Portraits and how to make one feel comfortable in front of the camera. :)

Hi everyone, and welcome back! Today we talk about one of my favorite types of photography...PORTRAIT! Most of you know what portrait photography is. I am sure you've done it as least once in your life. Examples are: your school photos when you were growing up, your wedding photos, your kid's photos, or even your family portraits. These all fall under the "portrait" category. You can say that it captures a person's mood, character or personality. I happen to love capturing people's expressions, and this is why I am such a fan of it. So if you were to ask me, what I think is a key factor in portrait photography; I'd have to say, it's building a...

RELATIONSHIP

Vavoom Pinup Photography Chicago

You must make LOVE to the camera and kiss it and caress....lol...I'm kidding! Of course, the proper lighting and camera settings are important too, BUT I feel like the subject, which happens to be a human being in this case, has to feel COMFORTABLE with you in order for the pictures to come out good. So, you need to build a good RELATIONSHIP. You need to make them feel cool and confident, so their TRUE self comes out. In the picture above, it took me a while before I could get THIS comfortable with the camera, and then......it happened. (A little too comfortable if you ask me ;)

Anyway, how many times has someone put a camera in front of your face and you were like this...

 Ten years later and you're still........

Now in High School and STILL......

Kinda funny huh? But the truth is, it happens to almost ALL of us. We weren't ready, and even if we felt like we were, we were ACTUALLY anxious or nervous about the whole thing. Capturing nervousness is totally fine if THAT is the look you are going for. For example, a nervous bride before her wedding? Totally OK to look anxious, and for GOOD reason...

I feel ya girl...it is the REST of your life! YIKES! For the most part though, you want the subject to feel relaxed and comfortable for their portraits. You want to catch their TRUE personality, therefore, make them feel good...got it? Ok, good. I feel like I am rambling on and on about the same thing here. Get to the assignment already MARIA!

So in the homework assignment this week, we are paired  up with two different classmates. One classmate takes your photos for one hour, and then you take your other classmates photos for one hour. It's NOT a back and forth partnership however, remember this is two DIFFERENT classmates. After that, we have to choose three photos to print out, and bring to class for discussion. First, the one we think is MOST like the subject's personality. Second, the one that is LEAST like the person's personality. Lastly, the subject's FAVORITE. I got paired up with two lovely ladies, Jennifer and Aubrey. I have to photo-shoot Jennifer, and Aubrey has to photo-shoot me. I think the teacher here wants us all to become FRIENDS....just like the....

GOLDEN GIRLS!!! Awwwwww....Don't you just love them? They were my favorite back in the day. Sorry off the subject...lets start!

I first start planning with Aubrey on where we were going to meet to take my photos. Most of the classmates were planning on meeting at the school since it's familiar and convenient to everyone. Me, on the other hand, have something different in mind. Since Aubrey lives all the way in Schamburg and has to drive to the city anyway, why don't we meet at my place and shoot there. It's totally more CHILL than the school. I told her we can have some wine, smoke some hookah, and do our homework in a relaxed environment. (A relaxed environment for ME hint hint.) Aubrey is totally cool with the whole thing and says, "Let's do it!"

On a side note: Don't YOU wish your homework involved smoking hookah and drinking wine??? I bet ;) Another reason I happen to LOVE photography. :)

So Thursday comes and Audrey comes over. By the way, isn't she gorgeous?

                                                                       Aubrey

I order us some Chinese food from Chinatown and we sit, eat, and relax for a while. We start talking, and we find out all types of things about each other. We talk about why we are both taking photography, what our hobbies are, what we do for a living, all kinds of stuff. By the end of our meal, we are totally cool with each other. I am ready, she is ready, and we just start shooting. Throughout the entire photo-shoot, Aubrey is talking to me, making me feel comfortable. She often conducts me on how to stand or sit. She also compliments me, which helps out alot. (Always compliment your subject, it raises their self-confidence, and they become more comfortable in front of the camera) Aubrey is also showing me the photos that she's been taking throughout the photo-shoot, which also ENCOURAGES me to keep on shooting and come up with different ones.

