Interview with ANDREW SMITH... owner of Cuba Gallery.

Andrew Smith is a photographer from New Zealand. He is the owner of a small online gallery which specializes in Lightroom material such as presets and tutorials. The gallery also gives designers access to purchasing imagery for commercial use. Check it out here www.cubagallery.co.nz

1Q) Can you please tell us the story behind this portrait?

This shot was taken purely because I loved the location, I felt it would be perfectly suited to an interesting portrait. It had some great light coming through the window - I wanted to take advantage of it.

"I like reality"... interview with DAN OARA.

Dan is artist from Romania, currently living in London. He contacted me and asked if I'm looking for photographers. His portfolio is amazing so i chose him to be the featured on Mad about Portraits blog today.

If you want to be featured here as well please contact me! You can find my email on the right side of MaP blog, or you can leave comment under this post. 

1Q) Can you please tell us the story behind this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot this person?

This photo is a part of a series of portraits that I'm preparing on for my final exam. I took this photo while I was on holiday in my native country Romania. These two girls are friends of mine which I start to photograph this year. Most of my works are double portraits so I like to use different female expressions to create an atmosphere.

All the light in the photo is natural. IT is in an old house with high ceiling which makes the composition more complex.

"Spend time with your subject"... interview with MAREK WYKOWSKI.

Marek is a talented photographer from Poland, currently living in Munich. 

1Q) Can you please tell us the story behind this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot this person?
This picture was taken last summer in Casablanca. After a couple hours of shooting I was already on my way back home, but started talking with some people I met and I found this guy intriguing. It was already late, the light was low but I thought I will give it a try. Well, the result isn't technically perfect, but the overall atmosphere of the picture is nice.

11 great portraits taken with NIFTY FIFTY 50mm f1.8

Another 11 reasons to buy this unique and incredibly cheap portrait lens...

picture taken by Ana Santos

Unsinn Photography... interview with GEOFFREY ASHLEY.

Geoffrey (USA) is a photographer with really unique style. He's interested in provocative and nude photos.

1) Can you please tell us the story behind this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot this person?

This is an interesting choice of photograph for you to feature. I really love this image. But, I think it’s subtlety often gets it lost in the crowd of my more provocative work. 

This image is from a larger photo shoot with a model named Odette. She’s an artist, as well, and a fan of my work. And since I don’t pay models, being a fan of the work you’re creating with me is essential.

It’s a natural light shot. And it’s slightly out of focus because that’s what things look like when you’re in that close...like when you’re about to kiss somebody. At least that’s how I see the world. Do I need glasses?

As for the Hello Kitty bandage...the viewer can decide what that’s all about.

Every single element in frame is important... interview with PAULO ALEGRIA (Paulgi)

Paulgi is an outstanding artist from Portugal. He was published in magazines worldwide: “Photo”, “JPG Magazine” “Everywhere”. You can also find some of his work in Portuguese magazines. His pictures were exhibited in Portugal and also in other countries.

He released great photo book called Romeiros~Pilgrims few months ago. Be sure to check it out here.

Here's his amazing portrait and interview about it:

1Q) Can you please tell us the story behind this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot this person?

I first saw Sonia, the portrayed girl, working in a bar at a time when I was visiting my hometown. I loved the way she looked and asked her to work with me on some pictures. Since I was visiting my family, I had the chance to use a room at my grandmother's house to take some shots and I used some of her household items to place enough reading elements on the portrait.

"Don't be contrived."... interview with STEPHEN MCLEOD BLYTHE.

Stephen is talented 22 years old photographer from Glasgow, Scotland.

1Q) Can you please tell us the story behind this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot this person?

You've picked a strange picture to feature.. It's not one of my best, and was taken in circumstances that are pretty out of the norm for the way I usually do things. 

The shots from this series were done as a favour for a friend of a friend. It's always a bad idea to do such a thing, but I was in a spell where I was looking for people to volunteer to have my lens pointed on them, so it didn't make sense to turn it down. The premise was simply to get photos of different makeup/fashion styles for their folio or something similar.

"I observe people"... interview with KRIS VAN DE VIJVER.

Kris is photographer from Belgium. He shares beautiful cinematic portraits with us:

1Q)Can you please tell us the story behind this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot this person?

