Portrait of a Lady

Photo taken by Cicely

I had mentioned in my Piper post that I was working my way up to people portraits. On Sunday, I dipped my toes back into the water. Aside from taking photos of Willie and Cicely together, I wanted to take some portraits of Cicely. She'd recently lost a significant amount of weight and deserved to have photographs that celebrated her success. Not to mention, she tried to do some self-portraits and they did not do her any justice at all. {They were bad, really bad}

It was a beautiful day. It was sunny and warm and a tad bit breezier than I would like. You'll see why in a bit. We headed off to Memorial Park after a very late Brunch. The place was packed. So, we found a less traveled area on the fringe of the park.

It took me a bit to get warmed up. I had forgotten how to pose people. Thankfully, she was very patient. I didn't get as many good shots as I would have liked since I forgot my flash and my reflectors. {Doh!} Most of my portraits were taken with natural light and some on camera flash usage for fill.

Here are a few of my favorites:

While I had the tripod out, we decided to take some portraits together. We've been friends for nearly 10 years, but don't have any decent photos together. I had my trusty new remote. I thought it would be simple. What ensued was pure comedy. Trying to figure out how to flatteringly pose myself turned out to be a Herculean feat. I would setup the shot, position myself, trigger the remote, and run to check how the photo turned out. Lest I forget, all this had my color commentary, which kept Cicely entertained. Most of these photos turned out like cheesetastic, High School friendship pictures. I did get one frameable photo. So, I won't complain too loudly. For laughs and in the spirit of honesty in artistry, here are some of the photos of us together.

Before anyone asks, yes, it really was that windy. I didn't not bring a wind machine with us on the shoot. I got some workable shots, but I definitely need some practice. Any volunteers?