Notes from the Field: Creative Portraits and Creating Cohesion
Creative Portraits
This past Sunday, we held two portrait workshop sessions at our Hunt’s Photo Melrose store location. This was an effort co-led by myself, guest educator Henry Marte, and Sony Ambassador Tony Gale that was intended to allow photographers to walk into a pre-made creative portrait environment and have fun! Little experience was required, but was intended to get people to spend more time interacting with the models—both in a posing/directing fashion, but also coming up with different ideas with the models— to get creative results.
Putting together this workshop has been a passion project for me for the past few years. Henry and I, who have co-taught portrait workshops together since 2024, wanted to create something of an “hors d’oeuvres” of a portrait workshop— a little taster of a bunch of really cool ideas with some of our favorite models. We were also excited to add Tony to the team. We’ve worked with him before and not only is he very easy to work with, but he’s a great instructor and he adds a similar calm and experienced demeanor to our group.
The workshop consisted of 6 models in five setups. I won’t go into too many details (see images below!), but rather than focusing on lighting, we emphasized backgrounds and props. The most common comment I hear from our attendees is “I don’t know what to say to the model.” But what if you put a prop in their hand? Or put them against a background with which they can interact? Or have the model wear an outfit that tells a story? By doing this, we build the conversation that creates the connection and starts the spark!
The workshop was a great success, with our models helping to work towards a creative goal, our students feeling enthusiastic about the creative process, and the instructors (that’s me!) walking away feeling so emboldened by the experience. Why do I feel like it was such a success? Nearly all were asking the same question by the end, “When do we get to do this again?”
Creating Cohesion
One of the five setups at the portrait workshop was designed to create photos in the style of Richard Avedon’s American West portraits. (Google for more info.) These portraits were simple—soft, diffused light on a white background—but with infinite possibilities. One of my goals at the workshop was to photograph each of the six models on this same background to show a bit of their differences in personality and style, but also create a unique imprint of them. I found it so refreshing to force myself to create locked into a very defined style. I even found myself preferring results that I wouldn’t normally have chosen. I’m excited to attempt this again, both in workshops and in my own work.
All this to say that I found myself asking the question, “When do we get to do this again?”
