Family album

I turned my attention to a different project today, recruiting my daughter as a model in the process.

My blog entry on October 4 described a project concerned with the visual language of the photograph and my intention to use as an example a picture Norman Parkinson took of the model Anne Chambers in Bath.

I liked Parkinson's idea of using a pillar to emphasise the rule of thirds and chose to take my picture at the Pittville Pump Rooms in Cheltenham - a building blessed with a number of doric columns.

I also tried to employ some of the other techniques Parkinson used, such as using contrasts in tone to make the model stand out and trying to introduce an air of mystery by partially obscuring the model behind a pillar.

I took a lot of shots, including some taken closer in. I've read somewhere that you should always avoid harsh shadows when taking fashion-type photos, but I quite liked the hat shadow on shots like the one below. 

To be honest, rules are there to be broken, especially in the creative world. The photographer Erwin Blumenfeld immediately comes to mind as someone who was constantly trying new techniques - and producing great shots in the process.

And in the photo below, it's not the shadow that grabs the attention, but Sally's smile. That's the way it should be.