It felt safe to shoot, so that's something. Wasn't constantly worried about getting infected or infecting my subject.

These are good things!

Still annoying to wear a mask, a friend pointed out that so much of shooting for me involves conversation, and so much of that conversation involves my face, my expressions, non-verbal cues.

Fortunately, Sarissle and I have done this over a dozen times, at this point. So it was easy-going, took less than an hour. Didn't end up with any Instant Classics, but we had a good ol' time, got a few I did, a few she digs, that's a win!

Gotta build up momentum, hoping to shoot again this week, need to get more adrenaline involved, get weirder, remember the old tips, the old excitement.

But this is a fine start...

Tags:   2.23.21 Sarissle portrait

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Consider this a reminder to Use the Sun. I can get so focused on my subject, I forget all about the environment. Shoot the other week, wasn't until the very end I remembered the sun was up there, creating great light, incredible flare, amazing glow.

Tunnel vision I suppose, and also arranging shoots for the wrong time of day. Shoot in the afternoon, you fool! Get that sun nice and low, so you can do that backlight thing you love so much, you remember that, don't you?

This is probably the middle of the day, so I had to get real low, down on my haunches as it were, to get this shot of Sarissle. Tricky, shooting from this angle, easy for it to fall into the unflattering range.

But a bit of fiddling, bit of patience from Sarissle, and here we are, a fine shot, and a fine reminder.

Tags:   2.23.21 Sarissle portrait

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This was the kind of thing I used to do all the time, back in 2007-2010, meet up with a fellow photographer, have some fun with the sun and the unsuspecting neighborhood, talk shop.

So it's fitting, because I first started following Ira a good ten years ago, finally FINALLY got around to taking her picture.

Shooting a photographer can be tough, they know all their own angles, they've got their own idea about how they want to be photographed. You go into that kind of shoot, it's a wrestling match, both of you attempting to gain control of the final product.

There are folks who like that interaction. I am not one of them.

Which is why I was very relieved to find that Ira is the Other kind of photographer, the one who's very comfortable in front of the camera and, more importantly, comfortable taking direction from another photographer.

Sure, she had her preferences, but she also trusted me enough to let me be in the driver's seat.

So we got to spend less time figuring out who was in charge, and more time just chatting. She's had some drama in her life, and who doesn't love talking about drama?

Drama, some talk about film, about how the sun coming out after some rain makes for fantastic shooting conditions, she was a real joy, and just made me even more certain of an old idea I had: you meet someone from Flickr, odds are you're gonna have a good time. It's (almost, don't get me started) always worked out for me, part of the reason I've got such good feelings for this place.

Tags:   3.11.21 Ira Chernova portrait

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Took about 20 minutes or so for the engine to get warmed up, but then I started to feel the shots ahead of time, put them together from the environment around us.

Mentioned this long ago, but bears repeating: I remember watching a film, The Limey, with the director's commentary, and the director spoke of rehearsing with his actors Before setting up his camera. Letting their natural movements around the space dictate how the scene was going to be shot.

What he did was create the frame around which they would interact, but after that, it was up to the actors.

I heard that probably twenty years ago, and it's always stayed near the front of my brain.

With Ira, I set us up around the corner from my building, and then I just let her move, offered small adjustments while we talked and shot. I set up the boundaries and let her do as she wanted within them, directing even less than usual.

As a result, I see fewer shots of the kind I'd been after before the pandemic started. Fewer action shots, fewer shots of Joy. But I still see a lot of myself in them, in when I chose to hit the shutter, how I composed the shots. There are little experiments, and I ended up pretty happy with the results.

Tags:   3.11.21 Ira Chernova mamiya c330 Kodak portra 400 film portrait

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Another one of those times I find myself drawn to the weirder shots from a shoot. Not David Lynch weird, just slightly off-kilter.

Something other than obviously posed, perhaps a caught moment in-between two poses, bit of action, unusual perspective, that sort of thing.

A shot I wouldn't see someone else take, but also a shot I surprise myself by taking.

Takes a combination of intention on my part and willingness on the part of my subject. It's one of the advantages of shooting someone who's used to being photographed, they're willing to go beyond just looking "good" for the camera.

Hm...shoot models in order to take the shots only models can provide...

Tags:   3.11.21 Ira Chernova portrait

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