Mhall46184@aol.com
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Snarl for the Camera
Once upon a Kodak time when the children were shoo-shooed into the yard for a family picture, the artistic command was “SMILE FOR THE CAMERA!”
Given the perception that camera film was very slow and wouldn’t work in the shade (in fact, ASA400 was common by the 1950s, and works very well in cloudy light), everyone one was made to grin into the fiercest sun and try to look happy about it through tears.
The artistic command for portraiture today appears to be “SNARL FOR THE CAMERA!”
For reasons best known to The Little People I receive occasional electrical ads from Canada Goose, the manufacturer of very reputable and very, very expensive coats and accessories for snow people.
The most recent Canada Goose ad featured a number of handsome / beautiful young adults sporting very nice coats and looking as if the photographer had just said some rude things about their mothers.
I just gotta say that if I were permitted to wear a Canada Goose coat (useful about once every two years here in East Texas – must be climate change) I’d be awfully happy about it.
A brief look around the InterGossip reveals that most pictures of adults, especially clothing ads, are all cranky and snarly these days. Apparently, happiness indicates a lack of artistry or coolness or something. If you don’t make a face like you have to go to the euphemism RIGHT NOW you just aren’t getting art and fashion right.
However, kid pix seem more joyful, whether a toddler at play or a high school athletic or academic team proudly showing their medals after a win.
And, no, grumpy-coots, I have never seen a participation medal. Those appear to exist only in the minds of the a.m. radio boys.
I once got a ribbon for second place in a junior high spelling bee. No one took my picture, though.
People still take pictures of their subjects lined up against a wall as if there’s going to be an execution. Try to have the subjects in the open with a field or woods off in the distance, and without a telephone pole appearing to grow from someone’s head. Give the auto-focus time to work, and take lots of shots from different angles. Something will come out right
Also, a cloudy day is much kinder to skin tones and all the colors of creation; bright sun washes all that out.
Finally, there’s already too much snarling in the world; a smile for the camera is sometimes just right.
-30-
No comments:
Post a Comment