I was driving with Barbara, my girlfriend, through the desert in Morocco. It was so extremely hot (50° Celcius!) and dry and we decided to stop, to stretch our legs. I looked around and in a strange way, the heat was kind of inspiring, so I took the camera out of the car and without too much thinking, I started taking pictures of Barbara.

"Fall in love with your model"... interview with DMITRY PAHOMOV.

1Q)Can you please tell us something about this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot this person?

Well, it isn't one of my serious works. We were enjoying my short stay at my friends place and decided to do make some portraits. Lightning setup wasn't anything special, large umbrella above the camera, just like in most of my portraits. As to the choice of subject I always try to find people who will trust me. The rest is up to me.

"People photographer"... interview with DABE ALAN.

Dabe (Portland, OR) is a great "people" photographer and he's also master of pictures of skateboarders... 

"My favorite thing in the world to shoot is skateboarding. I always go on stints (winter) where I don't get to shoot any but as soon as I get back into it I just think 'I LOVE this'. 

I've skated for something like 7 years or so now and I'm horrible. I'm involved with the sport enough to know all of it's ins and outs, I just can't pull it off like the people in my photographs do. Shooting skaters just allows me to participate without the commitment (not to mention the slams). Plus I love getting people pumped to try a trick by shooting it and sharing their triumph upon landing it.

If you're interesting in shooting skateboarding, there are a few pointers.

1) Back up, and work on your composition first and foremost. There are tons of skateboard photos and they would all look the same if the photographers shooting them didn't capitalize on their surroundings.

2) Learn frontside and backside by heart so you don't mess up lighting. If you're not positive, ask the skater what way they'll be facing at the apex of their trick.

3) Timing, timing, timing. Watch the trick a few times to spot the best time to snap the shot and try to catch it on every attempt."

Here's today's portrait and interview:

1Q) Can you please tell us the story behind this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot this person?

About 5 months ago, I moved from Canton, OH out to Portland, OR. I left behind all my friends and family to head to a place where I could surround myself with creatives and grow from it. My family was always asking to see some shots of my place, but I didn't wanna provide more than a iPhone shot until I had everything hung up and put away. This portrait marks the date I could finally relax in my place with nothing else to be done.

Master of contemporary street photography... interview with DANNY SANTOS.

Danny is a famous street photographer from Singapore. Be sure to check out his amazing portfolio on flickr   and website about his current photography project: "...just last year, I started another portraiture project called Portraits of Strangers where I would approach a stranger and ask if I could take their photo."

Here's great portrait from Danny's portfolio and the interview:

1Q) Can you please tell us the story behind this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot this person?

The first thing I noticed about her was the sense of confidence that fits well with her stand out tattoo. I just knew I had to take her photo. So I just aimed at her from a distance, and shot continuously until she turned and looked at me. Then I just put my camera down and walked away. This was my last frame... the only shot that captured her eye contact. 

Family and child photographer... interview with ANNIE TAO.

Annie (San Francisco, USA) called herself a lifestyle photographer. She is famous for family and children photography. You may find some of her articles in Digital Photography School.

1Q) Can you please tell us the story behind this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot this person?

I love editorial images – images that tell a story.  Many of my favorite images were taken when people weren’t expecting to be photographed. 

I took this image at the end of a family photoshoot.  We were saying our goodbyes in the parking lot, and my clients were putting their kids in the car.  When I noticed Ian was being mischievous by climbing into the driver’s seat instead of his carseat, I knew this could be interesting, so I was ready to take the shot even while I was talking to Julie, Ian’s mom. 

This image was taken the moment Ian realized his mom spotted him!  In a matter of a couple seconds, I stepped back and composed the shot to capture Ian through the window and Julie in the reflection.   

"Once you can make someone feel safe, the world is yours to photograph."... interview with EMON HASSAN.

Enjoy story behind this portrait by Emon Hassan, who is freelance portrait and concert photographer based in NYC.

1Q) Can you please tell us the story behind this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot this person?

