Back in October last year I posted an entry on this blog that I was about to participate in a Mentoring Program – organized by my camera club – and that I would keep you posted on the developments. I have done a pretty poor job of this, so far. Here’s a first entry to make it up a little and make everybody who’s interested aware of the progress I’m making.
It’s a group of 10 people, evenly split across 5 women and 5 men. Mentor is Diana Bokje, editor in chief of the Dutch national photo magazine Fotografie. For the first session (back in October 2012) I had to bring 3 pictures illustrating my favourite topic (or theme). I randomly picked the following 3 studio portraits.
In my case, Diana’s feedback concentrated on the second of the above portraits. She thought that technically it was a good picture, but the camera position was a bit too high which made the model to look up to the photographer. She felt itwas an undesired, i.e. not intended, side-effect of the camera position, in this case.
All students received an assignment for the next session. Everybody also received names of other photographers whose work could be used as a source of inspiration for the various topics. I was given the names of Stephan Vanfleteren, Armando Jongejan and Hanneke van Leeuwen. My assignment for the next session was to do a series of live pictures. Diana would like to know the model a bit better (through the photo’s, that is).
Unfortunately I couldn’t attend the 2nd session, but I did send in the photo’s below.
The above photo’s were taken not long after I visited Arnold Newman’s Masterclass exhibition. So, with all due respect, they were slightly inspired by Newman’s work. Diana’s feedback was that I succeeded in giving her an idea about the type of woman the model is.
For the 3rd session the assignment was to bring pictures that would reveal more of the model’s character and not to use any attributes. I found this extremely difficult to accomplish. Out of the work of the 3 photographes I was given, Stephan Vanfeleteren appealed to me most. So black and white photography to begin with. Relatively harsh lighting with deep blacks to create a dramatic feeling. Here’s what I did.
Diana’s feedback was very positive, especially about the second picture. Good balance with the black sweater and the overall dramatic effect. But still showing a friendly character!
Assignment for the 4th session, in April, is to continue with the black and white portraits as in the second photo above, but to use different models this time. Also experiment with a smaller depth of field. Sounds I’ve got work to do. Stay tuned for another update on the Mentoring Program.