My Mom (2009)

Posted by Melissa W. (Warsaw, Indiana, United States) on 23 February 2009 in People & Portrait and Portfolio.

Here's the story about this pic: basically, my Mom needed a profile pic for Facebook...er, actually, I've been bugging her to upload a profile pic for awhile now.

Well, when I was finished taking photos of my Grandpa, I had my Mom sit for a few. Thought I'd kill two birds with one stone...I get to work on lighting, and she ends up with a photo to post.

For the most part, I like this image. I really like her pose, but I wish I had some fill for her left side. Oh well, what can I say, I'm just learning.

Strobist info: Canon 430EX speedlite fired via Canon ST-E2 into a 43" Westcott white satin umbrella (shoot-thru) camera left. The speedlite was set on manual and was adjusted according to the histogram on my LCD.

Listed on Photoblogs.org

Comments (13)

Darin from Seattle, United States

Very nice portrait of your mother. Lighting can definitely be a tricky thing. I'm just learning myself.

23 Feb 2009 8:16pm

Simply Col from Winnipeg, Canada

I think this portrait of your mom is very nice indeed. I have yet to venture into this aspect of photography but your work has me wanting to try.

23 Feb 2009 8:43pm

Rags from Plano, United States

you took an awesome image. I think it is cool that your mom is on facebook.

24 Feb 2009 4:55am

Ron from Saint Louis, United States

My first inclination is to say the fill on the left side isn't necessary. When I really look deeply, I begin to see how soft fill on her left could help -- lighten the slight shadow on her nose, brighten her cheek, brighten her hair. I have to say that the light on her right is beautifully flattering -- soft and delicate. You're right ... the pose is really natural and flattering ... the blue really adds a nice touch of color amidst all the darker tones. It really is a lovely portrait. BTW ... thanks for your detailed response back to me on yesterday's post ... I really do appreciate it ... ron

24 Feb 2009 5:52pm

Graham Russon from Cape Town, South Africa

Thats a great portrait, very professional. Nice one.

24 Feb 2009 7:25pm

alex centrella from California, United States

well caught !

24 Feb 2009 9:25pm

alex centrella from California, United States

a lovely portrait of your mother !

24 Feb 2009 11:19pm

Jen from Alpharetta, United States

Very nicely done...and I like the left side.

25 Feb 2009 2:19am

Steven from Chicagoland, United States

A very natural and pleasing smile your mother has. Lighting is good, too. Like the other have said, I don't think any additional fill is needed.

26 Feb 2009 6:35pm

danthro from Suburbia, United States

seems like everyone's getting on facebook these days. great straightfoward portrait. i'm sure this comes as no surprise, but i can definitely see a very strong resemblance to her daughter. :)

28 Feb 2009 1:40am

Edward James from New Hampshire, United States

Great work on your lighting. I really want to try this kind of stuff.

1 Mar 2009 12:56am

Twelvebit from Victoria, United States

I guess I'm a cynical suspicious radical --guess....ha ha.... I know-- but you'll never see me with a facebook page or a profile photo --especially on a face book page. To each his own, but you might want to give consideration to just how helpful such a collection of information might be to someone with less than honorable intentions. It doesn't take much to have your identity stolen and it's a major effort to put things right afterwards (and I speak from experience). I'd be especially wary about providing any information on children. The more personal information out there, the easier it is to exploit. Yes, the odds of abuse may be low, but they must be balanced against what benefits? --and the very high potential costs of abuse.

10 Mar 2009 9:57pm

@Twelvebit: This is part of the reason I don't have a Myspace acct, but I caved into Facebook. Your comment made me consider how much information I have on my FB. I've made some adjustments to the privacy settings. I was "this" close to doing away with it altogether. I understand what you mean, and I'm sorry you had to go through that. I think a lot of us put so much personal information out there without even realizing who's looking at it and what they could do with it.

Twelvebit from Victoria, United States

It's a trade off between risk/consequences and convenience. The internet wasn't our problem. Someone raided our checking account by stealing a bill payment from our mailbox. Apparently, it's a common fraud to steal a bill payment from a mailbox, get the account information, and then send the payment on its way so none is the wiser. We would have had a much bigger problem except that the people who did it were incompetent and scrambled the information between stolen accounts.

The first thing you have to do is prove to the bank and the police that you're not the one running the scam. I know of someone who lost her purse and had her credit cards used for some major purchases: she was the number one suspect until the card was used out of the country while she was still in it. One thing we learned is that the banks and the stores that take checks are way easier to scam than any moderately intelligent person might suppose. The fraud started by this team "depositing" a phony check and making a cash withdrawal, and the bank coughed up the money in spite of the fact that it violated two or three elements of its own check/deposit policy --and they did it more than once.

So, the risk was very small. We'd put payments like this in the mailbox for the letter carrier to pick up for 25 years. One incident in 25 years is pretty low risk. However, the one time it caused a problem entirely negated the convenience of mailing anything from our own mailbox. All mail now goes into a USPS box.

In terms of personal information on the internet the risk is probably low --though I'd guess higher than the check fraud we experienced, as it is subject to remote automatic computerized collation-- but for me, that risk is not offset by any conceivable benefit. I'm not even comfortable with the amount of personal information conveyed by my photoblog, but it does provide some perceivable personal benefit to me, and the information provided is not concentrated on one page, though with some effort, I'm sure someone can learn way more about me from it than I'd like.

11 Mar 2009 2:28pm

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Canon EOS 30D
1/30 second
F/5.6
ISO 200
50 mm