While my alma mater, the University of Michigan didn’t bring home the NCAA hoop championship, I can’t complain. It was a good run. Watching the Final Four at the alumni bar here in Seattle with the Michigan faithful young and old is always a blast. Nothing like spilling beer and BBQ sauce on complete strangers only to look at it each other shrug it off and get back to singing HAIL TO THE VICTORS.
Which leads me to this photo, of Steve. I spotted Steve during the Chinese New Year festivities on the crowded streets of the International District. He was hard to miss, donned in Michigan gear head to toe. Despite walking with a slight hobble due to age, he walked proud. This was a portrait I had to take. I thought I lost him in the crowd, until I spotted him resting on a bench at Hing Hay Park. I struck up a conversation with him which was easy to do, being that we had common ground, I was wearing a Michigan ball cap that day. I extended my hand to him and said “GO BLUE!” He took my hand and shook it firmly an replied the same, an emphatic “GO BLUE!” During our chat the he told me he was about to turn 93 years young and attended the University of Michgan in the early 1940’s.
This is Steve. He’s a proud Wolverine. GO BLUE and GO STEVE.
Street portraiture, takes balls. Street photography is already risky enough, without interfering with the natural order of things. I’m comfortable just observing. But for me this isn’t about being comfortable. Thus the reason, I started dabbling in film again. I grew to comfortable relying on the digital crutch. For the record, I love that crutch. It’s about stretching myself, getting out of my comfort zone learning something new while honing technique. When you cross that line, and assert yourself to approach a complete stranger and ask to take their photo who the hell knows what’s going to happen. It’s that very thing, the fear of the unknown, rejection, acceptance…perhaps a decent portrait. All they can really do is say no, or take your camera and beat you in the face with it.
The Hasselblad is a perfect tool for portraiture and I hoped to do it justice during the Chinese New Year festivities in Seattle. Here’s my first shot, I took a deep breath and approached this young lady and asked for a portrait. She seemed friendly enough, she’s holding a puppy after all. Told her I was shooting film and it would take just a moment (buying time) as I took a light reading. She gladly obliged, and the sweet thud of the Hasselblad shutter released my nervous energy and we parted ways. What seemed like forever, only took seconds. More street portraits to come.
Shout out to my photographer friends who have given me some inspiration, they have big balls.
One an early summer day in Washington, DC last year, a friend of mine asked me “who will photograph the photographers?” As photogs we’re rarely in photographs, let alone photographs taken with our own cameras. We often cringe when someone picks up our gear to take a photo, it’s like picking up a body part. Leave my camera alone, get out of my personal space. These photos were taken at one of my favorite spots in Seattle, Local 360, you can usually find me there every weekend for breakfast. The coffee is good and the light in there makes for some nice photos. These images were made with my trusty Canon 7D. I’m schooling a friend who wants to take photography seriously again. She picked up my 7D and didn’t do too bad. I’ve given my old Canon 20D to this pupil, as it was just collecting dust. Each one. Teach one.
This past weekend I biked in the annual D.C. Tweed Ride produced by Dandies and Quaintrelles. What a day. The weather gorgeous, the people beautiful, and bikes dandy. A portion of the proceeds from the Tweed Ride went to Arts for the Aging. Not only did I bike, I also photographed the ride. This was no easy feat with my hulking Canon 7D hanging from my neck. Don’t bike and photograph boys and girls. I’ve organized the photos into sets and here is the first in which I’ve simply titled – Portraits in Tweed. Stay tuned for the rest coming later this week.
Walking into the sea of people prior to the H Street Festival a couple of weekends ago I didn’t know what to expect. I did know that I wanted to leave the street festival with at least one or two “good” portraits. Looking for subjects to photograph isn’t for the faint of heart. I took a deep breath before approaching my subject below who just looked at regal as ever in his Sunday best taking in all the H Street revelry. “Sir can I take your photo?” Sure he replied in a hushed voice, let me go inside and put on my jacket. As he walked inside he asked that I photograph his buddy as well. So there you have it, two “good” portraits.
I had liveBooks install my blog thinking I could customize it the way I wanted. FAIL. But I’ll make do with what I have and hope liveBooks will make improvements in the future. I also wanted to keep everything under one URL tracyclayton.com for my portfolio and tracyclayton.com/blog for what you see here. I’ll stop bitchin’ now and start shooting more photographs.
You may have seen the video produced by the talented Brandon Bloch for ReadysetDC. During the shoot, which we did in one day I took some stills that were to be incorporated in the video. Instead, the shots were laid to rest on the cutting room floor.
