Katie and Riley

I had the pleasure to photograph Riley and Katie on Saturday evening.  I took them to my new favorite spot, the barns behind Beban Park.  There are lots of interesting fences, buildings and places around there making it an ideal place to do some 'walkabout' photography.  Capturing the relationship between young siblings can be a challenge, and I'm happy with our images from the day.

I've kept on with my reading lately, just having finished a book by Rick Sammon called 'Face to Face.'  I've put it as the featured Amazon link on the right hand side of the page.  After just having read two other photography books (you can find my thoughts on them in earlier posts) I have to say I was a little disappointed with this book.  I found it a little simplistic and brief at times, almost feeling like a magazine.  It covers an excellent range of subjects in relation to portrait photography, but never really dives deeply into any of them.  I guess this is the point, as it is sort of a beginners overview book, but I never found it gave me all the information I was hoping to get from such an accomplished photographer like Rick Sammon.  It isn't like other books where you really feel like you are getting the goods on a pro's photography habits, tools and trade secrets.   I will say though that for true beginners to people photography, this book is a good introduction.  It covers almost every conceivable topic and is an easy read.  At the end of the book there are some photoshop techniques which are nice as well, but I suspect that the photographers this book is aimed at (beginners) might not own the full version of photoshop or the various plugin software options he mentions using.  In my opinion it would have been better to use Photoshop Elements as the tool in the books demo's, though software becomes out of date so quickly nowadays, it is risky to put this stuff in books I think as the information quickly becomes dated.   Overall, this is a good book for those photographers looking for a gentle beginning into people photography.  For advanced amateurs or working photographers it will be entertaining, but not overly useful.  

Lastly, Bill Algood passed away this month.  I doubt many have heard of him, but he was a well known Olympus Photographer on the dpreview forums and he will be missed.  He worked in a camera store and took a lot of portraits of his customers.  They always inspired me.  He had a way with eyes and his people photography always made you feel connected to the subject.  Bill you will be missed.