Big Upset in Close Election

When photographing famous people, look for them showing emotion or having a natural reaction to a situation, and avoid the standard head shot.

U. S. Representative John Anderson, underdog Republican candidate from Illinois, wipes his face as the election returns come in during a tight 1980 Ma. presidential primary, where Anderson finished in a virtual dead heat with Ronald Reagan, and later became the third party candidate for President of the United States (© Michael Maher, The Lowell (Ma.) Sun).

The Photo:
The Massachusetts Republican Presidential primary was an important vote to legitimize Illinois Republican Representative John Anderson’s candidacy nationwide. He was running on the Republican ticket against Ronald Reagan and several other formidable challengers. This primary was so important that Anderson was in Massachusetts campaigning on Election Day, and would remain until the returns came in that night. Anderson made a great showing, finishing neck-and-neck with favorite Ronald Reagan, so I headed to his Boston campaign headquarters before the vote count was final. Because of this surprising result, I dearly wanted more than just the typical shot of a candidate behind a podium, with hands gesturing. After the final tally was in, Anderson stood behind the podium to thank his supporters, but when he was done, he walked through the crowd, spoke with them and shook hands. The media followed close behind, which made things very cramped, but I was able to shoot a photo of him trying to cool off from the hot TV lights and intense attention, wiping his glasses, as an aide tried to move the crowd of media back. Poor Anderson just wanted space to actually meet and greet the people who voted for him, but the large media contingent made it very hard to do. Anderson’s Ma. success launched him to later become the Independent candidate for President against Ronald Reagan and President Jimmy Carter.

3 Tips:
1) One potentially great political campaign photo is the candidate dealing with the crush of supporters and media coverage.
2) Try not to settle on the common picture of the candidate speaking from the podium.
3) The best way to get unique photos is to follow the candidate through the crowds at rallies, and capture spontaneous emotion during interactions with family, friends, supporters, and media.

Easter Dress Clothes

It's wonderful when a holiday photo can simultaneously captures a family member's personality.

Megan Maher, left, winks as she poses with her sister Colleen for her annual Easter photograph (© Michael Maher).

The Photo:
Each year, we took a photo of our daughters in their Easter clothes, sometimes with other family members or friends, other times alone together. The key to making this a great photo is capturing an outstanding facial expression and lighting the shot in a way that highlights the dress clothing. This year, the weather was nice, the sunlight was bright, so I found a dark background against which to place the children where the sun could shine on them from behind. This took awhile to set up, but the backlighting effect highlighted the bright colors of their Easter Sunday dress clothes. I took several pictures, but the kids were getting bored with the routine, and I could not get them to show any interesting facial expressions. Fortunately, Megan decided to ham it up for the camera, cocked her head, and winked at me. The beautiful highlighting of their colorful clothes and Megan’s funny wink made this one of the best Easter photos we ever took.

3 Tips:
1) For holiday portraits of your children, capture interesting facial expressions and show what their clothes look like.
2) Backlighting with the sun shining from behind is a great way to highlight colorful clothing.
3) Determine the photo you want to take and where you want to line it up before asking kids to pose, or they’ll get bored quickly.

Montreal vs. the Media

The crowds of media covering an event often provide better photos than the event itself.

Victorious Montreal Canadiens pose in a team picture for a group of photographers after defeating the Boston Bruins in six games to win the 1977-78 Stanley Cup Championship (© Michael Maher, The Lowell (Ma.) Sun).

The Photo:
For the second consecutive year, the Montreal Canadiens were in a position to win the Stanley Cup championship against the Bruins (potentially their third title in a row). I didn’t have the official press pass to go onto the ice surface and photograph the Canadiens as they were crowned National Hockey League champions, so I needed a good photographic vantage point that didn’t require special access. At first, I planned on moving down to the front row of seats to shoot the winners, like all the other fans. However, when I looked up and saw a catwalk high above the ice surface, I realized it could provide a more unusual and interesting angle. I quickly climbed to the very top of the building where I fortunately found the catwalk entrance open. As the game concluded, Montreal won the game and championship series 4-2, and I had a clear overhead view of the entire celebration, as the team skated around the rink holding the Stanley Cup aloft. I did manage several standard photos of players skating while holding the Cup overhead, but this was too common, so not very interesting. The champs quickly posed for a group photo with the Cup, and the horde of credentialed press photographers crowded into another swarm across from the Montreal team. With a 180MM lens, I easily shot this overhead perspective of the two groups, which was a compelling alternative to the typical ice level shot of players holding the Stanley Cup over their heads. Not having on-ice access forced me to come up with a strong, yet unusual, photo.

3 Tips:
1) When you don’t have the shooting position you want, be resourceful to find an alternative, more powerful photo.
2) The cheap seats high up in an arena will often give a vantage point that almost mirrors an overhead view.
3) Sometimes the crush of media coverage can provide its own unique photo.

Picked Off

Pickoff plays can provide some of the best baseball action photos.