So you see, it's easy! (For the most part ;) In portrait photography you must remember the fours C's...

CONDUCT, CONVERSATE, COMPLIMENT and NEVER CONCEAL. Show them the pictures! Get them excited:)

Here are the photos!

Aubrey says that I am a VERY JOYOUS person and this one shows exactly that.

                                         

 This one she says is kind of sad, which is not normally like me. This is why she picked it. I think that we all get into those moods sometimes, and she happened to catch me in one. I happen to really like the "melancholy" feel of this picture. To me, it's telling a story of a girl with a broken heart that is writing a song, or thinking about a sad moment in her life. That's the beauty behind photography. There's a story behind each photo, and everyone has their own.

                                         

In the last one, it's just me being my normal HOOKAH HEAD. I think it's cute and funny and this is why I picked it as my favorite.

                                         

So up next, it's my turn to photo-shoot Jennifer! It was a little hard planning around both of our schedules because they are both so complicated. Finally, we decided....MY PLACE AGAIN!!! Yayyyyyy...for me! lol AND Jennifer, I mean. In all honesty, I live like ten minutes away from her. Ok people? Besides, according to her, my place has way more light than her. Ok?  Ok, good. I don't want you guys to think that I am monopolizing this studio space here. It sure does look like it though.

So Jennifer comes over around lunch time, and I bring out the Vietnamese chicken wraps and tabbouleh salad that I bought from Trader Joes. I think a little lunch and chat will "melt the ice." We start chatting, and I find out that Jennifer is a chef! She loves cooking food, eating food, and taking PHOTOS of food!  THIS is why she got into photography, so she can become a food photographer! How fascinating is that?! So I say, lets skip the nonsense, and shoot Jennifer right now while she is EATING her food! If this doesn't capture her true personality, I don't know what will.........;)

My favorite one of Jennifer is the one of her chowing down the food above, AND also this one:

I found out that Jennifer is a very FUNNY gal.  She loves cracking jokes and making people laugh. I think this picture captures her comical side.

The one I think looks least  like Jennifer is the one below. I feel like she is forcing a smile and not being natural. Although, some may like the photo because she's making fun of herself in a way. She may be imitating someone who is saying "CHEEEEEEEEESE," How often have we heard that word in photography? ;)  Either way, like I said before, there is a story behind EVERY photo.

Lastly, the one Jennifer thinks looks most like herself is this one. She says that she always has that "lost"  and "confused" look on her face. She's so cute either way!

We are done! So what did we learn about portraits? I think the easiest thing is to remember the four C's: Conduct, Conversate, Compliment and never Conceal. 

So go out there and take portraits of your friends and family! Let them be themselves, make them LAUGH, make them feel BEAUTIFUL. You will discover how much joy and happiness it can bring to someone to see their own portraits. They will be amazed at how well you captured their unique, beautiful, and true self. Good luck!

Until next time! xoxoxo

Maria

Beautiful sculptures in Logan Square and 90 miles Cuban Cafe!

OK guys I'm back, but I can't seem to get myself out of bed this morning. :( Me and my girl Cassie happened to go out last night and let's just say we had a little too much fun.  

You have a photography assignment to do Maria! Stop fooling around, and GET UP!  

All right...I'm up. Let's do this! I am going to bring my girl Cassie with me today. She is gorgeous, hilarious, and simply brightens my day whenever I'm with her. Sorry, she will not allow me to take her picture at the moment. You saw a quick glimpse of her in the video, and you will see her again in a few. :) She is the one with the quote on her wall from my first blog remember?  

"The Real Voyage of Discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." -Marcel Proust  

I think this quote will be helpful today due to the nature of my assignment. So this week we have to go outside and take 36 pictures of different sculptures. All the pictures have to be taken from DIFFERENT angles. You have to come close, go far, go up, go down, and all around, and see what happens when you change your position. My teacher says wait and see what happens. Hmm, I wonder what that means...sounds easy enough though, right? All right, lets go grab some coffee, and do this.

Remember Eunice? The girl from Dunkin Donuts that helped me with my assignment last week? Well, we decide to pay her a visit and give her the photos that I took of her. She was so happy with how well they turned out!

