Exercise 8: Varying Pose

I persuaded another long-suffering friend to help me with this exercise and we used his garden as it offered a fair amount of scope. We decided to take pictures of him sitting in the garden seat, squatting by his pond, standing and leaning against his swing. For each position I directed Steve to vary his posture by moving his body, arms and legs.

In the first image on the left I took the picture as he sat down and asked him to fold his arms for the second. For the third picture on the right, Steve adopted this posture without direction which makes for a very natural picture.

I then asked Steve to cross his legs but needed to ask him to look at the camera to obtain the middle shot. It was natural to get him to put his hands behind his head for the third. I again needed to ask him to look at the camera to maintain eye contact and a more intimate portrait (under left).

We chose the side of the pond for the next set of pics as we both remember the effort taken to dig it and how raw it used to be. It was more difficult to vary positions whilst squatting but my preferred image is the one of Steve looking down into the pond. The one below of him beginning to stand up is an example of how 'missing the moment' can be unfortunate!

Of the standing images I again prefer the one of Steve looking into the pond.

Having been to Tai Chi classes together we thought that it would be fun to include a Tai Chi movement in the standing pictures (above left)

Of the photoos of Steve leaning against the swing I like the one above left the best. He appears relaxed and natural and is maintaining eye contact.

This exercise shows how posture and limb position can affect the success or otherwise of a photograph as much as facial expression.