I'm currently shooting a New York-based mystery webseries, The Third, and Jessalyn is a guest actor in the Pilot episode. This portrait was shot in front of St. Peter's Church in downtown Manhattan, just blocks from the former Twin Towers site. I wanted to get a couple of promotional stills for the site with Jessalyn in character. The sequence shot here appears in Ep. 2 of The Third.

Interview with fashion photographer... LAURA SALGADO. 7Q.

Laura Salgado (Colombia) if a professional photographer who is focusing her career on fashion photography.

She is also connected with production agency called Les Recolletes specializing in fashion and everything about it including photography, catalogues, books etc. 

1Q) Can you please tell us the story behind this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot this person? 
This photo was taken almost 7 years ago. I had a vintage clothing project and this was a way of showing it. This picture was taken with an analog canon. I chose Juliana because i thought that she looked timeless.

Interview with addict photographer... THOMAS HAWK. 7Q.

I had a great chance to interview remarkable person of photography community- Thomas Hawk (San Francisco, USA) is a real addict photographer. His portfolio on flickr contains over 50,000 pictures and this number is growing quickly every day. His goal is to publish 1,000,000 pictures before he dies. 

Portrait we have here is a product of another interesting photography project by Thomas. Enjoy this interview!

1Q) Can you please tell us the story behind this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot this person?

 This photo is part of my $2 portrait series. I've taken over 100 of these now and offer to shoot portraits of people and pay them $2 whenever I'm asked for money. This was just some kid sitting on the street. His more specific story is in the description on the photo page that you linked.

Interview with photographer LAUREN LANKFORD. 7Q.

Lauren is a photographer from Columbus, Ohio. Let's hear something about this cool portrait.

1Q) Can you please tell us the story behind this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot this person?

This photo was taken at a park while hanging out. I had my camera and flash and we shot around and took some fun photos. I stood on some bleachers for this particular photo. 

MaP 7Q Interview with... IAN STANTON

Highly talented photographer, who really can see people in an unusual way. We have a great example of his film portrait work today:

1Q/ Can you please tell us something about this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot this person?

This portrait is of my girlfriend. I saw the photo opportunity and looked around quickly for the closest camera. I grabbed a polaroid camera on the dresser behind me, sloppily framed the photograph, then snapped the picture. 

MaP 7Q Interview with... JEREMY SNELL

JEREMY SNELL (USA)

Young photographer with huge and really amazing photostream on flickr. 

He shared this great portrait with us:

1Q/ Can you please tell us something about this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot this person?

This portrait was taking in Chinatown, Honolulu. My friend Brian and I were walking around playing with his new 5D markII and taking portraits of random people on the street. This particular lady was sitting on a stool by the road and starting commenting on our picture-making. She told me to take a photo of her, so I did. =)

MaP interesting Youtube videos... SARAH SMALL vs. WILL STEACY

I would like to share this interesting video by ZoominPhoto. It's a Portrait Photography challenge between two great portrait photographers.

The jury members: 

David Turner (fashion and portrait photographer, http://www.davidturnerphotography.com ) 

Marcel Saba (director of Redux pictures http://reduxpictures.com )

Who was your candidate for win? 

MaP 7Q Interview with... NIC PERSINGER

I'm really happy to share very first 7Q MaP Interview with you! 7Q MaP will be a regular column in this blog. You'll find here short interviews with great photographers about their particular amazing portrait and more.

If you want to be featured here in 7Q MaP please post a link to amazing portrait you made to comments. I'll contact you in case your portrait will be good enough for being featured here in 7Q MaP.

Today we have a great portrait by NIC PERSINGER (USA):

1Q/ Can you please tell us the story behind this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot this person?

This was taken while walking down 17th street, in DC, while I was in school. My style of shooting isn't very staged, so it was as simple as saying: stay there for a second and look at me. The person in this photograph is my girlfriend. She's always been my main subject of my portrait work, since she's always near and damn pretty in front of a lens. I remember when we were walking down 17th Street there was a detour on the sidewalk due to construction. The sunlight hitting the pavement through the scaffolding was beautiful. I noticed when walking through it all on Julianna's face. I stopped her and said, "let me take your picture." She paused, and I snapped one, but she thought for sure she blinked. I shot another one to make sure. Of course, when I processed the negatives, she had her eyes closed in the first shot. I like them both quite a bit.