Eunice Jones at Dunkin Donuts, Chicago

You know, the more I do this, the more I like it and want to keep doing it. It truly makes me happy to see people smile when I show them their pictures. Ok Eunice, gotta go. Time to find ourselves some sculptures! 

I did some research beforehand, and saw an article on how some "mysterious" sculptures popped up in the Logan Square neighborhood. Logan Square? I thought to myself. That's interesting. Mysterious? NOW you got my attention. Off to Logan Square!

Since we are headed to Logan Square, why not stop at 90 miles Cuban Cafe first for some lunch. I've been there once at night, but never in the day time. Lets see what it's like.

                                          90 Miles Cuban Cafe 2540 W. Armitage Chicago

90 Miles Cuban Cafe 2540 W. Armitage Chicago

Hey, that's the sign that's in Key West...90 miles to Cuba! You are WAY further than 90 miles from Cuba here buddy, as you can tell from all the looooovely snow. 

I am really loving all the murals on the outside of the restaurant, especially this one of the Cuban band. It reminds of my friend Mike's abuelo, Roland Arrom, God rest his soul. He was a member of a swing band in Cuba in the fifty's. He played the saxophone, trumpet and all kinds of other instruments. He wrote his own music as well.  I remember when we used to visit him in Miami he would tell us stories about Cuba and how beautiful it was. He used to say, "Maria Elaina, MUSIC is LIFE," He used to call me Maria Elaina because of my middle name, Elaina. He really loved SWING music. His band was called the "Roland Swing." Awww....abuelo I really miss you. You had such an amazing spirit and passion for life.  I know you are making music with the angels up above, and having everybody dancing. :) 

90 Miles Cuban Cafe 2540 W. Armitage Chicago

Did I just see cafe con leche? Sign me up! Cafe con leche is a traditional Cuban coffee drink (actually it's common in most Latin American countries) It literally means, "coffee with milk." I have to have some ASAP. I know, I know, I just had some Dunkin Donuts, but how can I say "no" to cafe con leche??!

We walk in, and it is simply MAGICAL. I love all the paintings, and the little sayings everywhere. You also hear good salsa music playing in the background. I literally feel like I've been teleported to Cuba. "Two Cafes con leche please!" 

Cubana

If Love arrives....do not let it go. US FLAG?! (lol)

Always ;)

Cafe con leche

I got my cafe con leche, and I am IN LOVE WITH LIFE right now! Cheers! 

Even my girl Cassie is feeling the music, dancing, and loving life right now. Ready? HERE SHE IS! The beautiful Cassandra Hannan. 

Cassie!

All right, lets EAT! So Cassie let's me do the ordering, since I am semi-familiar with the food on the menu. I remember them from the time Mike's mom, Martha, would make them for us in Miami. She is a lovely woman and a phenomenal cook! :)

So we order:

Ropa Vieja, with plantains, rice and beans 

Guajirito with plantain chips.

Yucca

This is Cassie's first time eating Cuban food and she is simply amazed at how good it is. Everything tastes delicious. From the shredded beef(ropa vieja), to the plantains(platanos) that came with it, to the Guajirito(which is the Cuban version of the Puerto Rican Jibarito), to the Yucca, which is a root vegetable similar to the potato. Wow! That was good!

Now, we are stuffed and ready to go back to BED, but we can't! We must stay focused. We finally pay, and head towards the door. As we are walking out, something catches my attention:

I made it nice and BIG so you guys can see it. 

The poster speaks for itself. You can come to 90 miles in Logan Square every Wednesday and be transported to a Latin American country for the next few months! Are you kidding me!? Heck yeah! Whose ready? I know I am. Food AND entertainment from a different county each week? Can't beat that. Also, 90 miles is BYOB, so bring your favorite bottle of Malbec wine (or whichever kind you like) and enjoy. :)

We get back in the car and start driving towards Logan Blvd where the sculptures supposedly are. We get to Logan Blvd. We're driving, driving, driving, AND nothing! Huh, that's interesting. Where are they? I tell Cassie to  look left, as I look right. Still nothing. Ok. Where did they go? 

