Portraiture

My history with portrait photography is a long one. My parents were the type who had their children professional photographed every year and I hated it. In my teen years, I found a safer place behind the camera. It not only began to open me up to having my picture taken, as I got a little tired of being left out of every photo (as every photo was generally taken by me), but moreso a door into a very relaxing hobby.

Of course, I'm not sure it's possible to have a hobby that isn't also, in some way, work. I gathered up all the consumer electronic equipment I could bear to part with and sold it on eBay to purchase a Canon Digital Rebel--my first DSLR. I learned how lenses worked, how cameras operated, and how to use that knowledge to my advantage. I practiced on my friends, and eventually people started asking me to take their portraits.

My experience in Photoshop helped me quite a bit. Any shortcomings I had behind the camera I learned how to rectify in the digital studio. I joined the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, studied techniques, created some variations, played around with people's faces, and became pretty good at it.

In my never-ending quest to "make movies", all my knowledge with capturing people on "film" has proven helpful. While, initially, I didn't understand much beyond point-and-shoot, photographing people has been one of the greater learning tools when understanding how to light scenes and make use of things like depth of field. Additionally, touching up photos is one of the more relaxing jobs. I look forward to reviewing, color correcting, and touching up my photos after a shoot. It's one of the few kinds of work a person can do while sitting on a couch and watching a movie :).