There was a phase in my days of learning photography where I experimented with doing head shots. Of course, being that I was training myself through trial and error, I was not worried about delivering the most ideal of stock photography head shots.

My style was more off the cuff and felt more like street journalism. It was all about capturing the mood, the emotions, the feel of the person in the photos.

That mean trying a lot of different styles of framing a face and playing with focal lengths, lighting, and filtering. Without going into too much details… I was just having fun trying different things whenever the opportunity presented itself.

The Time of a Close Up

During that era, there was a young lady who liked being photographed. Especially around the moments of her celebrating something or the other. There was the birthdays of course, change of seasons, and Purple Day.

Purple Day was any day that featured a purple outfit. Purple being her favorite color, that day came around pretty often. All I had to do, in exchange for having her as a muse, was let her have a digital copy of the photos for her social media. A very low cost transaction really.

One of her birthdays featured her in a different take on the color purple. The outfit was denim with the accessories in brown with the mascara being the only hint of purple. So slight was the hint, the camera didn’t capture it as such.

That day was special for reasons outside my awareness. She had an extra pep in her steps. For those who read the “Urban Runway” blog post, you know that Patna enjoyed her runway experience and using the sun to her advantage in photos.

This was no different. However, hard blazing sun is much more challenging to use in good photos. There were no birthday party photos as I had other obligations to attend with other clients during the time of her celebration.

One of the things this lady did for me, as a photographer, was give me space to experiment. The discovery of different ways of doing a pose was just as much fun for her as it was for me.

I bring this out only because I don’t like being photographed and don’t like to be posed. Not that I won’t be agreeable and do my part to make the photo come out great… I just don’t enjoy being a model. Patna enjoyed it and made it fun as well as funny. Plus, during our chats, she brought novelty. Her life experience, being extremely different from mine, meant she saw things on a wavelength I would not otherwise be tuned into.

The Focus

In this shoot, the main focus was showcasing the mascara. In hindsight, that really didn’t work out as planned. I didn’t have a reflector to balance the lighting from the sun. Mid day sun was harsh with few stray clouds to soften things up. What most people will see… is the hair. One of the few times she had her hair totally out in all of it’s glory.

At some point, I suspect that Patna will read this post… I am relaying the message a few fans of the blog left on my social media.

You’re a very beautiful lady

And

You’ve got a gorgeous pretty friend

Of course… one person asked if she was single and available… but this is not a dating site and her personal life is not going to be discussed… lol

At the end of this post, there will be a link to the Model Project section of this site where her photo gallery will live. With this link will also be linked all other posts I’ve done about Patna and any other gallery that was done with Patna.

Thank you for checking out my photography as well as enjoying my reading. I’m very happy to have the number of followers I do have. This means a lot to me and encourages me to keep on blogging.

Until we meet again, don’t be afraid of having a close up done of yourself… says the guy who avoids them… they can be a very beautiful reminder of how great moments in time were for your life (yes, I do have a few close ups of myself…not shared on this blog though…)

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the links, posts titles, and images below will direct you to the various galleries and posts. just click on the title or image to be directed to the story/gallery

The Blog Posts…

All the blog posts about Patna will be listed below…