In a portrait, I’m looking for the silence in somebody.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Taking your own portrait is a difficult process. It’s like trying to be two different people.
One busy person visualizing the empty space as filled with a sitter, and the other same person adjusting the camera settings, trying and failing with getting the focus right by adjusting the lens to focus on the handle of a mop that was hanging behind the kitchen door. It now stands in the place where I will be, the brand sticker on the mop handle serves as about where my nose will be if I sit down correctly.
The whole point of the portrait is twofold. One, to test my theory that if I use light that is coming from a hallway into the kitchen, landing on the marble table, I’ll get a good shot that I can use to develop a portrait that represents me. Not a photo where I’m attempting to appear like something other than myself.
‘Other than myself’, Well, as most of us discover in life, we all have to wear many hats and be different people at different times of the day.
We are calm, easy-going, angry, irritated, and friendly outgoing people most of the day.
When I set up the camera I wanted a long focal span, so I set the F stop at F16. This is pushing…