Medford High base runner stretches in vain to get back to first base as Arlington second baseman tags him out during Arlington’s 5-4 win at Medford (© Michael Maher).

The Photo:
This was my best pickoff photo ever, even though it was one of the first baseball games I photographed. Because I understand the game, I can anticipate where action will likely occur, and use the time between pitches to stake out the best shooting position for the plays I’m expecting. As this game progressed, I frequently aimed at the bases where I thought plays would unfold, and shot several action pictures. When a fast base runner reached first with another runner on third, he took a big lead, so the pitcher threw over to first repeatedly to prevent the runner from stealing second. I positioned myself between home and first with a 200MM lens to have the option of shooting an attempted pickoff at first or a play at home. I focused on the first base bag and set my shutter speed to 1/500. On the first pitch, the batter bunted in the air to the pitcher, who quickly threw to the second baseman covering first and picked the runner off for a double play. I luckily timed the pickoff picture perfectly to capture the runner’s fingers just off the bag with the ball inside the fielder’s glove touching the runner’s body. It was an ideal pickoff shot, a direct result of anticipating the play, and putting myself in the best position to photograph it. Note that the field’s layout forced me to shoot this picture into the sun.

3 Tips:
1) Anticipate the next plays and where they are most likely to occur.
2) Reposition yourself and aim your camera to capture the plays you expect.
3) Ideally, try to avoid shooting into the sun, but sometimes it is unavoidable.

Prom Pose

Taking a good prom picture can be a big responsibility, but lighting can ensure you get the best shot possible.

Colleen Maher (L) and Danny Kane pose for their prom pictures in Chappaqua, N. Y. prior to departing for the Horace Greeley High School prom festivities (© Michael Maher).

The Photo:
How do you take the best possible prom photo? Proms are an important event in a teenager’s life, so you want the picture to be outstanding and spur fond memories in future years. It is a lot of pressure for a parent to do a stellar job of shooting the prom picture, which is why some hire professional photographers to do it. There are really only two things that matter in a prom picture – the people’s faces and their dress clothes. Capture happy expressions and show off the clothing, and you’ll have a great photo that the participants will cherish forever. Therefore, when it came time to photograph my own daughter and her prom date, I made sure it was well lit by using a technique called rim lighting. With the sun high in the sky behind the subjects, I positioned the two prom-goers against a dark background, so a halo of light surrounded their heads and well-dressed torsos. Because the sun was shining from behind, and not on their faces, I could show the joy and excitement in their expressions, which I repeatedly reminded them to display, while I took many pictures. As a father, I was delighted and relieved we managed such an outstanding prom photo. Rim lighting does result in slightly duller colors than if the sun shines from the front, but the advantage is beautiful highlighting and clear facial expressions. This technique also works well for close-up facial portraits.

3 Tips:
1) Rim lighting is a superb lighting technique for portraits.
2) Keep the sun behind your subject, high in the sky, and line up your picture against a dark background.
3) The result is a halo of light around your subject’s head and torso, with a clear view of the facial expression.

Anticipating Victory

The best photos of kids' sports capture their emotions, reactions and expressions.

Acton, Ma. Girls’ softball players react as their team explodes for six runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to rally for the win in a Youth League tournament game vs. Woburn, Ma. (© Michael Maher, The Lowell (Ma.) Sun).

The Photo:
Nearly all the action was over when I arrived during the final inning of a girls’ softball game, but I didn’t want to settle for the boring picture of last resort -- a pitcher throwing the ball. Luckily for me, this Acton girls’ softball team was in the midst of rallying after trailing for most of the contest. I had never before seen a group of kids jointly react so strongly in anticipation. The players on the bench got increasingly more excited as their team scored six runs to win. Throughout Acton’s rally, these girls showed their excitement and amazement in an increasingly animated way. I didn’t take my focus off the bench players because I knew their facial expressions would far exceed anything I could shoot on the field and, therefore, I didn’t need to photograph any action plays during this game.

3 Tips:
1) Periodically focus on the faces of players on the bench or in the dugout.
2) Use a longer lens to provide close-ups of players’ facial expressions.
3) Keep shooting until you have a powerful photo of animated expressions.

Friends

Friendship among children often creates warm, touching photo opportunities.

Three friends walk arm-in-arm together in Lowell, Ma. (© Michael Maher, The Lowell (Ma.) Sun).

The Photo:
This may have been the easiest children’s photo I ever shot. As I returned from taking another picture, I saw these three kids with their arms around one another, walking ahead with their backs to me. I stopped the car, put on a long lens, and walked behind them, following until I got the photo I wanted of them walking in a group embrace. The only hard work I had was catching up to them and getting their names for the newspaper caption. It was a warm, touching moment of three young kids genuinely showing affection for one another.

3 Tips:
1) Children often show affection for one another in a way that provides strong photos.
2) In most cases it’s better if you capture the kids’ faces, but sometimes the warm embrace is powerful enough without facial expressions.
3) These types of photos need to be shot candidly, without interrupting the touching moment.