I can tell you guys are tired already huh? I know, but come on, stay with me. We're almost done, I promise. We can do this! :)

As we turn around to go back the way we came, Cassie spots one, "There it is!"  Phew....finally! 

These sculptures are pretty far apart from each other and since it's cold outside I decide to drive, stop, shoot and go. So lets do some shooting already! So this is what I did. I took the pictures from far, then I came close. I went up, I went down, and then I went ALL around. 

Here is what the sculptures look like when you simply look at them from a distance. 

"Expanding Universe" by Eric Lindsey

"Another Thought" by Michael Brown

"Living Sculpture" by Jason Verbeek

"Bouquet" by Terrence Karpowicz

And NOW here is what I saw with my camera lens ;)  Can you tell which ones go with which sculpture above? You know what...forget it. I'll make it easy for you. Nobody's got time to think anymore. ;)

"Expanding Universe" 

"Another Thought"

"Living Sculpture" 

"Bouquet" 

WOW!!!!! COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!

I felt like I was getting lost in them! I would go closer and notice one thing, even closer and notice something else. I really enjoyed the flowery one. You would never know that those are plants inside that sculpture, unless you went that close! Also, the icicle just hanging down on the "Bouquet," amazing....simply amazing.  Which one is your favorite? I still haven't decided on mine. All I know is,  they are ALL beautiful.

I have to say,  that this assignment taught me A LOT! You don't know what you are missing until you look at something up close, from multiple ways, in different angles, and so forth, AND as a photographer; it's really important to pay attention to these DETAILS. (Wink, wink Ernie) It totally gives you a new perspective on the object that you are looking at. The teacher was right. I definitely made a new discovery today.

I ask you to try it for yourself and see what you will find. Trust me, you will be AMAZED. I know I was. 

Until next time,

XOXOXO

  

PS: I found out that these sculpture were placed in Logan Square by the city, and Mayor Emmanuel, to incorporate ART and CULTURE to different neighborhoods in Chicago. They will be displayed on Logan Blvd till Fall. Enjoy while you can:)  

Depth of Field and Aperture

Hi everyone! I hope you are all staying warm in this crazy COLD Chicago weather.  I keep telling myself that it takes winter to really appreciate the summer, but old man Win', you are making it really hard for me to believe that right now.

Patience Maria, this too shall pass, and we will be on our way to summer again! Ahhhh...SUMMER. The sound of the waves as they hit the sand....the wind in my face as I am cruising on my bike.... beaches...bikes....smiles.....

                                Me with my vintage Schwinn Slik Chik in Chicago, Summer 2013


Wake up Maria! You've got an assignment to do! Sorry, I started daydreaming there for a minute. I tend to do that sometime. Anyway, so in my last assignment I was in Rogers Park.  http://spanos311.blogspot.com/2014/02/shutter-speed-in-rogers-park.html While I was there, I had taken some pictures of Yodit the owner of Royal Coffee cafe. The other day, I decided to stop in and give her the copy I promised her. She loved it! She thanked me and said that she will put it right next to her Guadalupe icon on her wall. Remember we talked about the Guadalupe in my first blog? We now know her story too. :) Here is a picture of Yodit right next to her own picture.

                                               Yodit  at Royal Coffee, Rogers Park, Chicago.

So I have some good news this week. My photography assignment can be done outside OR inside! Wait, what? Inside? Oh yeah baby! You heard right...INSIDE. This weeks assignment is on DEPTH OF FIELD. We have to take 18 photos with a shallow/lower depth of field and 18 photos with an extended/greater depth of field. You may wonder what depth of field is. I am going to explain it my way so you can understand. (Remember: this is how I understand it) Creating a depth of field helps put the focus on  WHAT THE PHOTOGRAPHER WANTS YOU TO SEE in the picture. Let me show you, so you can understand better. Here's my lil rap for ya....;)

Higher depth of field: Everything is in focus: The whole song is clear and visible. 

