One challenge of this job is making interesting pictures of uninteresting scenes. Take a county commissioners meeting: we have a room full of people watching three other people speak about Coos County. Visually uninteresting. We don’t cover these meetings unless there’s controversy. There has been a ton of controversy surrounding Assessor Adam Colby. You can read about it here. On Tuesday Colby’s lawyers addressed the commissioners board in response to a letter they wrote warning Colby that he must change his alleged abusive managerial practices. So I’m tasked with making an interesting picture in this dull environment with virtually not action that somehow represents the story. Not easy. But patience will usually persevere.
The key to a situation like this is watching through the viewfinder and waiting for something interesting to happen. Interesting in this case is body language. Compare these images. I composed the frame and waited for body language. Colby is on the right, flanked by his two lawyers. I’m sitting on the floor with a wide-angle lens. I chose this position because I can see Colby’s face, which is the main element of focus of this story.
Can you see the difference between the two images? The first image conveys a sense of frustration with the on-going controversy. It shows that something isn’t quite right. The second is practically the same image, but it’s unclear what the emotion of the scene is supposed to be. Pretty much a dull moment. Don’t get me wrong, a hand to the face isn’t an amazing moment, but it’s something.
It’s always nice to get multiple images from different distances i.e. focal lengths. I threw on the telephoto lens, composed the frame and waited again for something interesting. I noticed that Colby would puff up his chest when his lawyer made a compelling point and would glance over at the commissioners. The focal point of this image is his eye. I waited for him to glance and clicked the shutter just before his eye reached the apex of the glance. The glance happened quickly and there’s a small delay in most shutters, so it’s important to learn how to anticipate. If you saw the action through the viewfinder, you missed it. That’s because in SLRs the mirror is lifted to expose the film or sensor and thus the viewfinder is black during the exposure.
It can be awkward positioning yourself directly in front of someone and point a camera in his or her face, but it’s often the best angle. Be confident in your roll as a photographer, wait and watch through the viewfinder for the subject to ignore you and begin snapping pictures.
World Photos by Benjamin Brayfield
