Home » Portrait of the month: Power Girl
Portrait of the month: Power Girl
Photography is like big game hunting, with fewer bangs. You are on the move, thinking about a lot of technical details, wondering whether to be stealthy or bold, with a lot of black gear jangling around your neck and shoulders.
Sometimes a photo just jumps out and shouts in your face, hey take me! In this case, that’s exactly what happened. This girl saw my camera and jumped out and demanded that I shoot her. She then valiantly fended off all the other waifs with the patented windmill attack (a complicated maneuver involving rotating every limb at high velocities a full 360 degrees) before posing dramatically.
Man, thank God she wasn’t a lion.
This part of the blog is where you get to critique a shot and tell me what you think. I am putting up shots that I like but am not quite sure about, maybe I have a nagging feeling there is something I could have changed.
It’s nice when people fawn and say, its perfect. It’s also nice when people point out what I could change. You can’t lose. Tell me what you think.
October 16th, 2009 at 6:47 am
I really like the way you capture colors and lighting, specifically that the edges of things are so bold.
She’s positioned perfectly: bisecting that white wall with her arm, high up in the picture like she’s about to pounce with all that spirit you can see in her eyes.
Her left arm (the one up in the air) is disconcerting, though. It draws my eye away from her face and out of the photo, and ends in an awkward place, making it seem as if her arm is literally cut off, not just cropped by the camera lens. (Softening the focus on it, particularly that hard edge, might help.)
This is not necessarily bad in general - it gives a strong feeling of off-kilterness that is perhaps worth capturing - but it fights too much with the central theme: her knowledge of her own tiger-cub power.
October 16th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
mmm hmmm, this is why i do this. good eye girl! i thought the off angle added stress to the picture, with the large white space and the chopped arms. thats all fine but i need to think about what the picture communicates, and why. tiger cub, i like that. yeah, ill try a crop…
thanks!
October 17th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
No problem; I’m glad all those hours I spent in critique groups analyzing pieces of graphic design finally came in handy somewhere!
Your pieces speak, and you have a very individual voice. It’s a great strength. Keep up the good work!
October 20th, 2009 at 7:40 am
I think it is perfect. Especially as her shirt is on backwards.. (tag peaking through)
October 21st, 2009 at 5:38 pm
ha! did not notice that. good catch.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:21 am
I don’t know anything technical about photography, but I like how her body language is very whimsical, but yet her eyes have a lot of depth to them.
October 24th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
I love her pursed lips. She’s not really smiling…. Good shot!
October 27th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
I love that her right arm is underlining the writing on the wall. I also like the lighting and the way things contrast.
October 27th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
New entry please…