Clauss Family Portraits

If you’re a follower of this blog or of my work in general, it’s evident that I don’t typically photograph people.  On occasion, you may see an image or two of a human being here or on my Flickr stream, but it falls into one of a few different categories:  (1) my wife, my muse; (2) street photography; (3) travel photography; (4) project-related photography and (5) work shoots (of which you won’t find on my personal photography sites).   Outside of those instances, family portraits, senior pictures, wedding/engagement pictures and child portraits have never been featured.  I consider myself a fine art photographer with a focus on still life, inanimate objects, architecture, decay, project-based photography and generally subjects that don’t require human interaction.  Yes, individuals are unique and fascinating (in most cases); however, it’s not what interests me when I’m behind the lens.  

I’ve begun to establish myself photographically over the last four years and while I’m happy with this fact, it brings about many requests from friends and family members.  It’s been my experience that the general public unknowingly thinks of photographers as having one specific purpose – portraiture work.  If I speak to someone outside of the photography or art world and I tell them that I’m into photography, they usually ask if I take senior pictures, family pictures, etc.  For some reason, that’s what’s been ingrained in their memories when someone says photography.  Ansel Adams, Annie Leibovitz, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alfred Stieglitz, Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, etc. are never thought of.  Perhaps it’s because our (America’s) lack of focus on art education; I’m not sure, but that’s a debate for another blogpost.  Regardless, my photography has automatically been associated with the aforementioned styles.  Most of the time I politely decline; other times, I have agreed, but for one reason or another, participants change their mind about having the portraits.  Well, a few weeks ago I was asked by good friends if I would be willing to take family portraits.  Normally, this wouldn’t have been a complicated request, but this shoot would include their newest family member - their two month old son.  I thought about it for awhile and I decided that I would go ahead and help them out.  

If I was going to break out of my comfort zone, I wanted to do it my own way.  I immediately asked if they would mind if I shot black and white and instant film in addition to digital.  They didn’t mind, so I began brainstorming.  I checked out some of the portrait photographers in the area to see what type of work my new clients might be expecting or hoping for.  I developed a creative shot list and started thinking about different locations to use.  We initially set the shoot for a weekend day during the week of Oct. 21, but the weather forecast was not being kind to us.  With temperatures in the mid 70s during the week, I was able to accommodate a shoot on the evening of Oct. 25 with the option of a follow-up shoot on Oct. 28.  I asked them to meet me at Menke Park in Troy at 5:30 p.m.  I arrived early to scope out locations, lighting, leaves, etc.  Once they arrived, I was ready to get to work.   I knew we had very little time to work with the light changing every minute, but little did I know I was in for an even bigger surprise.

The moment baby Logan was taken out of the car, my carefully planned shot list went out the window.  Having a two month old on a photography set is like playing roulette.  He was tired, cranky, happy, crying, content and hungry, but never the emotion you were hoping for at a specific time.  I realized that my Hasselblad would have to stay in the bag and I was going to focus on getting what I could with my digital camera and my Polaroid SX-70.  I shot for a little over an hour, using the remaining light and providing a small amount of direction.  I decided it was best to let them naturally interact with each other and just shoot.  This is the exact opposite of how I normally approach my photography.  I take a great deal of time to set up a shot, use one to two exposures and then move on.  Moments with family and children sometimes happen so quickly that I found myself firing away.  I don’t prefer this type of shooting, but it served its purpose for this job.  Afterwards, I immediately went home to look at the images.  I was surprisingly happy with the shots, but I pushed for one additional shoot with the hopes of using some different techniques and cameras.

The second shoot was scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 28 at Charleston Falls around 12:30.  It was chilly and windy, but I was hopeful that the overcast day would provide nice lighting and I could experiment a little more than I did the prior shoot.  I found some great locations and I was upbeat about the possibility of Logan being in a better mood for this shoot.  That, unfortunately, didn’t happen.  He was crying more than the previous shoot and the colder air didn’t help him or his parents.  We shot at about half the locations I had planned to and the Hasselblad stayed in the bag for a second consecutive time.  I got a nice mixture of usable shots that complimented the images from the other shoot.  

While it didn’t go exactly as I planned, I adapted to the situation, I enjoyed the nice change of pace in subject matter and I delivered images that I was satisfied with.  I hope that they enjoy and cherish them as much as I enjoyed shooting them.  I wouldn’t mind doing a shoot like this again, but I would prefer to have more control over the situation so that I could shoot more conducive to my style and output.  As they found out, regardless of the true style or nature of the photographer, it never hurts to ask.

Random Camera - Lomography Diana F+

For this post, I'm going to try something a little bit different.  I'm going to post a video unboxing (even though this isn't the newest camera on the block), overview and review of the camera and my results thus far. 

The most recent roll of film I shot through the Diana F+ was only my second roll; so like most of my other cameras, I'm still learning their intricacies and peculiarities.  The first roll of film that I ran through my Diana F+ was Lomography Color Negative 100 and I shot that on my weekend photo trip to Mansfield, Ohio earlier this year.  The second roll was Ilford Delta Pro 3200 black and white.  I had a few nice shots on the first roll, so I was expecting a better outing with my second roll.  Unfortunately, that didn't occur. Before I get to the video review and my results, here's a little background info on the Diana F+.

It might surprise some of you, but the Diana camera has been around since the '60s.  According to the Lomography website, there was a small Hong Kong firm named "The Great Wall Plastics Factory" that created the Diana camera, made entirely of plastic, for a cost of about a dollar a camera.  The camera was a commercial failure and was discontinued in the '70s.  It gained a popularity among avant garde artists and lo-fi photographers for the type of images it produced.  There were many Diana "clones" produced during the same time, but the shift in consumer preference to 35mm doomed the camera.  However, in 2007, Lomography decided to "rebuild" the camera from the ground up and the Diana F+ was born.  The original Diana was equipped with two shutter speeds, three apertures and manual focusing.  The Lomography rebirth of the Diana kept the main features of the original, but added a few new tricks to the old dog of a camera.  It was now equipped with a pinhole mode, endless panoramas and a boat load of accessories.

So, now that you know a little history about the Diana, let's get to the video unboxing and results gallery!



After recording and watching this blogpost, there are a few things that I would like to change as I produce more of these segments.  So, I hope you'll forgive the long-windedness, the less than stellar camera placement and the other flaws with my first video review.  Regardless, I hope you have a better idea of the Diana F+ and the results it can achieve.  Here are the images that were featured in the video:

Roll #1 - Lomography Color Negative 100



The last two shots in that series were shot using the Diana F+ pinhole mode.  I really like the results I was able to achieve using this mode and I look forward to experimenting with it more in the future.  The next set of images is from my second roll, which was shot on Ilford Delta Pro 3200.  This is the loose roll that I mentioned in the video.  The effect on the film was the interesting light leaks and the backing paper image being burned onto some of the exposures.  I like the effect it had on some of the images and that's part of the fun/appeal of a Lomography camera.

Roll #2 - Ilford Delta Pro 3200 Black and White (The Loose Roll)



So, not bad for the first two rolls on the Diana F+.  I look forward to trying the camera out with the small modification I made to the spool/film holders.  I hope it fixes the "loose roll" problem and I'll be anxious to display the results.  If you're interested in checking out the results of a few professionals that use the Diana, check out Mark Sink and Allan Detrich.