This past Thanksgiving I drove back to my folks place for the holiday, and I decided to make a mini-vacation out of it by driving down to central Florida to see a couple of old friends and hang out at a friend's lighting workshop during the first week of December. While there, I got a number of good shots of my friends, the models at the workshop, and two of my cousins -- I thought I would share the photos in four different blog posts -- this being the first of the four.
Meet Rostick everybody. This guy was one of my most influential instructors in photography school, and it wasn't just what he taught me about photography, but what he would teach me about life. The dude has excellent perceptions on life and all that goes along with it. He is a photographer, designer, teacher, friend, husband, and a father.
I took all of these shots at his studio in Tampa with my camera locked down on a tripod -- with the exception of the last three in the post. I like shooting like this sometimes because it allows me to carry on a conversation and interact with the subject more -- without the camera getting between the two of us. Using a cable release in addition to this allows me to kinda catch them without them even really knowing that I'm about to trip the shutter -- because they don't see me reaching for it. They can't tense up.
Rostick is a pretty animated guy as it is, but I was talking to him in a way to try and pull expressions out of him. He was a good subject, and I got the expressions I was looking for. We were talking about my frustrations in photography school, and he also was trying to convince me that I needed to marry the girl I was dating at the time. We were just talking about life in general -- and I feel like I really captured his personality in the process.
Rostick -- I think you are awesome -- and thank you for letting me capture you being you.
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| At this point he is totally disgusted that I didn't 'appear' to get what he was saying. I did get it Rostick -- you of all people have a way of making me get it -- and I appreciate you for that. |
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4 comments:
I took a class with Rostick at HCC. You definately captured his soul and spirit in these shots, they're great.
Thank you very much!
I met Robert many years ago in Atlanta and since he and his family now live in Florida I don’t get to see them any more. These photo’s made me feel as if Robert was standing in front of me giving a lecture on life! You did a great job of capturing the essence of “Rostick” as I have seen all of those expressions before. Excellent work Keith!
D from Atlanta, GA
Thanks D. I appreciate your compliment and am glad that my portraits brought back good memories of who Rostick was/is for you.
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