Thursday, January 6, 2011

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.


2Q) What photography gear you used here and why? What is usually in your photo bag?
I use a Canon 5D Mark II camera the vast majority of the time. I always carry my main lenses with me. all primes. 14mm f/2.8, 24mm f/1.4, 50mm f/1.2, 100mm f/2.8 and my favorite lens the 135 f/2.

3Q) What do you love most about shooting portraits?I love the interaction with people most about shooting their portraits and occasionally getting just the right expression while we engage in conversation.

4Q) Do you consider yourself mostly as a “portrait” photographer?I'm definitely not mostly a portrait photographer. I shoot anything and everything.

5Q) Do you work with available light or do you use additional lightning often?I mostly work with available light.
 
6Q) What/Who are your photography muses and influences?My biggest influences are probably William Eggleston, Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, Stephen Shore, Lee Friedlander. I enjoy

7Q) Any tip for taking better portraits?
Tips for taking better portraits would probably be to take lots and lots of frames. Just keep clicking away, 10, 20, 40, 50 photos of the same subject at once. Engage them and talk with them while you are shooting. You will probably get one that you like. Move around a bit, change position, try different things. Digital photography is cheap and you can take 50 shots if you have an opportunity to get the best one.


Thank you, Thomas!

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