Journal

i spent 5 minutes trying to think of a clever title and couldn't, so i wrote this instead

2009-07-27T21:45:42Z

i like pictures that grab your attention and hold it. granted, i have a deep seated passion for staring contests so i may be naturally drawn to pictures of people literally staring back at me. regardless, i think our eyes are the work horses of body language and the most important part of a portrait. and it's not just an empty claim! when babies are confused they instinctively look at your eyes for clarification. at least i'm pretty sure i heard that somewhere..

simply pleasing photos of simply boring objects

2009-07-26T18:28:32Z

there's probably a dozen cool looking little "events" within eyesight from where you're sitting. practicing photography has taught me to seek out covertly boring scenes and try to figure out how to show that they are indeed interesting.
the picture needs to be like a set of simple instructions; anyone has to be able to look at it and get it. it has to be simple enough to be interesting at any size and any distance. are these ground breaking? no. but i do like how they turned out. the missing element however, is a message. i'll figure that part out next.

tight+simple crops and interesting+genuine expressions.

2009-07-07T22:36:26Z

forget the cheesy smile (no one seems to like it anyhow). i'm getting better at identifying the types of pictures that i like taking. it happens when i can step back afterwards and honestly say "thats a good picture of you" to my subject. i'm satisfied if the finished product resembles my memory of that person. the most rewarding photos i take are of people that i know. its a great feeling being able to show them what the rest of us see. i think everyone is photogenic, its just a matter of finding the momentary sweet spots that look best.

have you fanned me yet?
(YOU! fan me harder!)

hot tip: off centered photographs are usually more interesting...

2009-07-01T20:05:46Z

when the viewer can tell it was intentional

should every portrait be off centered? of course not. every trick should be employed in moderation, but there's no denying that a purposely off centered photograph can grab your attention. blatant rule breaking like this is a good reminder that there are no rules to creative photography. personal "style" evolves as you begin to take pictures that YOU like, not pictures that you think someone else will appreciate; much like how a confident person can wear (and look good) in just about anything. i love hobbies like this because you can quickly become your own teacher. as long as you can find ways to make a photo more appealing to you, you can find ways to make your photography better and better. push the "ought to/public" opinion out of your mind and welcome your own self criticism. learning how to use a camera is only the first step to taking pictures, learning what you enjoy about a picture is the hard part.

become a fan of me on facebook! (different than friending me)

getting totally ripped: harder than it looks!

2009-06-22T22:13:13Z

and so is fitness photography apparently. this was my first attempt at this type of photo shoot and her first time modeling so it was destined to be a success from the start. i'll admit some people never seem to look bad in photos, but learning how to position someone's body for a photograph is more difficult than you might expect.

>>exhausted after a long day of dealing with me.

a few things that i learned from the experience: the hips and shoulders should never be parallel. the higher shoulder should usually be towards the camera. fruit is a carb. jamie can deadlift more weight than i can.

at least one person other than you has looked at this...

2009-06-19T07:41:58Z

...unless you're jacob. then you could be the only person reading this. which would kinda suck. anyways stop leaving your window when you go to work. i always forget its open when i turn the a/c on.

it's like an art show, except no one else can see how bored you look

2009-06-14T19:55:13Z


some of my black and white favorites from 2009

well, at least i have a homepage. now to actually take some photos

2009-06-10T19:34:26Z

I've thrown a place holder image up so that there's SOMETHING at coynephoto.com but it made me realize that I should be getting a portfolio together so that I have material to show off. As of now all I know is that I don't like landscape or cityscape photography, and weddings are stressful but fun. Modeling sounds fun but I can see it becoming repetitive. Towards the end of June I will be trying fitness modeling to help a friend from high-school (and myself) build a portfolio. I still enjoy photographing children (if they're cute) because of the genuine expressions they usually wear. I'll take some time to gather a few of my more "pleasing" photos to compliment the homepage.

I'm also building a facebook fan page for myself in an attempt to look even more shallow.

i know i'm butchering a classic (and personal favorite)

2009-06-09T22:31:35Z

oh god how did this get here I am not good with computer

how to take a flattering picture of someone who doesn't like to be photographed

2009-06-03T08:25:39Z

ANYONE can take a good picture. I like taking portraits of friends and I especially like it when they say they aren't photogenic. wah wah wah too bad. Most people don't like pictures of themselves because they aren't used to seeing themselves, but even WORSE is the fact that most of the pictures people DO LIKE of themselves don't even look like them. It's harder than it sounds to take a picture of someone that makes them look as good as possible, while still looking like the person the rest of us are used to seeing.

so how do you take a good picture of someone? the first step is to STAND BACK. we're used to seeing people from about 15 feet away. from this distance features flatten out and become less prominant. i take almost all of my portraits at about 15-20 feet away.

secondly ZOOM IN. now that you're far away there's bound to be a ton of distracting crap in the picture. you want to take a picture of the person, not the creepy guy in the background. sure it might look funny, but in 10 years when you look back at the picture you'll just want to see MORE of the person. so fill the frame with their face. you're wasting the rest of the photograph by not practicing this.

put them off center. draw a tic-tac-toe board on the picture and put their eyes on one of the lines. off centered pictures like this are more interesting to look at. avoid centering people's faces in the frame. centering a face makes the rest of the photograph feel worthless.

Guess what? both of these are my friends and both of them swore up and down that they weren't photogenic while whining about having their picture taken. well how silly do they look now? just because you believe that you photograph poorly doesn't make it true. a lot of people are extremely photogenic but have never had a proper picture taken of them. when you think about it, each one of us knows what our friends look like better than we know ourselves.

feeling confident? unfortunately i lied. these are the parts of the photograph that you CAN'T mess up. if you practice them enough they'll become second nature, like dribbling a basketball. the tricky part about photography (and basketball) is that it takes more than the fundamentals to do well. how do you get someone to pose well infront of a camera? beats me. i told laura to "hold the beer bottle like you're in a magazine ad" and i just screwed around with my camera in front jacqueline until she started laughing at my incompetence.