Jasmine #2 – Austin, Texas

Here’s the second portrait of Jasmine from the Olympus Experience Weekend. During the lecture, Joe Edelman encouraged the participants to explore something different in their portraiture. Shoot in black and white and do close-ups, he said. I had to chuckle when I heard that.

As you may know, I create more black and white portraits than I do color. In terms of closeups, this is pretty much the same framing I used in my latest portraiture experiment with the ring light. So, in reality, I wasn’t doing anything new. If I listened to the spirit of his suggestions — to do something different — I should have shot in color, which I actually did since I used RAW. But, I continue with this look because I like it so much.

Another suggestion Joe made was to overexpose, especially for black and whites. I did that for yesterday’s and today’s portraits and I like the effect. Today’s, in particular, has a high-key look that I find pleasing.

It makes me happy that this portrait is still different from the typical. Though not nearly as controversial as my ring light portraits, I suppose. But, one of the things that I took away from Joe’s lecture is to do different things in portraiture. What’s the use of shooting like everyone else? Photography is about creativity and learning by doing variations on a theme. I combined my black and white look and applied my recent ring light framing style to create something new.

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