mightyjim4

So I finally installed photoshop...damn, I've got much to learn. I'm thinking about staying in tomorrow, tossing a few kung-fu movies into the dvd player, and diving in. Tutorials and books to read, lots of buttons to experiment with, and many a picture to alter.

The recent renewal of my interest in photography has had me thinking about an idea I had many years ago. While I've always loved glamour/pin-up photography (part of the reason I joined SG), I've also always loved portraits. So much can be portrayed simply by taking someone's picture...an image that can be shaped to suit whatever idea the photographer desires...manipulations of setting, color, pose, angle, lighting, wardrobe and such can make a person seem to be innocent or devilish, beautiful or ugly, etc, etc...you get the idea.

Now often it is the photographer who controls many to all of these conditions. I've always wondered how people would want their portrait taken if given complete control of the shot..how would they want themselves portrayed? What image does a person think best represents the real them?

My own personal idea has changed over the years...a decade ago, back in my college days when my weekends were spent on a roller hockey court, I would have wanted it taken sitting on the boards of the local court after a day of hockey...bruised, scraped and sweaty...wearing my skates, kneepads and gloves...but with a smile on my face and a fire in my eyes.

Now five years ago I was in a different place...dad gone, my mom's health ever getting worse, and working a schedule that precluded joining the local roller hockey leagues. My mood was much more somber, more contemplative, and my idea changed as well...to an image of me sitting at the end of the boardwalk in Ventnor with my headphones on, lost in the music and thought with the beach and the rolling waves of the ocean behind me.

And now? Life's changed me again...mom's been gone a few years, and I've been using that time to get my life and my head back together. I'm not old, but I'm not the man I was a decade ago...I've learned the importance of enjoying life, even the little things, and to be able to laugh at this crazy world we live in. My portrait? Simple...

Black and white...sitting at the bar in a pub, looking up at the camera, with a smirk on my face and a pint of black and tan raised in toast.

So...anyone have any ideas on how they'd want their protrait taken?

*note-that black and tan would be guinness and bass ale of course...the two greatest beers on earth*