Monday, January 19, 2009

Learning curve and a portrait



Monday January 16, 2009. Happy Martin Luther King Day and the eve of President elect Barack Obama's inauguration.

It has been a while since I have posted. Since my final day at the Tribune (Jan.2) much has happened. I attended a 4 day photography convention presented by the Professional Photographers Association in Phoenix last week. It was my first time ever attending a convention like this. As my friend said to me; "you already know how to take pictures what you need to learn now is how to run a business". So True! For the most part I stayed out of the Photoshop classes and attended the business classes. The common thread through it all was branding, marketing and keeping track of your costs. OK! There it is in a nutshell. Now that's worth the price of admission to this blog.

I have much learn in a relatively short amount of time. Thank God Freedom Communications gave us severance packages.

About the photo above. I have continued to work with a family friend on his book. This portrait is a departure from my photojournalism background in that it is sepia toned and retouched in post production. No can do in photojournalism without labeling it an illustration. I'm not usually a big fan of sepia but in this case his features are so strong I thought it looked great. Feedback is always appreciated.

2 comments:

Julio Jimenez said...

The photo looks great Brad. I am not a sepia guy either but it works great with this subject. The tint adds interest to the photo and does not distracts from your subject's good looks.

Bettina Hansen said...

of course it looks great. good to see you're turning it around. I started my internship in Baton Rouge a couple weeks ago and have successfully been dropped back to the bottom rung of the ladder. so here goes the hard work.

I also just got back from a great convention/workshop/whathaveyou, with the Chips Quinn Scholars program. I am ridiculously inspired to do some great work now and am trying to get it all done in the honeymoon afterward.

Don't work too hard and talk to you soon,

bettina