The casting scout

One photograph can speak a thousand words and that is so true in many ways.

One of the reasons why many photographers risk their lives to get some actual shots at the war front.

I came across a blog post in which the writer has raised questions about why a politician should be paid his full salary after retirement while a soldier should be paid only half his salary. The point that she was making was supported by a picture of a soldier who must have been badly hit in action. No its not a photograph that needs a foot note “viewers discretion is advised” but it’s of a man who is still proud to wear his uniform (and he looks smart in it)

Coming back to photographs in general, clicking candid photographs do give us a feeling of looking at life around us.

It could be of a child enjoying a joy ride,

or a small boy holding the camera the right way,

or a young girl writing  a quick note

or maybe a youngster helping his friend zip up her jacket

or an elderly couple gingerly crossing the road..

A good way of projecting a picture as eye catching is to have good lighting. And when I say lighting, I am not talking about expensive reflectors or spot lights. It can be the simple sun light and the placement of it. I saw this solitary young man reading the newspaper. It was a perfect shot and I thought “aha, a man on a bench, lost in his paper”

After clicking this I found that the punch that I was looking for did not come through. So I repositioned myself and clicked one more picture of our friend and this time it was more effective.  

I simply changed my position so that the sunlight was acting as a backlight. This may be against what you have read about the set standard rules “keep the source of light behind you etc etc”

Just experiment and you will get good results.

Backlighting and side lighting is very effective if done properly. These are some of the pictures that I clicked with the setting sun which acted as a side light.

It could be of people

Or of monuments and structures.

A simple thing like the smoke from the chimney can be captured well with back lighting

Or put the source of light between you and the object and you get a good silhouette

Sometimes you can place people by their head gear,

or by the way a person sits you can make a good guess as to which country he is from (even if he is sitting at an international airport in Europe)

Casting - Yes that is one other aspect that always goes through my mind. When I look at some people, it quickly crosses my mind, “oh this person can be cast as Mr Churchill when he was young” 

Or “when I make a movie I will cast this person as an upright police officer”

Hey,  I am not giving away all the casting photos that I have.

May be I would do well as a “casting scout” Do you think some one from Hollywood is reading my post ?