This week Shane asked us to look up Bryan Schutmaat. I am very thankful that he did. I hadn't ever heard of Bryan, other than in our class and I find his photos inspiring and deeply layered with hidden stories and meanings behind every photo. Anyone can take a picture. Pretty much anyone can create a well balanced, clean shot.. But, Bryan's work makes me understand the phrase "A picture is a secret about a secret." I really feel the emotions that Schumaat captures in his work, I think that is what makes a good photo. What makes an amazing portrait is capturing the essence of the person and the feeling of the time. Photography allows us to keep a part of the past, to remember that exact moment of that exact day and sometimes is beautiful, sometimes it's unfair but, most of all it's magic. Bryan Schumaat's portrait that I have attached features a girl that could be anywhere from her mid-teens to mid twenties in age with a gorgeous burnt orange mane. She appears to be a waitress at a diner or small restaurant and she seems either pre-occupied or melancholy. The texture of her hair and her clothes are very pronounced while Bryan used an out of focus background like many of his portraits which I love. I have tried that before when I play with my own photography but Shane doesn't seem to be a big fan of my out of focus work. Ya win some and ya lose some though right? Anyway.. what makes a great portrait in my point of view is catching your subjects in one of their most natural moments. I hate staged photos although many times my subjects are placed in a staged background. Just catching them being human or doing something imperfect usually creates a view into their mind and their world that you couldn't usually catch in just sitting with them socializing. The other picture I added is my favorite landscape by Bryan Schumaat. I love the fluidity of the picture and how deep the depth of focus is. The landscape seems almost like liquid, like a slowing river. The picture is powerful to me and at the same time provokes feelings of somewhat being overwhelmed or disoriented. I think that lighting and depth of field and using your place in your landscape to your advantage and knowing how to. You can't really tell how he got this picture or I can't anyway. I'm thinking he was either hand holding at a higher vantage point or he was using a very tall tripod. I feel like he took the picture higher up for some reason... even though with the slope of the landscape you'd think he would be down hill. When creating a great landscape, capturing the flow of the land and making the place a Narnia of sorts is very important to me at least.
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