The Power of Subject

During my Death Valley Eastern Sierra Experience Workshop I was taking some candid shots of the participants while they were in their moments of shooting the light at it’s peak. In the first image the arch is the main subject and in the second image it’s the photographer and what he is doing. I noticed the 2nd image to be even more powerful then the first and with a little bit of patience I was able to capture both images.

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Model Releases in Landscape Photography

In the scene here I saw a man walking towards the sun so I quickly adjusted the shutter for a hand held shot. I approached this stranger to tell him I just got a picture of him that I really like and maybe he would like it too. Turns out he didn’t speak any english and my spanish isn’t very broken so after about three sentences with no getting through to the guy I just showed him the photo.

He looked at me and said in spanish is that me? I said yes in excitement but he didn’t have an email address. I like to give someone something if I’m going to ask for a model release and this time the language barrier wasn’t not helping me. Now I’ve memorized how to explain this better next time.

You never know when you’re going to need a release so even if you do run into a language barrier you can still try to speak with your hands as much as possible or look for someone nearby to help you. If you have something you can offer instantly in exchange after getting a big no on signing a release, it may get you another chance.

Short tip on shooting silhouettes, shooting a silhouette can often be over looked in the days of HDR. In the quick passing moment there wasn’t enough time to set up for an HDR image anyway. One thing to look for is strong shapes.