Then there was the occasion to shoot a portrait of Mignon Perman, a ninety-three year old lifelong resident of Baltimore. There was her smile. There were her stories. All quite captivating. But how was I going to catch that attitude and clarity when she posed for me? In capturing an image for a portrait, there is a special consideration that if done right, will far outlive the posed and the poser. (OK, that was a joke, this is serious stuff, but also quite fun.) The essence is knowing your subject. Speaking to them enough ahead of time to give them a sense of comfort. A sense of comfort to relax in front of the camera. And in that moment they exhaled (if you will) the opportunity to capture more than just photo presents itself. Interesting enough, the shot above was the first of only thirteen frames I had time to shoot of her. Then she was out the door and gone.
The processes around setting up for this portrait began in the morning when I started working with a little iPhone Application called Strobox by Janis Lanka. There is not much too it, really, but it helps me wrap my aged head around approaching shoots. I knew I would not have a lot of time for the photo session so I needed to be prepared, set-up and ready to go when she came in.
Sometimes the space you have to work in can be as small as a corporate cube. Other times you need to light an entire room. To give some perspective for this set-up, I had to deal with a lot of light streaming in behind me. No problemo’. I also had a low ceiling on one side with a higher one right over where the only place that was offered to set up my background. I also had a structural support I needed to make sure did not affect the lighting in any way. OK. I got all that. I set up two snoots high and low, left and right to provide some concentrated highlighting with a my main strobe firing through a Tri-Grip to the right of my camera. All Good.
One final comment about this particular shoot. I was also working on restoring a number of old photos for this client and one that particular struck me was of her (seen here working down a street in Baltimore) hands in gloves, holding sun-glasses in full happiness of being. When I look at this photo, shot over a half a century ago, and the one I just finished of her above, the magic of photography to connect the past with the present just screams at me.
