DPP 0811, Day 17 – Jiji

When I make a portrait of someone, I always remind myself that wherever it may be shot and however I may decide to light it, in the end, it should first tell a story about the person in the picture. I asked to photograph Jiji on a rainy Friday and she readily obliged. Since I had about an hour to prep, I got right down to the task of working out the details.

I wanted the shot to be simple, so I went for an uncluttered background. I wanted to focus on her fascinating eyes, so I had a gridded kicker light accentuate that part of her face. But, I didn’t just want a shot of her eyes, so I brought in another light to create fill. I ended up using three hot shoes flashes to get the shot above, but was happy to have gotten the look that I wanted.

When I showed Jiji the picture from the back of the camera, she said one thing that made my day — Imba. :-)#