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Talking Through Self Consciousness with Subject

Hello, how are you feeling? Good. You want to say hi to all these people? So how old are you? I'm eleven. Eleven. When did you turn? Eleven? June sixteenth, june sixteen. And I heard as we've just met, we met thirty eight seconds to go out there. I heard that you are actually really comfortable being able to talk about things that you can talk pretty comfortably, including some of the things that make you feel really weird. Yeah. Ok, so we're going to take photographs. We're going over there. And then when those stairs are, we're gonna set you happened supposes and take some photographs and there's maybe a little crowd watching you and some lights and stuff right out the gate without any other thoughts. Like, how does that just feel to you? What? First, it feels a little like they're watching me, but then I get a little used to it. Like, right now, I got a little scared, but I'm getting used to a lot that's good. So, you know, going into it, you're gonna feel a little funky is going to...

be odd, but you feel like you'll warm up. Yeah, and then if you had photo shoots before, well, I was interviewed before in my classroom. That's kind of like a photo shoot but tipton area totally different but kind of the same thing and it was the same thing when you got a lot of attention on your right and then so was it in front of a crowd or by yourself well I'm in my classroom I was just I was interviewed by myself and make it your wife you were all by yourself alone and then your teacher okay well greater u n I gleaned six going into six word okay, so what are the things that happens I have found is that when you point a camera at somebody sometimes they can wonder like what that that person wants from you and so do you feel like you can actually know how to pose and look and this or do you just do whatever you want or you just smile what usually happens when someone points a camera? You well, I well I guess I just get a little feel a little weird but then I just do whatever d'oh you definitely but you do what you do naturally ok? And then if I were to tell three people around you and then have you all look at the camera smile the same time that would feel kdu okay, what if I asked you to be really raw and honest and open with me so I feel like something you could do right away I mean maybe just went up to it ok, so what I want to do is I want to walk over the stairs, set up the light and then I'm going to try to work with you in a place where you almost forget anybody else is there and we're gonna do that because we're going to share every little thing you're thinking as we're going through this you're going to be like our little experiment is that good? Okay, I got it. You are very welcome, you know, you could be to get very well I couldn't communicate that. All right, we're going to get right to our shoot ready? All right? We're going to dig and you you're making a commitment just like talk about everything you're feeling all right? Good let's do it. We're going in. Uh, ok, so we're going to this light is going to go off. This is the profile is we'll talk about later, do you favor and sit right here? Well over and then have this leg kind of kick out here? Yeah, and put this me in that way and turns you have such a pretty natural smile, I love it and we'll start right here and then let's try we were talking about oh, my goodness, look at you go all right, let me set this up here, um when I am doing this right now you probably feel like you look pretty good don't you because you do you do that would be great thank you. Um so in this situation I'm gonna be shooting with the tpl so it's just going to basically I don't have to do much with the lighting and we'll get into that a little bit later but the nice thing is it kind of reads the exposure for me and I'm just going to set up the scene I want oh that's lovely all right, we're just going to pull it back out and then tilted a hair towards her so it's not so kind of shooting down all right? So when you look over it look everybody say so quick like if you were out at a park right now and a bunch of people are watching you being photographed does that matter to you at all and then tilted more so we're gonna have it more like it just backing out until yeah that's good yeah so actually just hold it back a little bit you lean it back and that way it'll tell it's naturally we'll put it right on her ok, sorry you go ahead and answer live here so if you were at a park and there's a bunch of people standing around, does that make a difference to you or if you're quietly in a park I think I would like it better if it was quietly in apart yes and because because no one would really be like looking at me exactly but what difference does it make when they look atyou versus just being you by yourself in a park? I think when I'm just by myself in a park well actually would be a little lonely but then no, not just yourself you have up its parker yeah ok, yes, I had a photographer with me I would be different okay, so you were there with a photographer and they're taking a photograph versus you and a photographer and a group of people in the park just watching you being photographed how does that feel different to you? We'll fill different because they're looking at me and paying attention to me talking ends here and so then paying attention to you why does that change how comfortable you'd be getting photographed? Well, because um yeah, I would feel a little self conscious and you're very very interesting because I would feel little scared and scared that that I might do something wrong and they'll catch that oh it's a good statement that you might do something wrong the capture and what would that mean to you if they did