A collection of recent portrait images. I say recent, but one of these was taken way back during the Dark Ages of 2020. I also share these to show that no matter what camera a photographer uses, their style is their style. It doesn’t matter if I’m shooting full-frame or medium format, the overall look is the same. The image may be sharper, the ratio different, but it still looks like my work. It’s one of the reasons I don’t have loyalty to a particular brand. I can use any camera and create images in my own style. The camera is just a conduit which allows me to do that with either a greater or lesser degree of difficulty.
Johanna
Johanna is both a brilliant model and a genius of an artist. A supremely talented painter and photographer, there’s really nothing she can’t do. Be amazed and check out her work here: http://www.johannastickland.com. Incredible right? I told you, she’s a genius. It’s actually quite intimidating photographing someone so talented as you’re trying to live up to(in your own mind) their high standards. Imagine photographing a celebrity like, say, Robert De Niro. He’s seen it all, worked with some of the best artists in the world(I mean actual legends of the craft). And here you come with your little mirrorless camera and clunky lighting set up to shoot a legend. Hoping he’s impressed by your work.
After fumbling with your gear, you take the picture and he just goes, “Hmph.”
Then he gets up, smiles, shakes your hand and says. “Ay, this is nice! I love it. Thank you!” After you gasp for air and pick your heart up off the floor you realize people actually like your work. Or at the very least they don’t think it’s trash only suitable for mockery and presenting as evidence of a wasted existence.
I say all that to say, you have to believe in your own work. Your style. Your aesthetic preferences. Other people’s opinion’s be damned. But if they like your work, they’ll sit for you. If the immensely talented Johanna will sit for me, I must be alright?! Right? Right?!
This was one of the first photos I’d taken after the release of the GFX 50S II. It’s a great camera.
Katya
Katya is a model I work with quite a bit in 2023. Always professional, always on time, always coming to the shoot with interesting ideas and creative input. I wanted to try a series of white background images, á la Richard Avedon, for this shoot. One thing I immediately learned is such a simple setup requires an interesting subject, either through expression or styling. It’s very easy to produce a boring image on a white background, but Katya in her infinite wisdom knew what to do. I think the shape of the hair and her tranquil expression really make the image sing.
This was taken on the Panasonic S1R. Probably one of the last images I took with that camera.
Beatrice
From the Dark Ages of 2020, this image of Beatrice was taken on the GFX 50R, Fujifilm’s rangefinder style medium format body, and the GF 45-100mm lens. For portrait work, it’s the better of the zoom lenses when compared to the GF 32-64 in my opinion due to its more useful range. I’ve shot with Beatrice several times over the years and she’s become sort of a muse for me. Fun to work with, always thinking of unique expressions and poses, and her face! She could just sit still and do nothing and I’m sure I’d get an awesome portrait of her. A true one of one.
Disnella
A recent image of the beautiful Disnella. I added a little bit of a warm tone to the image to give it a different feel than a normal black-and-white. This image has a very album cover vibe to me. This was our first time working together and while Disnella was awesome to shoot with, I wasn’t pleased with the GFX 100 II files. They looked a bit too sharp and too clinical to my eyes. I would describe the Fujifilm 100 megapixel images as looking more “crunchy” than their 50 megapixel counterpart which has a more “smooth” tonality to the overall image. I recently shot with her again with the 50S II and absolutely love the files from that session. I’ll share those soon.
Charlie
Charlie is an actor I did headshots for almost a year ago and I knew during that session I wanted to do some portraits of her whenever our schedules would permit. She graciously agreed to come in for portraits and I have to admit her images are some of my favorite photos I’ve ever done. While it probably helps that she’s a performer, she’s such a natural in front of the camera. I typically try not to overshoot, but I ended up shooting way more than normal because she kept giving me options. Curse her! I kid. At the end of this session, we did a series of melancholic images and I ended up with one of my favorite photos of all-time. Can’t wait to share it.
Hope you enjoyed this post and my musings on the images. More to come!
