"They are not a specimen," Magnum Dennis Stock, who died about a month ago, once said in a lecture at UT, in regards to how to treat people when photographing them. This lecture has crossed my mind many times as I've spent the last few months learning how to be a good portrait photographer.
I know this picture isn't anything special. Headshots are pretty boring but make up a lot of we freelance photographers bread and butter. These days I take money where I can get it. Its different from the environmental portraits I've done in the past because A.) Someone is paying me and B.) There are lights and a backdrop and the 'subject' is very aware that this is a photo shoot. It essentially strips a person of everything that makes them unique. Yet just because there is a camera in someones face doesn't give an excuse for ingenuity on my part. And, remembering that, every once in a while I end up with a not so posed photo that I feel actually captures a bit of a persons personality and demeanor even in a totally controlled situation.
