A Bad Case of Cropping

I really hate when I take photos and the ones I favor straddle on the fine line of love and hate. Today, heading out to D.C., I sat next to this guy and all I could think about was getting a great silhouette shot of his profile. I had conjured an image of how it would like in my head and got a chance to actually execute it. Zach was a freshman in college heading out to see his uncle. He was this bright brown eyed kid who was weirded out at first when I asked if he would let me take his photo. (Normal reaction of a stranger – go figure) But when he realized it was just for Instagram he agreed. So here’s the result. The one right below is exactly how I pictured…except that the window of the airplane was too small, the stupid screen on the back seat was distracting, and Zach is a fresh faced 6 foot teenager so the profile was a bit off. Granted I still love how it came it but there’s something about it that’s not quite there.

Below is the shot I took of him naturally when he wasn’t looking. This was earlier on the flight. I had passed out afterwards from Dramamine that I didn’t have the courage to ask him until right before the sun went down. I loved this one right away. Even though I don’t like several elements like the screen, the line down the right side of the photo, and the texture of the plane, I think this one gave a lot more depth.

Ready to crop this baby, I actually hated my photo in a square format. It was too compact. For that reason, it’s not on my IG feed. I just couldn’t find a good way to make this become square. And I know why. You see his hand? I didn’t tell him to put it like that. But it creates tension. It sets the tone of the photo and almost gives this mysterious gesture to the viewer to decipher. I couldn’t cut into a square because I would lose that hand. This photo reminds me a lot of mid 18th century photos a bit. I call this photo, “A Certain Kind of Longing…”

These were taken with an iPhone 6plus edited with VSCOcam Preset X1 pulled the contrast more and pushed up the highlights a tad. The blacks in these photos are just so lush. I can’t get over it.