Horrible People Shots

wfeller

I take horrible people shots. Not of people that are horrible looking, but flat and near lifeless shots. I don't know how you all do it, you have my admiration.

Let me explain;

Me and my grand-daughter decided to go out to a local dry lake and put the "FUN" in dysFUNctional. The playa is broad and flat and very dry. She's 16 and doesn't have her license, so I let her drive because it's a good place to practice.

After an hour or so we stopped and I pulled out the camera for some experiments with the longish late-in-the-day shadows. The photos I had in mind didn't come out the way I was hoping, so I decided to shoot some snaps of my beautiful little girl.

I shot a few, and they came out cute and pretty enough. But I kept thinking of some of the wonderful work I've seen on this site and thought maybe I could try to get something with some emotional depth to it.

My grand-daughter loves me very much, and we always have a great time. Now happy is an emotion, but in the shots I take of her, well we've done that to death. I wanted something different though.

I asked her to look sad. That didn't work. I asked to go a step further and maybe she could try to look like she was crying. I just couldn't seem to get it out of her- She's just too happy to be with me.

I remembered a little story about a child actor- The director wanted realism for the scene, so he told the lad his mother had called and said his dog had escaped from the house, ran into the street, and was hit by a car. The dog had been hurt, and had been taken to the animal hospital. He could go see it after this scene. The kid cried through his preformance as expected. Afterwards, they told him it was just a story and they had the dog there on the lot. The dog came running up to the kid and all was well.

Now I really wanted an emotional photo. I'm not all that swift at this stuff so I asked her to sit, I had some important and bad news for her.

I whispered in her ear, "I killed your puppy."

That came out kind of wrong. I'm soooo clumsy ...

The normally smiling little sunshiny face changed, she started bawling.
I snapped the picture:




She certainly was crying away. This wasn't what I wanted. I felt bad.

I softly whispered in her ear, "I'm sorry sweetheart, I didn't kill your puppy."

She looked up at me with those big blue watery I eyes.

I continued, "Grandma did."

Now she was really going at it. Rivers of tears ran from her tiny face and down her arms and legs.

I snapped another shot.

It was overexposed though and ain't worth showing here.

In a word- Horrible.



(Disclaimer: no dogs/puppies or kids were hurt physically or emotionally during this photo. the entire story is fictional and thank you to my beautiful grand-daughter and wife for giving me there permission to post this bit of B.S.)

dogwood

Couple tips for you when shooting people on dry lake beds-- wait until later in the day, try to use the sun to create texture/shadows on the ground, and get your flash off camera. In this shot, the strobe is held off to my left and probably boosted +1 EV. I also used a wide lens to show the ground and sky.

urbanaries

wfeller, your story brings new meaning to the phrase "cry like your dog died"

dogwood, that is one sweet shot!!!

Buttkicker

Dogwood that is a really striking shot you got there
real nice

z_28

Dear wfeller ,
Looks as your experiment failed totally.

You killed a dog.
You lost grand-daughter confidence in you.
Your skills in sad and tragic photos wasn't improved.

Anyway

ShepsMom

I don't think you can make someone to express true emotions unless they really feel lthat way. To make someone, who is always happy, looking sad, is a true talent. I think you should just take shots of your girl the best you could, practise on what emotions available and go from there. If you see her often, i'm sure there will be times where she might be expressing emotions, just make sure your camera is ready!

Azzaro

I don't know what to tell you wfeller.......I got my own problems....

JimM

dogwood wrote:

Really great shot here!!!!