“But…I Don’t Do People”

“I don’t take photos of people’ – that’s what I told them when they asked me to do this photoshoot for the 2014 Master Gardener recruitment campaign here in Portland. And it’s true! I’m happy taking photos of Cabbages, Tomatoes, whole Chard plants and even rows of Peas, but people? Well, I try to keep them out of it, if I can. You see I’m not so confident with portraits and being a bit of a coward I avoid things I’m not good at.

But they worked their magic on me and I said yes. So I turned up with my little bag of lenses (take them all I thought, you never know when you might need a Macro lens for this kind of work!). Of course I don’t own a flash or any lighting gear (Cabbages don’t need fill-in). And I tried to look like I knew what I was doing.

The models were very nice. The light was the biggest problem we had. The sun kept appearing and giving people a nice angelic halo every now and again. The box was heavy! And surprisingly difficult to hold straight.

But we managed to have a laugh. And…I’m pretty happy with the photos I took. Shocked would be a better word. So if you do see these photos as part of a Master Gardener campaign around the city you’ll know they were taken by me. The one who doesn’t do people :)