Judo Class by Jennifer Kay

The assignment was to shoot a portrait of a Miami teenager who had turned to judo to turn his life around. I looked at the exercise as another opportunity to problem solve. The problems were: lighting, a limited lens and noisy backgrounds.

I was shooting with a 50mm normal lens inside a gym under florescent lights. I moved forward and backward along the sidelines to frame the teen working with younger judo students or sparring with this classmates. With his dark skin, if I shot him in front of the blue padding that lined the gym’s walls, he tended to disappear. I had to keep moving to keep the background behind him light so that he stood out.

I looked for graphic elements and movements that captured the rigors of the judo practice. Keeping the background clean was a constant challenge -- if it wasn’t too dark, it was filled with gym equipment and cluttered doorways.

Once I established the limitations of the assignment -- the lighting, noisy backgrounds, the focal length of my lens, the speed of the action in front of me, etc. -- I found I was free to do whatever I wanted. Identifying and solving an assignment’s technical challenges up front means I can shoot however I want as I go. It’s easier to make adjustments while shooting than to try to fix problems later while processing the images.

A Day at the Zoo by Jennifer Kay

I approach shooting family pictures the same way I approach other assignments. I try to keep backgrounds clean, and I look for candid moments and graphic elements that will keep the images from devolving into static snapshots.

 I recently spent the day at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago with my brother and his family. It was cold, so we spent most of our time inside the buildings where the great apes, primates and big cats were housed. 

In the great ape house, we watched zoo trainers work with two gorillas through a mesh wall. I saw how the gorillas would mimic the movements of their trainers, and I wanted to show a kind of mirror image illustrating that behavior. 








Shooting through the glass of their enclosure, I framed the gorilla and the trainer with a piece of the wall between them.

Elsewhere, I looked for ways to show the relationship between the animals in their enclosures and the humans watching them. I tried to capture frames of my family and the apes in profile, of the animals in motion and the size differences between the humans and the zoo animals. 

Miami Ironman 70.3

By Jenny Romney
IPC Visual Lab

Since its inception in 2006, the Ironman 70.3 series has become the fastest growing triathlon series in the world. Events around the world qualify athletes for the Ironman World Championship 70.3. The grueling Miami triathlon took place this past Sunday, October 30 in downtown Miami and about 3,000 physically fit men and women participated to test their mental and physical endurance. The race started at Bayfront Park with a 1.2 mile swim in the bay waters. Participants then hopped on their bicycles for a 56-mile ride through downtown Miami, Hialeah and the Everglades and all the way up to Southwest Ranches in Broward and back to Bayfront Park for two loops up to to Star Island, completing a 13.1-mile run, which add up to the 70.3 iron miles.


Well, I also had the opportunity to test my mental and physical endurance as a photographer when Carl Juste, who was on a photo assignment for the Miami Herald invited me to come along.

I knew I would have to set up the two alarms on my radio and the one on my cell phone which I kept under my pillow. I needed to be at Carl’s house by 5:30 am and it was already 2:00 am when I went to bed after the IPC Masquerade Part on Saturday. When the alarm went off, I jumped out of bed and ran out of the house with two cameras, two lenses, an umbrella and the all-access media pass.



When we arrived at Bayfront Park, I was worried that the rainy day would ruin my motivation to shoot and I was seriously concerned that I would also ruin my cameras. Carl kept saying, "what you can’t ruin is the opportunity to make some great photos." And he was right. It was an amazing learning experience that kept on my toes and forcing to be constantly problem-solving.   Shooting for news coverage is very exciting and I couldn’t pass up this opportunity!

FRAMING A PHOTO

The reflection of a couple embracing is framed by a mirror.

FRAME FAN
by Sasha Suarez
IPC Visual Lab Student

During our photography class on 10/8 in the pouring rain, we got the assignment to find pictures with the framing technique. Framing is a photographic composition technique used to enhance the overall result of a photo and to draw attention to the subject. It is using compositional framing from natural or man-made objects within the photo itself. In the adjacent photo, your attention is drawn to the couple in the mirror and not the colorful dream weavers hanging to the right of it.   http://www.digital-photography-school.com/creative-compositions-finding-framing 

Visitors scurry and shield themselves from the rain at the LHCC.

We went outside for the assignment and I really was so focused on the rain that I missed this huge framing object that was starring right at me.  Teacher C.W. Griffin told me "look", "look" and when I saw I really saw.  It was a different kind of seeing, one in which you think you solved a riddle. These photos show the whole scene outside of the Little Haiti Cultural Arts Center.

 Using the frame to draw attention to the moment is like having a secret you can't wait to tell someone you have.  It is amplifying your subject 10x.  Once I captured a couple of these pictures, I got it.  It is similar to an artist drawing a border around his subject or using the frame itself to draw the attention of his subject. 

Right: Young visitors share an umbrella as they make their way to the gallery at the Little Haiti Cultural Center.

From there I saw this one photo that caught my eye, these children in the rain really portrayed what was going on at the moment, the children’s smiles, the rain, the umbrella all caught through this one little frame.   If you ever visit this Little Haiti Cultural Arts Center and notice these frames, you will be compelled to get someone or something framed. I know I will never forget this technique thanks to CW Griffin pointing out the obvious, which at the time was not so obvious. 

 

My name is Sacha Suarez and I took this class to challenge my creative spirit and be inspired by amazing photographers, CW Griffin and Carl Juste.  I am getting more than inspiration; I am learning the foundation of photography techniques and applying them in all that I see in this beautiful world and a huge fan of the Frame technique!

Portraits in the Dark

by Jennifer Kay

It’s one thing to shoot a portrait when the subject sits still, in good light and your camera cooperates. That wasn’t my assignment, though. That would be too easy.

