It’s the second Monday of the month, and I LOVE the second Monday of the month because that means all you SOARing ladies get a new photography exercise! If you remember, in March we focused on capturing Defining Details. We are breaking down the different elements to Story Telling—elements you can capture with a Point and Shoot or DSLR camera. This month we shift our focus from Defining Details toward more emotion. We are all about Capturing Conflict!

Below is the photography exercise I gave to our three SOAR! Recipients! We’ve give them a little lead time so they can be ready to share their results with you for the appointed week. Rachel, Charisse and Ali will all be posting their results on the SOAR! blog and SOARORITY forum for you to see. But for now, I encourage all of you following along to give this a try! We would LOVE to see your results on SOARORITY too!

Photography Exercise #3: Capturing Conflict

You can choose new subjects this month or work with the two subjects you chose for the Defining Details exercise last month. Work at capturing a moment of Conflict with each subject. Conflict isn’t necessarily bad or negative. It is a moment of emotion, tension, struggle, achievement, or an exchange between two people with something hanging in the balance.

For instance, consider the strong willed, beautiful three year old who wants to sit on her “own” chair for the family portrait.

It’s never what the family expects to do for their photos, but isn’t this moment in time–this developmental age for this little one–where her sincere stubbornness is the most beautiful thing about the photo!!  I LOVE it!!  This is a CONFLICT image.

When we realize we can’t fight the force of such a strong minded little one, we give in.  That’s when the magic unfolds with even more force because we allow a “new” family portrait to be created.  The “giving in” brings this wonderful sense of relief and fulfillment.  And we are left with a family photo that is genuine and right where life has us at the moment.

But for all of this to happen, we must first be open to existing in the space of tension, conflict.

(For my Photo-Recipe Lovers! It was REALLY sunny so I took advantage of all that light and dialed my ISO down to 160.  Aperture/f-stop was f/3.2.  Due to the bright sun, my Shutter Speed had to move fast at 1/2000 or 2000. )

Conflict images need to tell us something about your subjects. They make your subjects more dimensional instead of a flat, one dimensional image. The Conflict revealed in an image allows us to connect with the subject because we now identify with their struggle, achievement, tension, emotion…whether it be positive or negative. A Conflict image can be the expressions you know so well—the single expressions that say so much about the ones you love.

(For my Photo-Recipe Lovers! The Photo-Recipe is the same except the Shutter Speed slowed down because clouds rolled in.  Slower shutter to let enough light in.)

The Conflict images give us a window into their authentic lives.

Your assignment is to post 4-5 images of Capturing Conflict (think 2-3 favorites from your shoots with each subject) on the SOARORITY forum so we can all get a look! And please speak up if you want constructive criticism or a BIG pat on the shoulder for doing it. We have plenty of both at SOARORITY!

Our focus is on the art of Storytelling. Regardless of technical know-how, storytelling images are what impacts people. And you can get storytelling image on Auto Mode with a little direction. If you have a low f-stop lens, like the 50mm lens, take advantage of it’s ability to give you buttery, blurry backgrounds.

If you missed the Defining Details Photography Exercise from March, CLICK HERE!

Looking forward to seeing how you Capture Conflict at SOARORITY!

xo,
m

p.s.  BIG HUG and thank you to Shannon for letting me share your Denver Mini Session in today’s blog!  MWAH!

p.s.s.  For NY Mini Session Details, CLICK HERE!