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How I Got Into Portrait Photography

September 3rd, 2010

When I took my first photograph with my new DSLR and saw it on the back of the camera, I was hooked!!! I couldn’t believe how great the photo looked!!! All I did was just pressed a button.

I thought to myself what if I knew all things my new camera could do. How would my photographs then look? Pretty awesome I bet!!! So, I pulled out the camera’s owner’s manual. Started reading as fast as I could and storing as much information as I could in my head.  The manual talked about different camera’s mode: program, shutter priority, aperture, manual and etc. I decided to learn one mode at a time. I started with “program mode” first because it was the easiest. In this mode the camera controlled the shutter speed and aperture. The only control I had was “iso”. So, I would change the iso and see how the photograph looked. After a week or so, I was getting the hang of “program mode”. Next I learned the about shutter priority (TV mode). In this mode the camera controls the iso and aperture. I only had control over the shutter speed. After a week and a haft of playing around, I was really getting good with this mode. Then came the aperture mode (AV mode); where the camera controls the iso and shutter speed. I really didn’t like this mode because depending on the lighting the shutter speed could be 1/200th of a second or 1/20th of a second. Which means sometimes the photographs came out burly and other times they were fine. I didn’t waste too much of my time on this mode and quickly moved to the “Manual” mode. I loved this mode because I had control over all three: iso, shutter speed and aperture. Although I must admit, I took me a little over a month to get the hang of it (I know there are other people who could do it faster but…hey….I move at my own speed bbboooyyyyyy…. Sometimes it’s fast and others it’s slow…).  But when I did, it was on. I was ready to take some serious photographs. Now all I needed was some models.

Here came my four legged super model friends: chair and table in my apartment. I photographed them in program mode; which I didn’t like much. Then I tried TV mode with on camera flash, in which my super models were looking ok. But in “Manual” mode with on camera flash, my models looked great!!!

Next I wanted to photograph in the natural light to see how different my photographs would look. So I photographed whatever I could – trees cars, roads, doors, buildings, street lights, clouds, and whatever else I could see through my lens. Of course I was so proud of myself because I was shooting in my favorite mode: Manual. I just loved how the natural light hit cars, trees, building and etc. If I didn’t like how the light was hitting the objects, no problem. I just moved myself which gave me a different angle. Sometimes better one than the original. I loved my photographs. They were getting better and better. My confidence level was going up… up… and way up.

I had so much confidence that I asked my family if I could take their photographs. They happily said “yes”. I decided to photograph them outside in natural light. I would tell them to stand there and smile. They would do that. I would take the photograph and then look at the picture on back of my camera. I would see a “FAKE” smile. I didn’t like that!!! So, I figure I would try another approach. I asked them about their day, and what they are doing next week. Just so they would relax and not worry about a guy with a camera in front of them. Guess what??? It worked!!! Now I was getting some real SMILES and every single shot had different look and feel to it. I loved my photographs especial the fact that every shot had different look and feel to it!!! I would show them and they loved their photographs too. At the end of the shoot, they told me thanks for our portraits. I was thinking “portraits”. I was just taking pictures but if they wanted to call them portraits. So be it. I was cool with that…

Next day, I emailed them their portraits. They then turn around emailed the photographs their friends. And their friends loved their portraits that they wanted me to take theirs. I was thinking that’s pretty cool!!! I would love to do that.

So, I asked them to meet me at a park which had gorgeous scenery and the family liked it too. We got to the park and I did the same thing that I did when taking photographs of my family. I talked to the family and genuinely got to know them. They had so much fun that they couldn’t believe it. Guess what??? So did I!!! At the end of the shot I felt like we were close friends. So did they!!! There I thought to myself, if that’s what’s involved (having fun) of creating portraits, then I definitely want to be a portrait photographer!!!

Fast forward years and with a lot more experience but following the same principle (get to know people and making new friends, and have fun) I create portraits that people would be proud to show their family, friends, and etc. 

Here are few example of my work:

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