 Lower depth of field: The photographer puts the focus ONLY on 

what he/she wants you to see:  "you want Maria"

You want ME? Well I'd say.......... ;) Silly little rap song huh? BUT you are getting it a little more now....maybe? Hopefully:)

Anyway, I hope you guys have a very basic understanding of depth of field. It gets WAY more complicated than that, but I will not get into it for this blogs sake. I want to keep it simple for us beginners. So with which function on the camera can you create the depth of field? ANSWER: APERTURE!

Aperture is the SIZE of your camera's hole (lens opening).  It controls the AMOUNT of light that is let in. In the past, the aperture was adjusted by placing cards with different sized holes cut in them behind the lens. These holes were referred to as "stops." This word "stop" is still used in photography today. We've came a long way since then. Now, instead of using cards with holes in them, all we have to do is click the wheel to change the aperture (size of the hole). Here is a chart so you can see:

Your Camera Lens at different f-stops. (f: focal number)

 

Note:

 the lower the f-stop : The bigger the hole(aperture): The more light is let in. 

the higher the f-stop : The smaller the hole(aperture): The less light is let in.

If you are confused right now look for yourself. Grab your camera and look for the wheel that controls aperture: You can turn the wheel left or right to change the f-stop. Try taking the same picture with different f-stops and see what happens. You will notice that with LOWER f-stop the depth of field decreases, and with HIGHER f-stop the depth of field increases!

Since I can do my assignment inside or outside this week, your's truly waits till the VERY last minute and STILL goes outside. Yeah you can say my @$$ is itching for the ice. Honestly, I figured there is more light outside and it might make it easier for me. After taking a few shots, and I mean only A FEW shots, I run back to my car. F-this! It's freezing out here!

                                 
                                                    Shallow depth of field: f 1.8 (F.....this cold!)

           

                                                  Greater depth of field: f 14 (Rogers Park Loyola Beach)
                         
So now that I am nice and warm in my car, I've got an idea! Why don't I just take pictures in the car? It's kinda like marrying the two elements together: Inside environment and outside light! Why din't I think of that sooner? There are so many cool things in my car that I can focus my viewers attention on, like the cross, and this St. John icon by my dashboard. Jesus will be HAPPY! :) Hey look....it works!

                                        f 1.8: St John and Cross, Maria's dashboard.

After a couple pictures I am done. I learned my lesson. I can reduce the depth of field with a smaller f-stop to bring something small and specific into focus, OR I can increase the depth of field by using a larger f-stop to bring the whole picture into focus. Let's just get up early tomorrow and finish this before lab.

I wake up this morning a little earlier than usual, I get dressed, grab my bag, and head out the door. I am feeling dissapointed with myself that I waited till the last minute for this assignment. I know what will cheer me up a right now...COFFEE!

I start driving to my usual "pick me up" stop Dunkin Donuts on the corner of 16th and Michigan in the South Loop neighborhood. I park the car and run inside with my camera. I feel like this might be my last chance of capturing some photos. I ask one of the customers that was sitting down sipping on his coffee if I could take some photos of him, and he straight up says, "NO! I can't help you. Sorry." Wow, this  might be harder than I thought. I was under the assumption that people loved getting their photos taken. NO Maria! Not everyone is like you. You photo doto! I go up to the counter to ask for my coffee and the girl that greets me has this BEAUTIFUL smile. She is very friendly and happy. I am loving this girls attitude!  I ask her for her name and she tells me Eunice. You know what I am bout to do right? I ask Eunice, and she says, "Yes! I'd love to help you! SWEET! Lets do this! Here is the GORGEOUS Eunice.

f 1.8

                                                                           f 3.5

I din't had enough time to do a greater depth of field picture, but I still like the way these turned out. Notice, they are both of shallow depth of field. In the second one, I gave the cup a relationship with Eunice simply by moving it next to her, instead of in front of her, and going to a higher f-stop!

 I will post some greater depth of field ones for you in the future. :)

So even though I felt kind of crappy this morning, Eunice and her beautiful smile brighten my day! See, it doesn't take much people. You never know what person's day you can make better just by simply SMILING!

With this I am off to Lab. Wish me luck...I NEED IT! Till next time friends! And remember to.....

xoxoxo