What does a photographer do when there is no one around to take a portrait of? In my case I decided to take a self-portrait.
The image was captured using a single light, black background and a pre-focused camera on a tripod. Post processing was done using Silver Efex Pro. The biggest challenge was getting the eyes sharp and it took several attempts before I have an image I liked and with correct focus.
Since Christmas I have captured a variety of images of Wellington and have started to focus more on black and white urban images. Although I do still capture colour images of the city, I am now experimenting with what I can achieve with black and white.
The images in the Wellington Storm and Car Parks gallery were taken during and after the storm in early March or in the back-alleys and car parks within the Wellington CBD.
The images in the Flowers gallery were taken over a period of week from the time when the flower buds had just opened through to the flower dying.
It’s common in spring for storms to hit Wellington with winds gusting to over 100km/h. The image below was captured during one such storm and was taken from Oriental Parade just a few minutes walk from central Wellington.
A 10 stop neutral density filter gave an exposure of 8 seconds at f/8. This allowed me to capture motion is both the sky and harbour and creates a sense of drama as 100km/h winds whipped through Wellington.
One of my photography goals for 2012 is to develop a more extensive portfolio of portraits with a focus on creativity that takes my images beyond the relative simple studio shots that I have created to date.
To date I have always shot in the studio with more experienced photographer. This has been great for learning but not always the best for making me self-sufficient. So, my focus at the moment is to get into the studio on my own, set up everything myself, take lots of images, and see what sort of results I can achieve.
So, to get things started, I persuaded my friend Jim to get in front of the camera for a simple portrait session.Below is one of my favorite images of Jim and the rest can be seen by clicking here.
