50/50portraits, #1

I’ve had a couple of different ideas recently for photo projects I want to do, but only yesterday did I make any effort to begin on the more recent of the two. I’m calling it 50/50portraits.

Typically, a “portrait lens” is between 75mm to about 135mm, and even 75mm is pushing it on the short end. Generally a longer focal length and relatively small aperture is wanted, to create that shallow depth-of-field, “selective focus” look. But photography being an art, you can really take portraits with any lens. That said, 50mm is not the norm for portraiture. So, to challenge and motivate myself, I’m going to be doing 50 portraits — over I have no idea how many months, but I’m hoping it won’t take too long — with my Fuji 35mm f/2 lens, which gives a 50mm equivalent field of view. I love doing portraits, and want to get better at it. So this series will be a simple one for me to work on, but hopefully one that will produce results I’ll be very proud of. I’m also hoping you’ll enjoy the images, as I’ll be sharing all of them here on the blog.

So without further ado, here is the image I shot yesterday, September the 15th, 2016.

Trent Michael, at Joliet Junior College — 50/50portraits, #1

— Joel