Family Portrait, a photo from Guangxi, South

Photographer's Note

I’m not very good at photographing people; if you are familiar with my gallery you will find very few people shots. Nevertheless it was the people that I was most fascinated and captivated by in China. Every turn yielded an interesting face and a new story.

It was our last full day in China and after over a week of cycling, we had just loaded our bicycles onto a lorry so that we could walk into the small town of Haiyang. This family were just sitting by the road, outside their house. Many folk whom I encountered on my trip were suspicious of cameras and were not keen to be photographed, but this charming trio smiled as I caught them in this pose. I had hoped to take them without them looking at the camera, but they had already noticed me by this stage.

Continuing along our way, shortly afterwards we were stopped and welcomed by a passer-by on a motorbike who turned out to be a teacher at the local school and invited us to visit. We had the honour of being the first western visitors to their school.

pcp, dareco, faubry, Floydian, riclopes, cyrrhus has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

pcp (3396) 2007-11-12 11:56

VEry nice family portrait :) The kid is very serious in looking at your lens :) colors and smiles are wonderful.

TFS

Senthil

ysabaner (1069) 2007-11-12 11:59

Very interesting exposure and very nice people. Thanks.
Yahya

dareco (17136) 2007-11-12 12:09

I like this very beautiful portrait! A cute pose. I like all the colors and the sharpness. An interesting roof. thanks , Karen

ChoiP (28) 2007-11-12 12:19

Hello,
Very good composition and sharp picture. I like the woman extending her arms to prevent the boy falling from his seat.

Patrick

vagabondtravels (6511) 2007-11-13 0:15

Hi Susanna

Nice image of this family. They are full of emotion. Very sharp with good color. Well done.
Ben

Floydian (30970) 2007-11-13 0:29

Hello Susanna,
You are to friendly, not brutal enough to dive in other people's life which is essential for making portraits and close-ups. But here, yes a good try at close distance. You have to use your nice friendly female touch more to make such things like this, i know for sure you end up with nice portraits.
Have a nice day, Henk

faubry (35447) 2007-11-13 1:55

bonsir Susana, very cute portrait with this little boy and these smiling women,, nice people. son
francine

everlasting (20074) 2007-11-14 2:36

A nice moment captured here for this triple portrait Susanna, the mother obviously wants you to photograph the child and the grandmother finds it all highly amusing. I am sure being a female you have out them all at ease, and although is posed you can see the conncection that you achieved which I believe is essential when photography people.

riclopes (35577) 2007-11-15 3:25

Olá Susanna, what an enjoyable trio smilling at you, also with some dynamism from the woman on the right. You bring me good memories with this recent trip of yours. Reading your note, I can say that China was the first country where I began to photograph people ;-) This is very good and I'm glad they noticed you!
Regards,
ricardo

Leonie (8809) 2007-11-16 3:30

Hi Susanna,
What a cute triple portrait! I suppose they are grandparents with grandchild...and they look so nice..heartwarming smiles!
Well done,

Léonie

markstaples (15670) 2007-11-19 3:53

Hello Susanna
A very well framed and balanced portrait with excellent sharpness. A great shot.
Best wishes
Mark

chriswhitley (2027) 2007-11-26 14:50

Hi Susanna,
What a wonderful family portrait. I am enjoying looking through your gallery very much. Your pictures are very nicely presented and so sharp. I'm using the same body and lens but not achieving this sort of quality. Are you shooting in RAW (which I have not tried) or is it down to the post processing (I do not have Photoshop, yet)? Chris

cyrrhus (2878) 2008-01-12 8:54

Bonjour Susanna,
Je n'avais pas encore vu tes photos de Chine.
Tu as bien fait de t'arrêter au bord du chemin pour nous montrer la Chine rural. La scène est très spontanée. Bien vu!
Eric /.