Jim Talkington of Pro Photo LIfe has proven, yet again, why his blog is an incredible resources on the web today.  While most photo blogs (my own included) spend a great deal of time discussing technique and technical aspects of photography, Mr. Talkington always manages to interject some of his wisdom and experience into the discussion.  Recently, he posted an article titled The Psychology of Portrait Photography, in which he discusses a lesser discussed aspect of portrait photography:  The human aspects.  A great quote from the article hits the key purpose of this article:

If given just ten minutes to photograph someone, I’d rather spend eight minutes talking to them and two minutes photographing them, rather than two minutes talking and eight minutes spent doing photography. Why? Because it allows time to observe thing like their physical attributes and physical and verbal messages.

It’s a great article that will give you some insight into the minds of your subjects. After reading it, I intend to make a much more conscious effort to pay attention to my human subjects. The observation of a person’s body language can apparently go a long way. Mr. Talkington has clearly demonstrated that.

Read the article: The Psychology of Portrait Photography

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