Portrait #4—The Mini Grocer

Mini Grocer Near My House. Kurdistan, Iraq

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A year of 50 posed portraits with only one light; a project designed to improve my camera work while blessing the people I encounter. You can see older portraits here, read the rules of the project here, or leave a comment below with your feedback.

Portrait #2—The Fruit Vendor

A local Fruit Vendor, Kurdistan, Iraq

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A year of 50 posed portraits with only one light; a project designed to improve my camera work while blessing the people I encounter. You can see older portraits here, read the rules of the project here, or leave a comment below with your feedback.

50 Portraits—A Project For 2013

Happy New Year! I hope you’re well and looking forward to 2013.

In the spirit of new beginnings and unrealistic expectations, I’ve decided to try something a little different. I’ve never really committed myself to any kind one-year resolution or project; this is new.

It’s uncomfortable.

It’s over my head.

It’s the perfect thing to plaster all over the internet at risk of my own humiliation.

I’m going to take 50 posed portraits between now and the year’s-end.

If you were waiting to read something epic like shark-dueling or scaling Everest, well, sorry. But this is actually a good challenge for me. It’s a portrait a week in a year when I’m slated to travel and work quite a lot.

A few rules upfront:

1) There can only be one subject in the photo. There can be other people in the shot, but they shouldn’t be the focus. The subject also has to be human.

2) There can only be one non-ambient light source. The sun or other ambient lighting is fine, but I only get one manually-added light source. This one shouldn’t be hard to follow considering all I have is an old Canon flash.

3) The subject must be posed and aware that their picture is being taken. That means ninjaed snapshots and street photography don’t count. Each subject will be informed of the purpose of the portrait and will be offered a free 10×5″ print.

4) I have to post at least 50 of these portraits on this blog. I can post more here or in other places, but that’s the number and locale I’m aiming for.

5) I can’t just post the shots I like. Given my penchant for self-criticism, I doubt I’ll reach 50 if I only post the ones I really like anyway. Shoot, I’d be lucky to reach 10. So I’m going to show you whatever I come up with, and we’ll see if I manage to improve over time.

Now, someone in the nice, friendly suburb of Pleasantville, America might laugh at this little challenge of mine. “50? How is that a challenge? I could walk around my award-winning neighborhood and do that in 2 hours!”

Sadly, I don’t have access to that kind of sunshine.

In my town, you’re guilty until proven innocent; you’re CIA if you travel a lot, a womanizer if you talk ‘too much’ to girls, and a crusading culture-stealer if you talk ‘too much’ about your faith.

People here can be way sensitive.

Iraq has more cultural scars than I’ll probably ever understand. Eyebrows are easily raised, and can I really blame them? They’ve been used and abused by governments, despots, wars, and so on.

But I digress.

Given all that cultural bizness and my busy schedule of travel and work, I will be very pleased with 50 portraits. So stick with me and offer constructive feedback whenever you’re in the mood. If my shots are looking too similar, tell me. If you see something I should tweak or try to improve on, leave a comment.

The whole point of this is to bless people I meet and to improve my camera-work!