Environmental Portrait

Week two (8/15) of my first semester of PH 108: DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY with John Trefethen

It is now time to start applying the many details we have been discussing over the last several modules. This assignment is to make an environmental portrait.

Definition from Wikipedia:

An environmental portrait is a portrait executed in the subject's usual environment, such as in their home or workplace, and typically illuminates the subject's life and surroundings. The term is most frequently used in the genre of photography.

By photographing a person in their natural surroundings, it is thought that you will be able to better illuminate their character, and therefore portray the essence of their personality, rather than merely a likeness of their physical features. It is also thought that by photographing a person in their natural surroundings, the subject will be more at ease, and so be more conducive to expressing themselves, as opposed to in a studio, which can be a rather intimidating and artificial experience.

My husband is a retired firefighter so I used his connections to get a photograph of a local EMS worker, Lisa. I took lots of shots some were just fun shots to get her use to the camera and then we got down to business. I had several good ones but this was my favorite. The real task here was getting her to stop talking. HA!

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What is your ideal "digital darkroom" in terms of equipment? With all the services available now to photographers for photo reproduction, why would a photographer (you, in this case) want or need the ability to make prints?

When it comes to my ideal darkroom I would like to have the best of the best, but because this is not lets just play I won a million dollars, I would have to think a bit more conservatively. I think that with any profession starting with the proper tools makes life easier and so I would start with the camera and equipment. I would like to own a large format camera as well as my DSLR with an assortment of lenses, filters, etc.

I would more than likely stick with my PC for the near future and eventually upgrade to a MAC because of the type of photography I am interested in. I currently have a flat screen to work on but because I work mostly from my laptop I really like the freedom of dual screens and would need that with my new tower system. Storage would be a combination system of backing up to external hard drives as well as disc files. I am also kind of old school and print a paper contact sheet of all photos, just in case I loose it I know what I did and how to recreate it if I can. I am undecided as for the printing side, I currently use a combination of printing facilities and printers. I’m sure with more experience I will find what works best.

My darkroom doesn’t end there though. I would love to work, again, with the old school chemical processed photographs. For this I would need the enlarger, paper, chemicals and so on. This is in my opinion one of the greatest highs for a photographer. The feeling of satisfaction as the image appears on paper is matched by no other. For me the creativity doesn’t end with the capturing of the image but continues in the processing of that image.