The Informal Portrait: Roger Stiles

 Dr. Roger Stiles, Educator 

(Click to enlarge)

Roger and I were college freshmen together. After graduation I went my way, while Roger stuck around, earned the appropriate degrees, and began teaching there. Later in life he became president of the institution. 

In the mid 1980s I did a great deal of promotional photography for the school, including two multi-media productions. This photograph of Roger teaching was made before he became school president. I was transitioning from Kodachrome 64 to Fujichrome around the time I made this photo, so I'm not sure what film was used, but it was probably Kodachrome. Lighting was one Bogen strobe unit to Roger's left, bounced off the ceiling. Sidelighting and backlighting are important elements of my photographic style. The camera was my old reliable Olympus OM2n and the lens was probably the 85mm f2 Zuiko, although it could have been the 60-200 f4 Zuiko zoom. 

I always enjoyed photographing at schools and colleges. In fact, I got my start in photography while I was teaching in a private high school in Miami and did most of the candid photography for the school yearbook. After that year I decided I would rather pursue a career in photography than in teaching -- which I did, although it took me a few years to make the transition. I don't regret it, although I do still miss being in the classroom with the kids sometimes. 

I haven't seen Roger recently, but as far as I know he and Betty are still doing well. I wish them well. They are good people. 

Photograph copyright David B. Jenkins 2021

Soli Gloria Deo

To the glory of God alone

The Informal Portrait: Nigerian Soccer Boy

   

Young Nigerian Soccer Player, Abak, Ibom Province, Nigeria

Olympus OM2n, 85mm f2 Zuiko lens, Fujichrome RDP 100 film

 

 On the 1989 trip to Africa mentioned in my previous post, I went from Ghana to Nigeria, where I spent a day in Lagos, the capital, before going to Abak in Ibom province where the Church of God national headquarters and hospital were located. 

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. At the time of my visit one out of every four Africans lived in Nigeria. The northern half of the nation was mostly Islamic, while the southern half was mostly Christian. In recent years Islam appears to be in the ascendancy. The Church of God presence in Nigeria was effective, but relatively small compared to the total population, and confined mostly to the southern part of the country.

I spent several days at the mission compound with the National Overseer (Bishop), a Jamaican, and his wife, an American; photographing worship services and the healing ministry of the hospital. It was here, after evening chapel services at the hospital, that I made the photograph that I consider my all-time best. 

After evening chapel service at the Church

of God Hospital, Abak, Ibom, Nigeria

Olympus OM2n, 100-300mm f4 Tokina lens 

 

 One afternoon I made several photos of boys playing soccer on the mission compound lawn. One in particular caught my eye, so I asked if I could make his portrait. With his expression of in-your-face aggressiveness that I consider typically Nigerian, he reminded me of Hakeem Olajuwon, the great Nigerian basketball player for the University of Houston and the Houston Rockets. 

(Photographs copyright David B. Jenkins 2021)

Soli Gloria Deo

To the glory of God alone 

 

Africa  Ghana  Lagos  Abak  Ibom  Church of God  Islam  Christian  Jamaican  mission hospital  Hakeem Olajuwon  University of Houston  Houston Rockets  Olympus OM2n  Zuiko  Tokina  Fujichrome RDP 100

The Informal Portrait: Ghanaian Deaf-Mute Woman

Deaf-Mute Ghanaian Woman

Olympus OM, 85mm f2 Zuiko lens, Fujichrome RDP 100 film

 

Although I've photographed a wide variety of subjects in my career, from studio work with complex lighting setups to landscapes, the human face remains my favorite subject. I love to make informal portraits of people wherever I go. As I wrote in an article in Rangefinder Magazine some years ago: 

"As a photojournalist and producer creating magazine features and audio-visual programs to help religious and humanitarian agencies communicate their mission, I'm always looking for opportunities to make portraits.  Strong photographs of people add power to the message I want to communicate, because people are interested in people.  That's why we call it "human interest."  When someone from another culture is portrayed in all of his or her humanity, dignity, and individuality, both the subject and those who view the photograph are served.  As the great Edward Steichen, creator of the landmark "Family of Man" exhibit said, "The function of photography is to explain man to man." 

Photography bypasses the logical centers of the brain and communicates directly to the heart.  When the subject is someone from another culture, an incisive portrait can arouse in the viewer a deep awareness that this also is a person, a member of my species.  Different from me, yes, but part of my family.  Nearly 50 years have passed, but I still remember the first time a photograph connected with me in this way.  It was an Emil Schultheiss portrait of an African girl in the old Modern Photography magazine.  Her face plastered with ceremonial paint, she peeked at the camera from the corners of her eyes.  I looked into her soul and was hooked for good." 