My job was to shoot portraits of R&B singer Shenita Hunt and her band during a nighttime concert at The Clevelander, a South Beach bar with an outdoor stage. 

The band took the stage first and started playing, leaving an open space under the strobe lights for Shenita. Mid-song, she stepped up to the microphone, and that’s when I realized what my problems were going to be. 

Shenita and her band members weren’t just in constant motion -- they were in constant motion under flashing strobe lights that were constantly changing colors. Also, no one in the bar thought to turn on the spotlight until halfway through their first set. Then, when Shenita stepped into the dancing crowd to sing, I had to follow her into the spaces where she turned her face to catch the stage lights.

A couple dances to the music of Shenita Hunt and her band at The Clevelander on South Beach, Fla.



My new camera was often reluctant to focus in the dark. I tried not to worry about it and prioritized composition instead. I had to figure out how to keep the background of each frame clean, while trying to avoid distracting hot spots from the stage lights. In the dark, it was harder to show little details on stage, such as the set list taped to the floor. 

                                                                        Detail shot of the set list.

Shenita struts her stuff on stage.

I had to work to keep the foregrounds of each frame clean, too. To shoot around the mic stands and music stands obscuring Shenita and the band, I sat on the ground in front of the stage or from a sharp angle from the side of the stage. I tried to hold the focus on Shenita’s face while she was singing, waiting for the moments when she pulled the microphone away from her face or turned to the side. 

Early in the band’s first stand, the crowd wasn’t dancing much. Since they lacked energy from the crowd, Shenita and the bassist focused their musical energies on each other. They watched each other, taking turns grooving to the beat. The other band members, bobbing their heads, turned to look but stayed out of their space. Finally, one couple stepped up to the dance floor, joined hands and danced along.

As musicians play off to the vocals of Shenita Hunt during their Oct. 13 performance at The Clevelander.

I shot a couple hundred frames throughout the concert, and I came away with seven that I thought were worth showing here. Next time I shoot a concert, though, I’ll know what to expect from the lights, the stage and my camera, instead of just shooting in the dark.

Portrait Series

Steve Jobs, circa 2006 by Albert Watson

GAME FACES
by Jennifer Kay

Assignment: Find portraits along the sidelines of a high school football game.

Last week, Apple honored Steve Jobs by posting Albert Watson’s 2006 portrait of Jobs on its webpage. The innovator wasn’t remembered with pictures of his products, or a spreadsheet of his company’s financial success or a timeline of his years with the company. Jobs was remembered instead with a simple portrait shot on film.

The black and white image does what portraiture is supposed to do -- it transcends merely showing Jobs’ physical characteristics by revealing something important about Jobs. The simplicity of the composition reflects Jobs’ insistence on the cleanest, most elegant design for his products and for his consumers’ experience with those products. The portrait reveals Jobs’ role as the driving force behind Apple’s designs.

The challenge I faced in shooting portraits at a high school football game last week was how to show the roles the players, cheerleaders and band members were performing that night. These kids have other aspects of their personalities, other interests, but when they put those uniforms on for the Southwest-Braddock game, they took on specific roles.





Instead of watching the action on the field, I looked for quieter moments on the sidelines. I looked for the players sitting on the bench, not resting but tense and emotionally still on the field as the score flip-flopped. I found cheerleaders giggling and mugging for the camera, no matter what the scoreboard said. I watched a saxophonist line up for the half-time show with, inexplicably, two instruments in his hands.

I tried to shoot a portrait of a high school football game, not just portraits of the students on the sidelines. If we pulled these students off the field and into a studio for formal portraits, would those images still reveal something truthful about them?

Jennifer's View Blog #1

I got a new camera and flash for this semester, and in demonstrating how they work together, Carl took my picture. Over and over. The angle of the flash created different effects, but in most of the frames, my expression is the same. My expression reads, "I do not like having my picture taken, especially not over and over." It's a fact about me. I just don't like having my picture taken. I know that discomfort and tension comes through in each frame, and that makes the experience worse, and then each frame looks more anxious. I dislike it so much that I can't understand why people sit for portraits. I don't even like looking at portraits that much. In my eyes, most portraits are unnatural, forced, an interruption.  

So, naturally, Carl has made portraiture my focus for this semester.

The first task is defining the difference between portraits and moments. Both succeed with the right lighting and composition, though those elements are more formalized in portraits. Can portraits be pulled out of moments? Yes. Are all moments portraits? No. Neither is just "a picture of something," because portraits and moments seek to visually reveal something more than just a person's existence in a particular space and time. The difference, to me, is a moment is an invitation and a portrait is a confrontation.

I resist formal portraits because they seem too brash, too harsh, too easy to just break down into shapes held together by the frame or the background. I'm more interested in what moments reveal: the small gestures, the casual, the careless, the slight. I like the motion in moments, the idea that the motion continues in an infinite line beyond the frame. I look more closely at portraits captured in moments because they reveal more than just information about that person -- they reveal what that person does in the space around him without stopping him, showing the process and not just the result. I look longer at David Lee's image of Vinny and Denise (from his brother's film "Jungle Fever") in the front seat of a car: the lines and angles created by Vinny's outstretched arm and the car's interior, Denise's sidelong glance, how close they are to each other and how far they are from the blur of people gathered on the other side of the street. In contrast, Lee's formal band portrait from "Mo' Better Blues" shows the band's hierarchy, but the music is paused, and they're musicians without a stage.

These images of my friend Michael are my attempts to shoot a portrait last semester. I was satisfied that they showed the person I recognize, but do they reveal what's important about him? How will I push my attempts at portraiture further?