On October first, we were sent out to take environmental portraits of classmates. The goal was to learn something about each other, but also to play with lighting and to practice Expositional photography, or environmental portraiture.

For this photo, I photographed a classmate, and friend, LeAnn Johnson. Johnson enjoys artwork, though doesn’t get a lot of chances, is spiritual, enjoys dancing and has an overall fun personality. As such, I wanted to take a photo of her working on art in clothing that she felt represented her. As I was struggling with my GoDox set, I decided to take this environmental shot of LeAnn in natural lighting, The area we used is in building 32 of SFCC and includes a lot of window light and cute little bird perches, human sized. I believe the natural light and shadows adds to this feeling, as well.

This week was eye opening in finally finding lighting patterns I have been trying to instill in my own work (such as short lighting and Rembrandt lighting.) I also have found a niche I want to work more in and that I have been headed towards, for a while. Exposition photography is what I have actually been trying towards, along with street and candid. I’m also trying to conjoin this with journalism, to become a fully rounded professional story teller.

I did break a lot of rules in this photo, such as close cropping, open composition, cutting off certain body parts, yet this is one of my favorite I have taken in natural light. I am learning that knowing the rules is important but also being willing to break them and understanding why that works. Also having grace with yourself. As Ira Gardner states “don’t let your imperfections get in the way of your progress.”