Friday Photo: Up Close and Personal
Robert Capa said, “If your pictures aren’t good enough you aren’t close enough.” But then Robert Capa also said a lot of dumb macho things that he’s not remembered for, and then he got blown up. Still, it’s always a good line to trot out when you’re talking about this kind of close-action shot and you want to sound photography literate. So that’s what I’m doing. Because it does also hold true. Regardless of the tell-tale warp in a wide angle shot compared to the smooth feel of 135mm image you can somehow gauge a photographer’s proximity to his subjects just by the mood and energy of an image. If I’d somehow got a clear shot like this from the other side of the room you’d feel it. There’s a safety in distance and you don’t want your photos to feel safe. I shoot my dance floor shots exclusively at 24mm, so I’m up close, which is why there’ll often be a stray dancing hand in the corner of the image like this one — but I love that. It adds to the mood, energy and chaos. So today’s Friday Photo is just about mood and feel. Find a way to be close to the action without being intrusive. How the hell do you do that when you’re shooting with a big old flash? I’ll tell you, you wait for everyone to get good and drunk. I only break out the flash once everyone is pretty well oiled. Any earlier and you’ve set a tone for the flash making them a little uneasy, afterwards and they honestly don’t give a shit. Of course it also helps if the photographer has been drinking too, but that’s another blog post for another day.
Technical details for the photography wonks:
Camera: Canon 5D MKIII
Lens: Canon 24-70mm 2.8 at 24mm
Aperture: f10
Shutter speed: 1/200
ISO: 800
Flash: Fired in manual mode
Photography Inspiration: Larry Fink