Ending my summer internship, I had the opportunity to travel a little bit. I had the pleasure of traveling to Washington D.C. for Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity's 100th year anniversary. Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. is a Historical black fraternity with members that range from Bill Clinton to Huey P. Newton. This celebration even received recognition from President Obama. The most challenging part of shooting was deciding how far I would go to get the perfect shot. At that moment I realized what an older photographer taught me. He said " if your holding the camera, it gives you a license to get as close to the action you want." Remembering those words, without fear I rushed to the front of tens of thousands of spectators to capture history as it unveiled in front of my eyes.
After that I stopped in Chicago to shoot some Head Shots of Demetris and Yeneba Smith. I come from a journalistic background so the most challenging thing to do with head shots is to make your images look as organic as possible. Instead of posing my subjects in unnatural positions, I tend to position them in ways that compliment there body type and relax them. For example Demetris Smith (the male subject) has a very broad muscular chest that prevented him from crossing his arms, at least in a way that visually looked comfortable and natural. So instead I had him place his hands in his pockets or fold his hands for most of the shots. Yeneba Smith is a Mary Kay Consultant and we took some head shots for her social media platforms. She was a pleasure to work with. Overall I was pleased how the images turned out and the images are now being used on Yeneba Smith's linked in account.
