Standing in the Snow
By: Gustav Hoiland
Category: self portrait
| Aperture: | f/5.6 |
|---|---|
| Focal Length: | 4.7mm |
| ISO: | 80 |
| Shutter: | 1/0 sec |
| Camera: | DMC-FX01 |
Another impromptu portrait, thanks to the wonders of carrying a little camera around. Damned lovely. Perhaps the thing I enjoy most about these portraits is the clothing I’m wearing. The red bike helmet I got along with my first road bike. The sweater Emma pulled off a sale rack at Urban Outfitters and told me it looked good. The same red windbreaker that I continue to wear today when I bike around. Some old boots I found in the basement. Etc… I’m a man of relatively few clothes, so when I see these shots I remember a point in my life that is somehow surrounded, though not defined, by what I wore.
Photo wise, perhaps my favorite thing is the perspective. That camera is on a tiny little tripod, just sticking out of the snow. I rarely see portraits shot like this, portraits where the photographer has just laid out on the ground to make the look. People tend to give me strange looks when I do that. Pah. Love it here. It intensifies the angles of the fences. Since it’s pointed up, the vanishing point is very low with the subject towering over it.
Those trees were quite wonderful as well. Much in part due to their vanishing into grayer and grayer depths. It looks like fog, but it’s actually relatively dense snow coming down. See the jacket and the pants, with the white specks flying across.
The color has been pulled out of the jacket and the pure whiteness of it all has been warmed up quite a bit. Somehow I really really enjoy that. I don’t know if the same color palette would work on a different photo, or if it’s specific to this, with the veiny trees and a white nothing, far away between the tires.
If I can’t carry my DSLR, I at least always try to carry something. Stuff like this is too good to pass up.
Gustav Hoiland 
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