In 1989 the World Missions Department of the Church of God sent me to three African countries to make photographs and research script material for several audio-visual productions. The countries were Ghana, Nigeria, and Zambia. I also spent two nights in Kenya as I flew from Nigeria to Zambia and back again.

In Ghana, I traveled around quite a bit of the country with the church's national overseer (equivalent to a bishop). One evening we found ourselves visiting a family of church members living in the border zone adjoining Togo. (I would have liked to go into Togo, but wasn't sure my visa would allow me to leave Ghana and return, so I didn't try.)

We had supper, cooked in a big pot over an open fire, with the church family. A woman came by as we were eating; a deaf-mute lady who allowed me to make her photograph. My aim, as always, was not to show some poor woman in worn and ragged clothes, but to portray a person of dignity and worth,. 

The blue cast is courtesy of the post-sunset light, the so-called "blue hour." 

Blog Note: Please forgive the irregular timing of my posts. The wi-fi service here at the campground varies from terrible to non-existent; however I'm working on a solution and hope to have it in place tomorrow. (Hat-tip to fellow blogger Dave Hileman. 

(Photograph copyright David B. Jenkins 2020)

Soli Gloria Deo

To the glory of God alone

Lighting the WMBW Photos

The WBMW Radio morning show personalities in a more conventional pose.

Fuji X-H1, Fujinon XC 50-230mm f4.8-6.3 OIS lens

 

Lighting for photography can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it. In general, the harder I work on a lighting setup, the more simple and natural the photographs look. Sometimes, though, complexity doesn't make a lot of difference. 

In 1972, early in my first (and only) studio job, I went along on a location shoot for a fast-food restaurant chain. My company assigned a two-man team to the job and sent me with them to observe and learn.

Our lighting in those antiquarian days consisted of  1000-watt daylight blue  floodlight bulbs in 18-inch reflectors. No flash. I was salivating with anticipation, because this was finally my chance to learn all about lighting ratios and exotic stuff like that.

We set up the lights at the work area and the photographer moved them around a bit. He turned to the director and said, “That look okay to you?” The director said, “Looks good to me. Shoot it.”

And thereby I learned the most valuable lesson I’ve ever learned about photography: photography is all about how things look. If it looks good, it is good. Shoot it 

I've come a long way in the intervening 49 years, but that lesson has stuck with me. And although I've created some very complicated lighting setups when the situation called for it, sometimes a simple solution works just as well.

In previous years I've been able to make the  WMBW staff photos in large spaces -- a gym, on one occasion, and a warehouse another time. But this year, because of the dread virus, the station manager asked me if I could shoot in a room at the radio studio.

In a larger space, I would normally set up a nine-foot roll of seamless paper on background stands. A flash in a 24-inch softbox would be placed on each side of the background and turned to light the background without any light spilling on the subject(s) of the photograph. The main light would be a flash in a 30x40-inch softbox, placed fairly high and positioned at a 30-to-35 degree angle to the subject(s). I might also use a weaker fill light in another softbox at camera position or sometimes, a reflector opposite the main light and close to the subject(s). 

This time, though, I had to make do with a room that was long enough, but only about ten feet wide -- just wide enough to take my roll of seamless and background stands. Definitely not wide enough for a softbox on each side to light the background.

The room at the studio was narrow, but long. By using a longer focal length,

I was able to get the entire station staff on my nine-foot background.

Fuji X-H1, Fujinon XC 50-230mm f4.8-6.3 OIS lens

 

 To make it register as white, the lighting on the background needs to be about one stop brighter than the light on the subject(s). Since I couldn't do this in my usual way, I placed a softbox on the floor behind the subject(s) and angled it up to cover the background. 

The only good thing about the narrow room was that the walls were close enough to serve as reflectors, so I was able to shoot with a main light and no fill. I no longer have a 30x40 softbox, so I used a 24x24 instead. Some photographers get off on using the largest light source possible, even adding layers of diffusion, but look at the photo at the top of this post and this one, which was made with a large softbox and a fill light. Can you see any significant difference in the shading and modeling of the faces? I can't. 

Blog Note: I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at alifeinphotography.blogspot.com. I'm trying to build up my readership, so if you're reading this on Facebook and like what I write, would you please consider sharing my posts? 

(Photographs copyright David B. Jenkins 2020)

Soli Gloria Deo

To the glory of God alone