Where can I find 'ordinary street make up'?

Some more useful hints from my old Photography Diary 1977, this time regarding taking portraits.


Statistics show that 90% of all amateur photographs are of people. Very often these photographs become treasured records of the past, a factor which is rarely appreciated at the time to judge by their quality. The inexperienced photographer who wishes to achieve something better than the average snapshot portrait should keep in mind the following points.

1. Try to have their subjects looking their best and don't force them into being photographed when they are not ready.
2. For colour portraits of women ordinary street make-up, carefully and moderately applied, is quite suitable.
3. It is usually better to avoid or discourage women from wearing dresses of very vivid colours as this can adversely affect the colour of the complexion. Touches of a vivid colour can be added by way of scarf or hat.

I'll spare you the other 9 points, good though they are. I fear the dreaded lurgy is lurking in me and I'm off to bed.

The design of the diary cover was by Iain Love but there is no mention of who wrote the text inside.

They shoot portraits don't they?

Photoshelter recently published their 'educational resource' The Photographer's Outlook on 2014. 

It is clear from their study that portrait photography remains the primary speciality of both professionals and enthusiasts.

The photographers that I get the most pleasure from and study the most are mainly portrait photographers. Weird then that I don't take many portraits.

Most white seamless studio stuff bores me.

Diane Arbus, Bill Brandt and August Sander to name but a few don't bore me.

So there is something I need to work on as a wee secondary interest - portraits.

Anyway, I have a mountain of marking to do so I'll leave you with some portraits I have taken:

Summer months will be different in future.

Hello!

I missed blogging on here in July and I'm sure I could have and should have done at least one. Sorry guys.

A few things to report and update. My summer shooting started off well with a walk up a glen I drive past every day near Alford. Initially I went up the wrong track but this happen to be fortuitous as I spotted a ruin I didn't know about. Re-traced steps, moved the car and park it beside the gamekeepers house which meant I had to walk passed him and explain where I was going. No problem really with him but I think it is important to not draw attention to yourself or to antagonise gamekeepers. I got to the ruin which looked promising but, and I need to remember this, when I got to it, it was surrounded by nettles, ferns and gorse. Rural exploration should be saved for Spring, late Autumn and Winter. An internal shot of the the ruin called Mains of Brux is above and an outside shot below:

The great thing about this day was when exploring this place I spotted another ruin just up the hill a bit. I also spotted a red rusty roof - great! The place was called Ferneybrae:

So a good day and a fantastic start to the summer. More shots here.

Unfortunately, the weather this summer has been restrictive, so I've decided that, with the current poor weather we're getting in the summer in Scotland combined with the fact that the houses are so covered in undergrowth, I'm going to concentrate on other aspects of my photography during these months.

One project I'm starting to build up is photographing local musicians. A local folk club is run by renowned fiddler Paul Anderson and his highly acclaimed singer Shona Donaldson. Luckily, I know them both and have done work for them so I have been allowed to shoot during the folk night in Tarland. Here is a shot I took of Jonny Hardie of the Old Blind Dogs:

The challenge for me shooting the folk club, apart from the fact I am not really a portrait photographer, is the low light. I use the 85mm f1.8 on shutter priority to maintain the shutter speed no lower than 100s so it ends up shooting wide open, making focusing tricky. As the evening went on I resorted to flash which I hate when shooting performers, but it was needed in the dimly lit room. Next time, I'm going to  try the auto ISO to see how that goes.

Anyway, I'm glad to get back to the blog. I did actually listen to another Jeff Curto podcast but I didn't feel a blog could be constructed from it so that also delayed things. Also, my wife's father has been ill and in and out of hospital, so that takes priority.

Thanks for visiting, all the best, James.