if you looked hard, we had side light, columns and arches with which to work. Splitting time with two other photographers over a two hours, I was able to create a dozen reasonable portraits, five of which will stand the test of time. They're portraits of consequence, portraits that tell a story about a person.
By the end of the week, most of us had accomplished the process of seeing differently, seeing the subtleties of light and mastering the technology of exposures for consequential images in a difficult environment. Now, the challenge is to continue this process and painting with light, form, environment and people to create storytelling images of those who I see through the lens.