Rebecca

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.

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! :-)

I love all the bold colors, from the wall behind her to her dress. Great portrait in my opinion! Hope you had fun. Cole

what a lovely collection of portraits! these are truly beautiful women in every sense of the word. i think this is the smost successful of the portraits so far, since she doesn't have the bright hot spots on her face or the harsh shadow behind. was this one shot with natural lighting? i think the portrait of Elizabeth is very nice as well, although not as sharp as this one. i would love to hear all about your experiences here. sounds like it could make a terrific book!

Thanks, Linda - yes, this was the only one of the portraits uploaded so far that was taken outside without a flash. The rest were indoors and needed a flash (because of the photographer's unsteady hand!)

I have a blog about my trip: http://www.louannsplace.com/Africa/Africa2007.html I am almost done updating it (maybe three more posts), but it's a lot of reading. I'll try to tell little stories here as I post more photos. :-)

Hi Lou Ann. I'd say there's too much happening here. I'd have moved her well away from that wall. At wide aperture, that would throw those intricate designs sufficiently out of focus to make for a very nice abstract background. And again I'd crop to focus on her face. Her dress is very nice but very bright, as is the blue scarf, so again these elements are competing with the main subject of the photo - Rebecca.

Again, about the metering, take it from a mid-tone, or bracket the exposure, checking the histogram for each shot (sorry for going all technical on you! :)

Best regards from Kenya,

Mark

I like her face Lou Ann, beautiful features and warnm smile, I agree though about the BG. and try to lower the intensity( PS) of her scarf.( as mark suggested).

 

It looks that you have really made a lot of friends there, and did a real good work with them. Nice to see you back!