A Wink and a Puff

Look how a facial expression or gesture can bring your subject's personality to life.

John Creatch shows his personality with a wink and a cigar puff in Malden, Ma. (© Michael Maher).



The Photo:
I was photographing a reunion for residents of the Edgeworth section of Malden, Ma., which I expected would be boring photos of people standing and chatting, or posing in groups around tables. I shot several photos of people interacting and most were indeed rather boring group shots. One man asked me to take his picture, but I expected nothing special, just a headshot of this one attendee. However, as I aimed and began shooting, he winked and took a puff on his cigar. When I shot several photos, he commented, “There, that should be good enough to get me in the newspaper,” and he was right. It was a great personality shot, and by far the strongest picture I got that night. Sometimes the subject provides everything you need to capture his/her personality – in this case it was both the wink of his eye and the cigar as an important prop.

3 Tips:
1) Give a subject the opportunity to express his/her personality.
2) At large gatherings or events, look for close-up facial personality photos.
3) In addition to a compelling facial expression, sometimes add a physical prop to convey more about the subject’s personality.

Bucket Basketball

Kids can be so clever and imaginative that sometimes all you have to do is shoot exactly what you see them doing.

James Cullen, left, tries to can a jumper over his friend David Dion as they improvise a game of basketball using a bucket, rope, and a ball in Lowell, Ma. (© Michael Maher, The Lowell (Ma.) Sun).



The Photo:
I accidentally came upon this photo while enroute to another event. These two boys created their own basketball equipment out of a bucket and a piece of rope, rather than walk all the way to a playground to find a real basketball hoop. They were very intense about their play, and only slowed down to retrieve the ball from the bucket when one of them made a shot. It was a creation very much like Dr. Naismith’s original peach basket. I stopped and used a long lens to shoot their play, so they barely noticed my presence as I photographed them from just across the street. They shot, jumped and rebounded aggressively, as if there was a lot at stake, and it made for a great picture when they treated this makeshift basket like a real one.

3 Tips:
1) Seek out photos of kids inventing new, creative ways to play.
2) Capture the physical intensity and body extension of kids when they are playing sports.
3) Watch for emotional facial expressions to make photos of physical feats even more powerful.