The Power of a Portrait

If you ask me what my favourite thing to photograph is I will forever say PEOPLE.

NOTHING interests me more than a live human being.

I didn't start out this way. Heck, originally I was a shy person whom didn't really want to talk to anyone that much. My first many years as a working photographer I shot EXCLUSIVELY products. That's how I learnt and taught myself lighting, etc. Because brother, if you gotta somehow make that shampoo bottle look like a 24 carat gold diamond ring, you better know how to use lighting. The camera won't save you, but your knowledge in what makes a good photo will. That's why you should do my course if you haven't already.

But after I got good at products I started to get very bored with it.

Why?

Because, honestly, a product is a dead object. I mean literally it's dead. It's not alive. It can move or express itself or have problems and emotions and goals. It's dead.

PEOPLE on the other hand are VERY much alive and I first started to notice then when I moved into photographing live events and some weddings. I developed the knack for capturing that EXACT moment when someone was expressing something (whether they were aware of it themselves or not). From then on I started getting addicted to it.

So I then started to migrate all I'd learned from making a DEAD object look good and apply that to ALIVE things. Heck, even animals and pets have THE MOST AMAZING expressions to them if you really just spend some time and observe them. If you'd LIKE to start photographing people but, like I was, not too confident in dealing with people, then start with pets. It's very interesting and fun to try.

But back to PEOPLE.

Let's be real.

People having f***ing PROBLEMS. They have UPSETS. They have conditions they are facing (and not facing). They have all sorts of things going on in their lives which, if you observe and talk to them for a while you really start to find out about.

Yeah it's not ideal, BUT F*** ME IT'S INTERESTING TO LOOK AT isn't it?

Isn't that exactly WHY we watch movies? To see other peoples problems and forget our own for a while?

Now this isn't to say that I'm trying to capture the STRUGGLES in a person, because I'm actually not, but just that their WHOLE WORLD CAN actually be portrayed through a single moment of time captured through a camera.

THAT SH*T is what keeps me coming back for more. Every time.

Luke