Micki’s photos
The classifieds
This shot actually took me some time to get right. I’d had it in my head for awhile, but was waiting until I was ready to shoot a roll of black and white film. When I finally was ready, even setting up took some time. I wanted to make the picture comfortable to look at. Something that would make you feel warm inside, maybe. So, I definitely wanted a coffee mug in the shot, even though I’ve never even tasted the stuff. I also wanted a pair of glasses to imply reading; and then I couldn’t decide between a pen or a pencil. I did both, and I like the contrast of the pen in this shot. I actually had another shot I liked just as well, but the pencil in it didn’t work.
I took a few pictures of the set up, but the lighting on my kitchen table wasn’t right. Neither was the lens I was using. I switched from my 300mm zoom lens to my 105mm portrait lens with macro feature and moved the whole set up to the kitchen floor. There was a patch of sunlight coming in from the skylight that I wanted to use in the picture as well.
Another fine point was to make sure the classifieds were opened up to anything but the Help Wanted section. That doesn’t necessarily convey warmth and comfort when one is looking for a job. The depth of field was also important in this shot. With the 105mm lens, that can be hard to get. Luckily, my subject doesn’t move, and I could shoot with an f-stop of 11 and the slow shutter speed of 1/45 of a second wasn’t a problem.
All photos and stories by Micki from Virginia.
105mm 1/45 f-11 Aperture Mode
