A Heavy Burden

When photographing a weightlifter, watch for some of the most powerful facial expressions you'll see in any sport. 

Powerlifter strains to lift the barbell during a competition in Tewksbury, Ma. (© Michael Maher, The Lowell (Ma.) Sun).

The Photo:

When I shot powerlifting for the first time, I expected to photograph big, muscular competitors holding barbells over their heads.  What I found, however, was that close-ups of them straining to lift the heavy weight made the best photos.  Therefore, throughout this event, I focused on shooting the athletes as tightly as I could, showing only the bar in their hands, excluding the weights on the end of the bars.  I also concentrated on photographing while they were lifting, not after they were finished with the barbell over their heads.  This lifter had a great expression, and almost seemed to stretch his lower lip over his top as he labored to lift the weights.

3 Tips:

1) Weightlifting does not provide fast-moving action to photograph.

2) The best photos are of the contestant’s face showing the strain or concentration of lifting the heavy load.

3) At times you may want to show the barbell and weights, but other times the facial expression is all you need.

Run Through the Sprinkler

Combine children with weather to create very powerful photos.



Young boys run through the sprinkler to keep cool on a hot summer day in Lowell, Ma. (© 1980 Michael Maher, The Lowell (Ma.) Sun).

The Photo:

It was an oppressive summer afternoon and I was searching for a picture of someone coping with the hot weather, when I spied kids playing in the water spray from a yard sprinkler. I watched for several minutes, trying to devise a unique picture. The sun was backlighting the kids and the water spray against a perfect background of dark trees, so it made for a nicely lit photo. I stood at the perfect angle to capture the backlighting, shot several images of the kids playing, including this shot that was more artistic and beautifully lit than most sprinkler photographs.  

Reminder:

1) One great weather-related picture is kids cooling off from the summer heat.

2) Sprinklers and swimming pools are the most frequent ways kids cool off.

3) Use the sunlight to highlight the subject and make it stand out again a clean, unobtrusive background.

"Rescue Me"

Listen closely to the local police radio for breaking news photo opportunities like rescues. 

When a young boy ventured from the banks of the Merrimack River and found himself stranded on rocks in the middle of the river, he was rescued by Lowell, Ma. firefighters, who rowed out to grab him, pulled him into the boat and lectured him as they rowed back to shore (© Michael Maher, The Lowell (Ma.) Sun).

The Photo:

One hot summer Sunday afternoon, a kid was discovered stranded in the middle of the Merrimack River.  The young boy had wandered along the rocks into the center of the river at a shallow spot, but when the water level began to rise, he was marooned in the middle.  When I arrived on the scene, three members of the Lowell, Ma. Fire Department were rowing out to the rescue.  I was there in time to photograph with a long lens and get a sequence of photos – the boy stranded on a rock as the boat arrived, the kid being lifted into the boat, and the fireman lecturing him sternly during the return trip to shore.  It was a compelling series of three photos that definitively told the story.  No doubt that kid learned his lesson and never did anything like that again.

3 Tips:

1) Rescue photos usually require long lenses because you typically can’t get very close.

2) The best pictures are just as likely to be of the rescuers as the people being rescued (sometimes the spectators also provide great images).

3) Look for emotional facial expressions -- intensity during the actual rescue, or relief afterwards. 

Peering Gymnast

Shy gymnast peeks while waiting to perform during Lowell, Ma. Recreation Department gymnastics competition (© Michael Maher, The Lowell (Ma.) Sun).

The Photo:

When I photographed a youth gymnastics competition, I first shot competitors in action on the balance beam, parallel bars, etc.  However, since these were very young kids, it was unlikely they would provide spectacular action or difficult feats.  I shifted my attention to other gymnasts watching, in case I could find expressions of emotion after a friend or teammate had a stellar performance.  When I pointed my camera at one girl sitting on the floor among the others, she hid her face behind her knees.  If I put my camera down or pointed elsewhere, she looked up again with face fully visible.  This went back-and-forth until she peered her eyes over the top of her knees and stared at me.  It was a charming photo for it conveyed her personality and shyness.  I often prefer the subject not look at me in a picture, but it’s perfectly acceptable in a personality photo because it expresses the person’s character more strongly when they are looking at the camera, rather than if they were merely looking away.

3 Tips: 

1) Shyness can create a charming trait for a photo. 

2) Shyness often requires repeated effort to capture. 

3) Personality photos are often much stronger when the subject looks at the camera.

Uncorking the Giant Wine Bottle

The distorted size perspective technique can provide very creative and funny photos.

Proper positioning of foreground subject Carol Maher depicts her about to uncork a giant, two-story wine bottle in the village of St. Julien in Bordeaux, France (© Michael Maher).

The Photo:
When traveling on vacation, people frequently take photos of themselves or others in front of landmarks or interesting objects. How you position the foreground and background subjects relative to one another can create an illusion of the foreground person being smaller, larger, or similar size as the background landmark. Sometimes you may want to intentionally create such an effect, like a person appearing to be the same height as the Eiffel Tower. This is called altered or distorted size perspective. As my wife and I drove along a road in the village of St. Julien in Bordeaux, France, we spotted a two-story cement wine bottle in the distance. Because we had a wine bottle uncorker in our traveling bag, we decided it would make for a humorous photo if one of us appeared to be opening the giant bottle with our tiny uncorker. We walked forward and backward several times until we got the relative size just right, and had our funny photo.

3 Tips:
1) Where you position your foreground and background subjects will determine their size in your photo relative to one another.
2) This effect, called distorted size perspective, is most often seen in travel photos, but can be used for almost any picture.
3) This technique can also create humorous pictures, such as a fellow traveler towering over a famous landmark.