family photojournalist?

[tyasa81]

hi, another photo for critique of the day.... i'm really interested in taking pictures like thefamilyphotojournalist ... i find their photos to be telling a story and not just portraits with children smiling (though i have lots of these too)... so in that regards can you critique this... composition and story telling wise... if there's anyone who knows another blog with similar content please let me know too.. and i tried looking for a flickr group with similar interest but still can't find any... if any of you are interested and have the know how, how about making one in place for us to congregate and share ideas...


Camera Nikon D7000
Exposure 0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture f/1.4
Focal Length 24 mm
ISO Speed 1800

whenever my daughter is surprised/shocked/scared by a loud noise, she'll tap her heart... here she's showing her mom that she's shocked...

[ednorm]

Well she sure is a doll, my first thought before I read your explanation was the little beauty was caught with her hand in the cookie jar, you know doing something she knew better than doing.

ed

[ellie mac]

She's such a cutie!

I really liked the blog you linked too - one thing I did notice about their images is that they are tending to show the wider context and using it to frame their subjects. There are almost no close up portraits. I really like the close up composition of your image but if you are looking to emulate that style you might need to start taking a couple of steps back & evaluating not just the subject but what is around them when framing a composition.
I can imagine a shot like this one might include all of your daughter & a larger portion of your wife, together with whatever is behind your daughter, but with the same great DOF you have now.
As I said, I like the closer composition as well, although I wish her whole hand was in view - particularly as it is the most important element of the story you describe.

I also think you have done a really nice B&W conversion.

I hope that helps a little, look forward to seeing more of these types of images.

[Eileen D]

Another sweet shot of your adorable little girl. I agree that a little wider composition would have given the viewer a bit more context in the image but you have caught a great moment here. B&W works well. Thanks for the link to the family photojournalism site -- interesting images there and I can see why you were taken by the approach.

[tyasa81]

ednorm: thank you... i think the camera likes her, or is that my bias as her parents? she does looks a bit guilty... but i saw that expression so often... it's more like her trying to tell a story without words..

ellie: i'll try to frame a shot with the living room with her later... hope you dont mind the mess it's filled with her toys... i have to find an interesting angle with all the mess around it... thank you for your compliment... there's more pictures coming as i need all the critiques i could get...

eileen: thanx eileen, i hope you aren't bored and tired of looking at her as she's my main motivation into this craft... and i wish to be better by it before she gets too old and i missed all the moments before...

if the mods allow, i'll try not to create new threads and will be posting more in this thread... same critique as to composition and story telling... hope together with the previous pictures maybe you'll see a trend on where i need to improve on... here's another b&w... there'll be colour soon enough..


Camera Nikon D7000
Exposure 0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture f/1.4
Focal Length 24 mm
ISO Speed 800

backstory: she's finally excited to see a xmas tree... this is going to be our first year of sharing the day with her where she could enjoy it hopefully... last year she's only a couple of months old and slept through the day with almost nothing special...

[ellie mac]

Hi Tony,

You are doing a great job of sharing the stories of how your daughter sees the world. Thanks for sharing another one with us. I really like this image of your daughter and the christmas tree, although I feel the tree may be a little too dominant - I feel like if you had stepped slightly to the right & maybe got a little lower then this would be a great shot.

I know what you mean by mess - I have a five year old boy who never puts anything away.

I thought you might be interested in this thread I have started
Family Photojournalism Project

It's inspired by this thread & the blog you shared - would love it if you would join me in sharing some of your shots. Maybe we can get some others involved as well.

I was interested in the shot in the blog of the two boys watching tv. Although there is some mess around them, I felt that it was almost a bit posed - there is a large clear area of rug in front of the boys which created a bit of what could be seen as negative space. This made the mess that is there look a little contrived.
If you have a look at the second image I posted you will see that today I tried to get this style of shot of my son, but with a more natural feel - I think I was able to successfully incorporate the clutter in our tv room by selecting which parts of it are in the image (& which is not) So you can see the open door into our laundry, and the crayons in the bucket on the table etc. But not the chair that was behind me piled with toys, or the 5 piles of folded washing waiting to be put away!

