Week 18: It's All About the Environment

environmental portrait

I knew when I put this on the list that it would be a difficult one that would challenge me but I was enthusiastic when I made the list, I guess.  I had grand ideas about reproducing some great environmental portraits that I have seen in photography books...the oil rig worker in all his gear and full of grease with the machinery behind him, the very old Asian woman selling her produce at the market, that awesome photograph of the firefighter in Alberta surrounded by smoke...the list goes on.  The reality is that I am not a person who will approach strangers and ask to photograph them - no matter how sternly I talk to myself about it.  I considered people I know who would make interesting environmental portraits and came up with...nothing!  Perhaps my creativity and imagination are lacking.  As a last resort, I made Levi pose for me.  Well, pose is a bit of an overstatement...I asked him to do what he usually does at home when there isn't anything else going on...hang out in his beanbag chair with his technology.  Voila - an environmental portrait of a teenager.  In the spirit of full disclosure, I did tidy up the books beside him.

Note both the phone and ipad in use at the same time.  Usually the ipod is involved as well and often the computer is the main item of interest.  To give him credit, Levi does a lot of writing on the computer, his ipod only has audiobooks on it and he watches documentaries on his ipad.  The phone is the least useful screen he has and he rarely uses it (I know, not quite a typical 15 year old).

Another sort of environmental portrait of a cat being where she is not supposed to be - on the desk.

And I made a quick trip to see if the tulips were in bloom at Bellevue Park.  Only one was and it was just past its prime.

The daffodils were lovely.

As were the weeds in the grass...

When I got home and was chatting with Levi and Murray outside, we were buzzed by a butterfly so I stalked him with my long lens.

That's it for this week.  Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there.