Philippolis Portraits

Still at 1030km...

Before we leave Philippolis (I think you might have had enough by now! ) i will show my last few portraits I made here...

With my big camera slung over my shoulder I took a very early morning walk through town. I also had my small little X1 with me for quick portraits. As I walked and photographed the buildings I would come across early risers and ask them if I could take their photograph. All said yes, these small towns have very friendly people!

              Johan Louw, 30 year resident in Philippolis, fixes old trucks and drills water boreholes...

I like to call these portraits, 'simple portraits', because that's what they are...no posing, straight from the front usually against a plain wall or background and  natural or available light. In fact most of the time I just photograph them were I find them, like Clair in the previous post. I usually only take about 6 images on average, I figure if I am not going to get it right with 6 images I am never going to get it right. I normally ask them not to smile, some insist and then I just let them, ...and that's it.

 The X1 camera has a few memory settings so that one can set up ones preferences before the time and as the situation arises choose the best option. With portraits I normally use 'face recognition' setting and an aperture of f5.6 which should render most of the face and body in focus. I have a little viewfinder on top of the camera that I look through and frame with. There are no focus indicators in this optical viewfinder so I need the face recognition to focus with because I can't see where the camera is focusing if I use other modes to focus with....a bit complicated,  but the camera has a few flaws and this is one way of working around them. My other problem is that the flash on the camera broke and is now always on. I don't like to use flash and not wanting to send it in to be fixed  ( and wait the 8weeks for repairs !) I just use the 'drive' setting which means the camera will take up to 6 images in 2 or 3 seconds. On 'drive' the flash is disabled.  This actually works fine and I have gotten used to my 6 images at a time mode of working.....!

click on images to enlarge...

Irene, on her way to the bus stop, she's going to visit relatives...

Irene's daughter Paleso... 

Kent Forster owner of the Foodzone supermarket...

Diana Rose on her way to work...

Lisa, a policemans wife and son Tumelo on the stoep...

For my 'simple portraits' I have one more step and that is to crop the image square....I find that it enhances the 'simplistic' nature of my portraits... I mean what is more uncomplicated than a square...? It must be a hangover from my film days where I often used  Hasselblad and Mamiya square format cameras. Of course with digital chips so very expensive to make I don't think we will be seeing many square formats soon...

Irene's other daughter Lebo..

regards, Ivan...