Thank You, Clay Enos.

As of late, I've been having a bad time with things. Not only with my photography, but just in general. So, despite my better judgement, I dedicated an afternoon solely to MyModernMet. I looked at 20 or so sets of photos. Watched a couple of artsy videos (Like Tick Tock from a few entries ago) and a few How-To's. One in particular was a how-to on Street Portraiture.

And I was completely blown away.

Clay Enos, who took photos for Watchmen and Sucker Punch, was litterally stopping complete and total strangers on the street, and asking them to pose for a few photos. All he had was a Nikon (forgot what model it was), a 50 mm lens, and a white backdrop. He found a corner of a building that was completely in the shade, taped up the backdrop, and started shooting. And they came out amazing! Obviously if he's taking photos for movies and having videos dedicated to what he does put up on one of my favorite sites, he mus be pretty talented. But the photos are so simple, and in that simplicity, even better.

I have always been caught up in having the proper lighting, planning on getting a lighting kit with umbrellas and reflectors and all that jazz. But just yesterday, I had a photoshoot with Brittney R. for her own WISE project and she brought a light kit from TV production. It was terrible! Absolutely terrible! First off, getting the lights to cooperate was a challenge, figuring out how I would set them up. Then I couldn't find the right settings on my camera to compensate for the orange light bulbs (i forget what type of light bulb that is, and will probably correct this when I find out). I ended up shutting off the lights and just using my flash. And on top of that, I realised just how hard it is for me to give my models any kind of direction whatsoever. She liked a few, but I didn't hear the kind of enthusiasm that is generally reward enough for any of my photos.

I think that's why it's so hard for me to charge bands I've been shooting for the better part of a year to get the photos I would have taken anyway. The kids in the ska scene in particular are just so psyched to see my pictures and I've received such praise from them,  it kills when I don't put up photos for them to enjoy.

But, having gone way off topic, I digress.

Thanks to Clay, I've been inspired to get back to what are essentially the roots of my photographic ability. What really made me take up photography as a hobby was taking photos of my friends. And now, after much too long, I have returned. Having looked through near hundreds of photographer's portfolio's, I'm starting to get a better idea of how they developed their "Voice," what makes a viewer instantly know that it is their work.

Now, I don't have something completely new and entirely my own, but I've started with editing my portraits a bit; lowering the saturation and increasing the contrast to make them stand a part from just regular snap shots. It isn't much, but I still think its a much needed step in the right direction, away from being "the artistic mute." Hopefully something will happen with my rapidly increasing series of Subdued Shots, but frankly only time will tell. I just can't over think it like I do with every other aspect of anything to ever exist ever. That leads to frustration, from frustration to anger, anger to hatred, and eventually I hit the dark side.

I completely botched that Star Wars quote. Beg I forgiveness, Yoda.