Yemisi, A Portrait

When ever I get sometime off shooting and documenting weddings (which is hardly these days) I try my hands on shooting some portraiture. I promised my friend Yemisi that I’d take some photos for her as part of a usual “ritual” she does every time she changes her hairstyle. To me it was a great privilege to be considered for her little project. I thought I’d play around with some very earthy tones in the post production. I’ve been experimenting with this style of image presentation for some time. It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on the photos. I hope you can see Yemisi’s personality come out in these shots.

My tip for any budding photographer when taking a portrait of person is to remember that you are not only photographing the person in your photograph, you’re also photographing the scene that they are placed/sitting in. Many times I see a lot of images where photographers have no regard for their sitters’ environment when they do portraiture. It’s important that the colours of your environment complement that of your sitter. I think that’s the secret to the shots here. I believe that the colourful backdrop in the images at the bottom reflect the joy and playfulness in Yemisi’s personality. The scene is very much part of the shot or portrait.