Mike Blouin 2

Mike Blouin 2, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

Here's another head shot of Mike Blouin from last evening's Factory Reading Series at the Ottawa Art Gallery.

For fun, I looked at the EXIF settings embedded in the image files, and all told our impromptu photo shoot lasted a mere one minute and sixteen seconds.

I try to make my photo sessions as efficient as possible by planning the layout as much as I can before I click the first frame.

I first look for the best available light in the immediate environment. I choose what I want to portray, in this case a simple headshot. That deterimines the lens that I want to use (85mm f/1.4). I pretty much knew ahead of time that this photo would be in black & white so I didn't mess with dialing in the "correct" white balance.

Finally, I needed to get the subject seated and positioned properly. Easy. There were chairs in the room and I moved one into the light that shone from the ceiling and I showed him where to look. I made him sit in the chair backwards which automatically gives him a place to put his elbows and sit in a relaxed position.

So, all told 15 frames clicked, two basic poses (hat on, hat off) in 1 minute and 16 seconds. Painless. Thanks for posing for me, Mike.