hannah.....

In thinking about my third assignment I have decided to photograph my little sis Hannah. She is about 12 years younger than me and a really interesting person. My aim is to perhaps bridge the age gap between us and get to know her differently through photographing her. I have done a few shoots so far and them are some of my favourite shots of her so far.

Han is a horse rider so I put her on a horse for a photo shoot. The above image is my favourite of that shoot. She had such intensity in her eyes looking straight at me - it actually freaked me out when I was taking the shot. I think she is so good on camera and seems to be able to open herself up emotionally. Which is something I didn't expect from my normally quiet and reserved sis.

The other day I came away from the low light photography lecture very inspired to give it a go. So under the pretence of dinner and a movie I picked Han up after work and we headed to North Hobart. I took my camera into the movies with me but on the way in and out I played around with shooting her in the street scape. I don't have a flash other than the small one on my camera (and i don't really like the effect of them anyway). So I used my 50mm lens which goes down to f1.8 which helped crank as much light in as possible as well as my highest ISO of 6400. I actually love the graininess of the high ISO but of course with such a big depth of field, focusing was my main problem. But I figure out in order to beat a too slower shutter speed, I found if I purposely under exposed, I could use a faster shutter speed and get less blur.

After doing the exercise of shooting grey, white and black paper in class that day, I also learnt that I can underexpose 4 stops of my camera to get black looking true black so knowing this gave me the confidence to play around in the area below the centre light reading and still know I could get a useful picture that I could raise the exposure later during processing.

It was great fun and this was my favourite shot below. I was really pleased to see how the yellow light of the street light above transferred really well into black and white.

The other great thing about shooting a night time is I can achieve a more voyeristic style to my photos which helps to create the mood of trying to get to know her almost without her knowing I am. Which is certainly the more interesting of the shots I have done so far.
I have lots more ideas brewing and would love to play around with painting her with light in pitch black, perhaps whilst she is sleeping? Also quite a voyeristic image. Trying to capture her when she is at her most unaware. This shot I took outside her bedroom window, back at her house after I dropped her off.

Han in her kitchen window.

The next shot is one I took of Han at work. She is a medical receptionist. I really like image. I think the phone cord is a nice line through the frame that leads up to her face.

This pic is of her leaving work after dark that evening. Playing around with frames within the frame.

And this next photo is my favourite image of Han with her friends before going out to a party last Saturday night. This image is much stronger to me and more interesting the the earlier shoots I did with her. I think I'm starting to learn! So much more to do though. I'm starting to feel that summing Han up in a few short weeks before the assignment is due is a lot to ask and perhaps a little presumptuous to attempt in the first place. The more I shoot her the more I want much more time to follow her and capture those images with that little bit of magic in them. Rather than just the nicely composed ones. I only want to deliver images I am really happy with and feel like i'm running out of time with both our schedules to get enough time to shoot her in varied settings.

photos of the day - sick girl

Our beautiful little girl has been unwell this week. It's so worrying and energy sapping for us both to see her not her usual bubbly self. She is such a strong brave one though and tough, really tough. Our usually bright independent girl has needed us close by, if not touching all week and there is something so powerful about being needed so much and being able to give such comfort. I feel useful in the most important way. Thankfully she is finally getting better. Time to breathe out.