Would love to know what you think & look forward to seeing more of your images.

[karen_s]

I really like the photographs you have posted. They do tell stories, wonderful ones.

Anyway, you might like this photographer ...

Site:
Portraits by Cheryl Jacobs Nicolai. The very best in lifestyle portraits.

Blog:
PhotoDino

[tyasa81]

ellie mac: thank you for your critique... indeed i think with your suggestion it will look much more balanced than now with the tree being dominant.. as for the other matter... i dont know what to say... i'm totally humbled that you would take on a year long project inspired by this thread, though definitely i think the blog i posted had more to contribute to that as it did for my goal now

i did see you 2nd picture and i think it's a very strong composition showing the environment in an effective way... i like it very much!! .. it tells so much more than just a plain close up will ever did... i did try to incorporate my living room but i can't find one that i found pleasing so far... i'll post a few as time allows here..

as for adding pictures to your project so we can hopefully get others to take on the same project, i would really like to do that... maybe then more people will join in... hopefully i dont create too much clutter among your photos since i'm not really that confident of them yet... but thank you for offering...

karen_s: thank you for your reference... i haven't really finish looking through them yet, but definitely the style i'm interested in...

another photo for critique:

Mami is knocked out... Papi play with me!


backstory: i live in a small apartment where i dont have a lot of space for stuff... so most of her toys are indeed in the living room where i usually took photos of her... plus i "childproof" my tables by taping bubble wraps at the corner making it even uglier still.. she knocked her head on the corner once and i totally forgo aesthetic looks...

here i tried to in corporate the background but what i'm interested in is basically the sleeping mami who's so tired coz my baby is having a restless sleep the night before... whereas my baby is so active and can't wait to play/ go swim... here she's asking me to play with her while i quickly composed knowing there's lots of clutter...

however i tried to make the clutter less of an annoyance by several methods... one is blur which is obvious and my lens is wide open to maximize it... 2nd b&w to lose all colorful distraction... the last method is basically light... i know the light on my baby and sleeping wife will be bright... but the clutter are maybe around 1 stop darker due to being further from the window and covered by the sofa's arm... hence the reason for critique... have you used light to minimize impact of clutter by making them darker? how effective is that method? how about in this photo, is it suppose to be darker still for it to be effective? thanx all

[tyasa81]

Hi peeps... back again for another critique... since the forum is down i haven't gotten any reply yet... so i'm going to number my pictures from now on... this is number 4 now, but if you wish to critique on the previous pictures, please do so and let me know the number... i appreciate all critique from the harshest to the softest(?)... anyway... thanx for looking

I'm a bit unsure where to place this since i'm trying to combine a bit of story telling fpj style with backdrop from my previous session... and i decide to put it here... how do you feel about the combination? does the backdrop add or subtract from the pictures? it has a far more cleaner feel with the backdrop... there's a bit of a story starting from this picture, and i'll post more in a couple of days... so hope to hear from you soon... thanx for looking and any insight you might have

4 - Time for study and play


Exposure 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture f/7.1
Focal Length 112 mm
ISO 800

[cherrygirl]

You need to bring that ISO way down....your images are too grainy. I know that "grainy" is very much a photojournalism trait (I am a photojournalist for a newspaper) but when shooting images for people, I think is good to capture the photojournalist style but without grain....think magazines, where the photos are sharp but tell a story.

I also think you need to pull back to get more of the environment. Photojournalism as you know is about telling a story....if you are shooting tight, you don't have enough to tell a story....you basically have a portrait that most likely really doesn't work as a portrait. While I think you are headed in the right direction, I"m not sure you are truly capture "stories" with you photos....they seem more like good snapshots.

I hope this makes sense...I don't want to offend you! Keep at it, like I said, I think you are off to a good start.