focus photography group Leeds UK: Focus - Brief 3

Brief 3 -

"Just to clarify this weeks brief that your photograph to represent 'Your Leeds'
has to include a person within it. Taking pictures of people has different challenges to landscapes, architecture and still life and I want you to try and use your skills to take an image that reflects either their personality or your relationship with that person.

Please remember to bracket and consider your lighting carefully along with how you want your subject to look. "

I find it very challenging to take portraits because I often feel that I have failed to capture the inner beauty or personality of my subject which for me is why I take portraits, so I was pretty nervous about this weeks Brief. Also because of Yom Tov, and then shabbos I was very limited on time, and I'm afraid I'm not up quite a early as Penni (to whom I doff my metaphorical hat) so it had to be monday, after work.

Vicky (my subject) and I spend a lot of our time together either cooking, chatting, reading, either snuggled in the house, or when weather permits, lying out in the garden. So this weeks photograph is again set in my garden:

This photograph was taken at 18:55 F4.5, ISO 100, 1/280 sec.

I tried to shorten my focal length (as much as my camera would permit) to get Vicky in focus, and blur the background, however I couldn't manage this the extent that I wanted so I blurred it further in Picasa 3.8.

Vicky has naturally very soft, pale brown hair so I tried to positioned her to get the sunshine to really show this off and then used the book as a prop, both to show something of her and our relationship and to bounce some light back onto her face.

I also borrowed Adam's lens hood to remove glare.

Below are a couple of other photographs I took that afternoon that I liked but discarded as I didn't feel that the met the Brief - My Leeds.