Madison Square Park: A Photoshoot Narrative

I conform to the idea of looking at imagery past image quality. There's just got to be something else to look for other than judging how perfect a picture looks. To follow Alexandria on IG, check out @alexwarrenwavyy

Our common goal for this shoot was to make casual portraits with afternoon light and include some features of the place. I also wanted to embrace the highest ISO capacity of my DSLR regardless of grain or digital noise. So, being able to predict a technical flaw and embrace it helped me set my attention on another puzzle, her hight. Alexandria is an imposing model standing tall at well over 6 feet. Choosing to photograph her from different vantage points put a checkmark on that soon after we began shooting, giving us portraits with different dynamics and less conventional, which is always right by my standards!

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With image quality concerns out of the equation, and experimenting with different angles of view, I also began considering focal length and how compressing the background would add something more to the final result. So, knowing that I wanted to compress the background to remove distracting elements, I brought my 200mm F2.8, which proved to be worth the extra weight.

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Besides my wide-angle zoom and 200mm lens, I also brought my 50mm F1.4, my standard choice when doing on-location portraits. As I sat next to Alexandria to shoot pictures of her on a park bench, using that lens choice allowed me to get an exciting eye-level angle of view that conveys both a casual but confident look.

For me, when it comes to facing a challenge, hardly anything is more helpful than being practical. The longer I freeze thinking of a problem, the less I'm creative. With this session with Alexandria, I kept on shooting as I observed how cool she looked from low angles, so the trick was not to stay still.