Portraiture is a unique area of photography. It is about observing people, getting to know them and then capturing their personality. I like to try to say something about a person when I photograph them. I had hoped to do some photo work outside of street photography and travel photos while over here. While I have not done as much portraiture yet as I had planned, I have done a few sessions.

While in Paris toward the beginning of my summer out here, I met two redheaded twins from Australia, Jared and Jacob. They were living in London for the summer as well, so we got together a few times.

Jared told me he was thinking about doing some modeling on the side and I offered to take head shots of him. I am always happy to help out a fellow ginger. It is nice that redheads are popular right now in modeling and media. Most of my portrait experience has been in wedding portraits, couples portraits, childhood portraits and family portraits. I have not done much in the way of modeling, but I was excited for the challenge and it is an area I have been wanting to experiment with.

I started out trying to put my subject at ease and make him feel comfortable as I waited for natural expressions. I used my favorite lens, my fixed 1.8 85 mm for all of the shots. It does a great job of separating the subject from the background, making it the perfect portrait lens.

The smallest changes in expression can make a big difference. This is something models need to be able to master and something photographers need to be able to direct. Subtle changes convey different emotions.

Sometimes being in a more public space can actually put a subject more at ease. I caught a few moments of him reacting to passersby, which felt more natural.

It was a pleasure spending the afternoon photographing Jared Borner, and I wish him all the best luck in his modeling and other prospects as he travels back to Australia.

The other two people I have done portraits of here were less formal and more spur of the moment. There is a market near us called Old Spitalfields Market. Dalia, shown below, is from Lebanon. She is interested in photography as well, but at the moment she is selling shoes to make ends meet. She hopes to save up enough money to invest in photography again. I only took a few quick portraits of her. I hope she is able to pursue her dreams here in London.

The second woman I met was a Londoner who had a very interesting look. She is a young clothing designer. She currently sells at the market and can be found on the web and instagram under the name “Kharis.” She hopes to eventually have a store front, but not a typical one. She wants it to be a place where artists can meet and share ideas. Each piece she designs, she only makes 2-3 copies of, so they are quite unique. The fun thing about this market is that it gives many creative people a place to sell their pieces. It is also a place where I can afford to invest in unique fashion-I bought a shirt from her for 15 pounds.

Models are successful not for being a pretty face, but for being interesting to look at, and I found her look beautiful in a very unique way. She obviously has some modeling experience and she let me do a quick photo shoot of her in front of her designs at the market. I enjoyed meeting and photographing her and wish her luck in her fashion and artistic enterprises.

We meet so many people in a day, and many of them we barely take notice of. With these three, I was able to make a human connection, strengthened by the photographer-model relationship. I will always remember the conversations I had with these three people and I am happy I was able meet them and document something about their lives and their personalities. Some people come into our lives for years, others for weeks and others for a brief moment in time, but these fleeting encounters can prove to be memorable and inspiring.