This month's photo topic is "Portraits" ... be it Human, Animal or other, head and shoulders etc Happy shooting! Again, the rules are simple: Should be be using some canon gear , this is a canon forum after all. Shot with the assignment in mind, go out and shoot something new don't dig up something from the archives. and most importantly have fun.
This is a portait of Barry, my very first photography student who has been coming to my class for the last 13 years.
Thanks, Porkphoto. The lighting is coming from the window and the back ground is my white board I was using at the time.
Thanks, José, when I took the shot I was using a 75 to 300mm lens and Barry was almost having a nana nap. Giving his age and a couple of sandwiches and a coffee does that to him.
A few days ago I was finally able to go to Torredembarra and bring back my cameras. In August, due to my wife's deteriorating health, we quickly moved to Barcelona. I was eager to have my cameras back, but my wife developed depression on top of her illness, refusing to leave the house, not even outside, claiming she felt like she was suffocating after taking two steps. Thinking about this month's topic, I decided to go out on Saint George's Day, taking the afternoon to browse the various book stalls. It's one of the most charming festivals celebrated in Catalonia, called "Diada de Sant Jordi," and the tradition is for a man to give his sweetheart a rose, and in return, she gives him a book. Saint George was a soldier born in Cappadocia into a Christian family. During the persecution of Diocletian, he refused to renounce his faith and was martyred. Numerous legends have been woven around this saint, and he is the patron saint of most of the armies in South American countries, as well as England, and in Spain, the regions of Aragon and Catalonia. His feast day is no longer celebrated by the Church, precisely because of these legends; this decision was made at the Second Vatican Council. The saint's feast day coincides with the death of William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes (within a few hours of each other), and other famous writers such as Lope de Vega and Josep Pla. In 1926, the government of the time designated that date to celebrate Book Day throughout Spain, and in Catalonia it was combined with a medieval rose festival. Once I went out with my camera, instead of heading to the bustling city center, I went in the opposite direction. About 500 meters away, I found a shopping center that houses an FNAC store, which used to have a large bookstore. There were tents set up where authors were signing books. The portraits were meant to be street portraits, but the challenge was that I was using a 100mm telephoto lens, which, on an APS-C camera, effectively became a 135mm with manual focus. Because of the crowds, it was difficult to isolate the subject even slightly. In post-production, I applied Gaussian blur to the people surrounding the main subject. Many of them are slightly out of focus, but I still want to send them.
My sympathy to you about your wife, José, I have a feeling I sort of know how you feel as my mother is in the mid part of dementia, she spends all day in bed refuses to go outside her room, and was hospitlised for a week because her health had deteriated so much. She is back home now and a bit improved. Getting out and taking some images should do your health some good.
Craig, thank you for your kind words, you're right, it's quite frustrating having to keep convincing myself that I need to go out for everything.