well, I wouldn't know if they catch that, but I would think they probably would like I would be a little scared? I guess. Yeah, you're doing great. This is perfect. So you're afraid they would catch that. And then? And what would that mean to you if they caught it? Like, what would they do with it? Well, they were just maybe carry it through and see, like, if it would happen again, maybe or so now you think they'd be looking for it, he and then that makes you feel like I better not do that again. Yeah, yeah, ok, that's good. I love that on a couple different levels, lily, because first and foremost, as it relates to just simply how I prefer to shoot, I will always, always, always choose the secluded spot for shoot. If I'm doing a wide open urban shot, that will be something I'll add in here there because there's a lot of people around, but for the most part, I recognize even very outgoing people who express themselves very well have of self consciousness that just tends to be amplified. The more people are watching that's just normal eso first and foremost, I'm always going to choose secluded spot because I really feel like my subjects can shine if they're not having to have to worry about not just this and that, but all the other people watching. That's that's a big part I think that you emphasize beautifully thank you but the other thing is just that simple statement I'm afraid that if they were looking for me to do something wrong there look and if they do that they'll catch it and then we'll take it with him like that's just such a powerful statement I think that's really beautifully said and you know what? People don't stop worrying about that forever then you get on the internet and people are really looking for it but that I think that's a very powerful statement it's something that can help all of us as we think about photographing is if I am thinking if I am viewing you with just appear empathy of I want to protect you I want you to feel as comfortable as possible I don't want you to feel like people might be trying to take something from you and I'm the last person isn't it take something from you I want to give something to you want to give you this one of a photograph and I can communicate that to like the only thing I want to do here is give you this beautiful photograph of you because you're so gorgeous and I love the way you smile and I want you to have that truly dio and I want I want you to feel that way and if we can communicate that verbally or nonverbally nonverbally is gonna be more powerful. People read that easier if I think communicate that to you in a way that these everybody else goes away for you and you don't have to worry about them catching and taking anything from you. But it's, going to everything is going to go a lot easier, right? All right. So let's do this, by the way, I happen to know that every is on your side here, right? Say silent happiness good. Pull that leg back just a little bit. And the reason and this also ties into another part of self consciousness often when we're giving people posing prompts, especially at this age, but also all ages were giving people posing props. Ah lot of times people might be thinking that you're telling me to change something because it doesn't look good. Isn't that kind of natural that's a really natural feeling? Tohave like, oh, I better not do that, because apparently that looks bad if you can instead explain it as you go, in a way that's not photography driven, but but just talking about conversational somebody what I'm about to d'oh that can take that fear away as well. So I'm gonna ask you to move your leg back a little bit because I'm shooting down here the lens is going to make it look really like not how beautiful it is it's gonna look bigger yes you're just going to slip it back in a little bit and then tilt it out and the reason for that is that when you kind of move things a little bit yeah it's actually really beautiful look for photography I love that looks great and then see your holding on tight to that thing probably cause they're one staring at you on and we're gonna listen up that too but if you can loosen that hand I think that will really be sweet looking just drop it okay and then made the rest of their hand on top of your knee yeah and then she not just a hair oh and towards me right there that looks so good. All right, all right let's do it good good in your hands nice and dropped um and again I'm going to be building to something we're going to start by setting a roll up and that would make this little adjustments I talked about to get to the final shot that I want to deliver yeah yesterday in the meantime and let me know if you guys have any as well this is an interesting question do you think that cameras and selfies being so popular and available now that are you seeing kids being mohr relaxed and comfortable since their parents are might be taking pictures of them all the time then maybe five years ago eight years ago that's a great question what I have found is there more used to being photographed but I have to almost retrain people so what you have people do a lot is this all the time I'm like seriously with the dog I see that a lot I see you know we all know the duck face right? You see a lot of people getting up and going and I see that especially with teenagers very, very often and what I find is is it looks great for a selfie it looks fun for a shot to share with your friends, but my whole goal with you is to showcase you more naturally who you are that beautiful natural look and when I'm going for and what you're now practice at delivering are not the same thing anymore, so I almost have to retrain you way, but yes definitely knows the difference I'm just to make sure the tether work and they're going to put you back to what we talked