- [Speaker] Let me now go through some images
and share with you some examples of
how it can be really beneficial to ask your subjects
to do something a little bit more adventurous.
Now, in this next situation, you can see
that I'm photographing a bride.
This is at sunrise,
and right now, it looks like she's kind of in a parking lot,
but in reality, we're in a really beautiful location.
So I ask or invite her to walk over to the edge
and then to stand up on a rock.
So the rock was sort of the first step.
It was kind of the small and thoughtful action,
but I knew there was an even better photograph.
I just knew it, right?
And I saw this rock that kind of had this outcrop of a look.
And so she walked up there with her sister,
and then I began to experiment
and explore how to capture a meaningful frame.
And so in this case, you can see sort of that
before and after.
The before is sort of an ordinary,
but then the invitation is what allowed me
to create an image which has, I don't know
so much more to it, right?
In other situations,
maybe you're photographing someone like this,
this professional painter, Colette,
and she's standing in her studio
and she's doing what I refer to as the robot.
(laughs happily)
Often when you go to photograph someone, they're kind of like,
I don't know what to do with my hands.
And they kind of walk around in this robotic way.
And so I asked her, I said, "Well, what do you love?
And she said, I love roller skating."
I said, "Do you have roller skates?
She said, Yes."
I said, "Can you put 'em on? She said, Yes."
She put on a roller skates.
And then she said, "I don't know what to do with my hands.
I don't know. Where do my hands go?"
And I said, "Pick up one of your paintings.
And then you'll see in the next photograph,
we have this image where, of course, I compose
the image a little bit better.
I had her angle, her face towards the window.
So we have nice window light on her face,
and I changed my camera height.
She's a little bit closer to me,
and the camera's a little bit lower."
So again, it's not just about posing by itself
and getting to be adventurous
and have this big ask of having someone roller skate,
but rather, it's doing that and combining that
with your other skills and techniques.
Like if we look at these images, you can see
how these lines are so different
and how the subject is smaller in one frame
and more diminutive and a little bit stronger in another.
And so as we get adventurous, one of the things we need
to keep in mind is that we still have
to do the work of a photographer, right?
We still have to compose.
We still have to pay attention to light and story
and narrative, and what's our intention?
Sometimes what happens with my students is they ask
for something adventurous,
and then their photographs aren't very good,
and they're like, "What went wrong?"
And what typically went wrong is they got excited
about the idea and forgot to really think
about composition or light.
Here's another example. There's a little motorcycle.
And I said to the "Mom, what if you guys sit up
on the motorcycle or situation we're taking picture
of another friend, Chris Burkhart,
who I've mentioned, and his bike and his gear,
and I said, Chris, what if you climb into the photograph
or a skateboarder who is skateboarding?
I said, what if you throw your skateboard up into the air?"
And then he threw it a few times
and he threw it really high. (laughs happily)
And maybe this one is the best one,
or as photographing a dancer and a philanthropist.
And I said, "Hey, could we ever go
from your house down to the beach?
And she was like, Yes."
And so we went to the beach,
and then I said, "Would you ever dance on the beach?
And she was like, Oh, are you kidding me?
Of course."
And so she started to dance and move around
and be free on the beach.
And so again, this is a bigger ask, right?
This isn't like just do something small.
This is kind of big to just go out there and go for it.
But you can really see her beautiful spirit in these images
or on the Brooklyn Bridge with Jared.
What if we stand on the path?
Or what if we stand up on the railing or by the beach?
What if we, or by the beach?
But what if you do a handstand?
Or what if you launch and jump?
And so hopefully, these examples are kind
of illustrating how this particular posing technique,
it invites the subject to participate
and to do something in a really unique and fun way.
And as you can see with all of these poses, so to speak,
there's something that come from the action itself
rather than trying to control the subject.
So the action is what leads the way,
but, of course, you still have to think about composition
and light and intention.
And if you can combine those two together, woo,
you can create some really strong portraits.