Simprosa

I'm back from Africa. I have 2312 photos from two weeks. I actually could easily have taken more, but I was actually working as a volunteer, so I didn't have a lot of time to use my camera. :-) Anyway, I thought I'd start with some photos of the women I worked with. The organization is called Amani ya Juu, which in Swahili means, "Higher Peace". It is a reconciliation project, teaching marginalized women to sew so that they can have a trade and thus support themselves and their families.

Simprosa is the mother of two little boys. Her husband also works at Amani, and helped found a new small ministry to men sponsored by Amani. Simprosa is one of the most gentle and calm people I have ever met. She runs the shop where Amani products are sold in Nairobi.

Photographically, do you think that the hot spots on her skin are too hot? Exposure of her skin? DOF? Any other thoughts?

I'm anxious to hear from you..... :-)

Any comments or ratings are appreciated! :-)

There are hot spots, (especially the teeth!). The color is nice. I find that the shadow behind her head detracts from the rest of the image. Shooting with a softened flash probably would have helped with the hot spots.

Nice as well Lou Ann, yes you used a fluch( a camera fluch? ) a difuser or an external stronger flusj would have helped I think, because the shadow behind distract. as a portrait is is nice, good skin tones even with the hot spots....

 

Glad to see you safly back!

Hi Lou Ann :)

Softened flash and/or bounced flash would have definitely helped, but also moving her as far from the wall as possible, especially if you were oly using the pop-up flash.

Framing wise, it brings more attention to her face, but perhaps too much at the bottom and too little at the top. Again, cropping out her sweater would help.

I do like the angle of her face to the camera and I reckon the exposure was good too, revealing the detail in the twists on her hair...

Hope I'm helping...

Mark :]