about yea okay um all right, so if you can tell that light back so we've got it yeah, so basically what kind of come more this way and then you, my darling, we're gonna go back to oppose we talked to that ready? Yeah, and then but it's gonna be up on that stair right up there just because yes, beautiful. Oh, good. So good! We're just get ignore the microphone in there. I think we need to bring that around a little bit it's just giving me a top down look and I need it more front facing. So the other thing I want to think about right here from just simply a composition look is every time you photograph people on stairs, so the reason I ask you to move is every time you photograph people on stairs, you've got just a constant line that could be cutting right through the middle head andan easy way to fix that is to put someone right to the edge of the stair, shift your angle a little bit and shoot with a more shallow depth of field so you don't have that harsh line coming through. You've got a softer line on the way. I will technically do that right now. I'm shooting in a three to I'm going to move down tio a two two I'm gonna back up oh, no backup on dh then I'm gonna shoot it where that back stairway becomes significantly less pronounced, you're going to keep doing what you're doing because you're doing it so well that's not so beautiful! Um yeah that's getting a lot closer to what I want to see in terms of lighting perspective I'm going tio drop maya so drop my mature and shoot it again bringing here to see your chins right here I would love to see a little bit more towards me he acts that looks so nice beautiful, lovely. I like that one. You get that one? Okay. Yeah, so that's more what I want so now I'm shooting at a straight f two that stare that was judging behind her head is now really, really soft. I can keep going with that and I'm just going to make a really easy transition because I'm shooting in manual mode. I'm gonna make a really easy transition between my aperture and shutter speed without changing anything else. I'm going to go down to an f one eight and bring my shutter speed up like one by one one by one one, twelve hundred I'm gonna go down to an f one six one and then one, sixteen hundred and my exposure should be still relatively great and then I'm gonna come back to our beautiful model in a second I just want to make sure I got that yeah, you can see how that stare behind her is becoming softer softer as I keep making my depth of field more shallow and it becomes less of a concern. So the other thing I could do to shift that is do me a favor and lean forward a little bit like this across your knees. Yeah, and I'm gonna help you out a little bit. And this by the way, I know a lot of photographers like I'm not sure if I should touch my clients. I'm not sure if I could pose them this so that I think asking it over formally is weird, like I am proceeding to near you, I am now going to touch your head, but what you can do say, do you mind if I pose? You write a little bit beautiful and you'll read people? Some people would say, well, do you have to expect, you know, then that means no, but what if you but if you say I don't mind, you could say, ok, we'll switch hearing little bits and they're going to go just a little bit here and then beautiful. And then one thing that I do take into account unless you're talking about little kids, who just I mean, they're picking up dirt and eating it for the most part, I am cautious about necessarily overly touching people's face. So I feel like some people especially when you're getting older that feels a little more like your on my face so I'll just do the exact same thing just by the outside of the hairline so with this and then switch up there so pretty your eyes are lovely what color would you say your eyes are? I think you're laughing your I love that description they're clearly lavender brown all right I'm gonna shoot a little bit of a higher angle to change that subculture head of just a hair towards there and then how are you feeling? You feeling amazing? Are you? Yeah, I could feel that oh that's so cute and exactly what you're doing but drop your shoulders a little bit oh, ok, ok and then you just think oh yes it looks so nice beautiful. All right, this way now we made this work really clever in here. You know what this means we're better than the camera. Okay? Okay, wait don't like fifty feet parted down part of backup. Okay, let's, come around here we'll switch the lighting anyway and switch over to chair and change the look. Yeah, I ask you a question in the meantime so she lily so kindly said yes when you asked if you could help post her you know, what do you do when somebody says no and I'm saying so this is what I do exactly come in here and say no this time but say it like awkwardly because most people don't ever say a no step off they might say, like where do you have teo? You know, get and I honestly think I've gotten that one time in my life somebody told me she was sick and she wanted passed on but if that does occur so let's, practice it again do you mind if I touch you with theirs? Okay, so that's never gonna d'oh everything I do you're gonna dio so do me a favor imagine there's a line here I'm gonna pull you turn a little bit this way no just care watch like yes like that and then your arm same thing it's just gonna be like I have strings attached to you watch dad wake up like that. This is actually more fun like this better yeah, so I would do that like the kind of puppeteer thing and that actually works all ages, you know, I wouldn't actually do that, although that was often that you did that. But we could say, but little subtle shifts be really simple and it's something you want to do when you're in a long distance with a long ways away with a long focal length lens anyway