Nancy

Another portrait from Africa. I can't really go back and re-shoot any, so I know that photographically, they leave something to be desired. But I love the beautiful smiles these women live out in their lives and show in these photos.

I have 2312 photos from two weeks spent there. 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.

Apparently Nancy can't really sew. But they've found two other things that she does very well, and she divides her time. They tell me that she is brilliant at matching colors and choosing fabrics to put together. So she will go through their stash and pull out (and cut, like she's doing here) the fabrics for some of Amani's products, to be sewn together by someone else. Then she spends the rest of her time helping Rose in the export department. She looks so young, doesn't she?

I know that I could have cropped in a lot closer, but I really wanted to include her environment. You can see a bit of scrap fabric on the table next to her arm and piles of fabric behind her. Is the background sufficiently blurred? Do you think that I should have cropped it close anyway? Any other thoughts?

I will look forward to hearing from you..... :-)

Any comments or ratings are appreciated! :-)

Nice portrait, Lou Ann. The eyes are sharp, and have a glint in them. I like the crop. Do you have enough room to rotate it so the window panes are straight across?

You know, I tried that, Barry ... and maybe I'll work on it a little bit more. But if I rotate it, then she looks like she's leaning forward at an odd angle. So I favored having Nancy look straight and the window panes looking crooked. Maybe I'll try the "transform" tool in PS when I'm on my own computer to see about straightening them.... Thanks for the visit! I'll e-mail you in a few days to talk about Oklahoma!!

I agree, Lou Ann, it's definately about the smiles and the desire to smile. These smiles here are so genuine. As for the window frame, I don't believe it is a great problem, but if you wish to correct it you might try a perspective correction on the BG if you can separate and layer the image. It's a lot of work but I believe possible. The smiles make the photographs for me. Can hardly wait to see the animals. Regards, ~Sky

I will definitely get to the animals within the next few weeks. I'm itching to play with those shots. :-)

Beauifully captured smile...congrats...LJ