I photograph a lot of different subjects – sunrises, lighthouse, birds, bugs, flowers, scenic landscapes, etc.; just browse through this website.   The one subject that intimidates me and always proves to be my greatest challenge is people.

I can go to shoot one of my favorite lighthouses at sunrise and if the finished product doesn’t live up to my expectations, no big deal.  They’ll be another day and another sunrise.  The only person who is out anything is me and the only real loss is my time. When I photograph a sunrise, I’m trying to capture a moment. With a portrait, you have to first try and create “the moment” and then successfully capture it.

When photographing people, I’m not the only one who has a stake in the outcome.  Others are investing their time and come with their own expectations. If I take fifty shots of a sunrise and I mess up some camera setting or I just don’t like the way any of them turned out – nobody knows but me.  When you take fifty shots of a person, make them go through a battery of facial and body contortions, you’d like to have something of value to reward their patience and effort.

This photo is from a family portrait session last fall. A great group to work with – and a good lookin’ bunch, too. I like the way this turned out, but it comes in low on my “satisfaction” scale. There are a number of technical issues that spoil it for me (I won’t bore you with the specifics). I did a lot of post processing, trying to overcome those issues, and it’s still not quite there.

The good news is, each portrait session is a learning experience.  And, as they say…”Practice makes perfect.”

You can view a larger version of this image by clicking on the photo.