2016 New Years Resolution Retrospective

A year ago I New Years tasked myself with making better portraits in 2016. Portraits have long been a daunting task for me. Photographing people directly is hard, I'm awkward, and there was a complex about vanity and posing and what it meant to take a portrait that I struggled to come to terms with. At the end of last year, I struggled to find good portraits I had made. I struggled to find any that really made me feel anything.

I think I made good on my resolution. There's still a lot of work to be done and I can't say that everything here is amazing, but it was a process and I welcomed it more than I ever have before. This year, I'm not ready to say this is what I want to get better at about anything in particular. I still want to get better at making portraits, and even more so, I want to get better about asking people if I can make their portrait. I also hope to make more video projects.  

I made a great deal more portraits than this, but I tried to distill the selection down to the stronger ones and to include the various opportunities I had. Hopefully they're worth your time. 

Thanks for looking and happy new year.

New Years Resolution: Make Better Portraits

(My Instagram feed @justnlstewart)

One last post for the year. 

I've been playing catchup on all the months I've missed in posts. It was a busy semester and the chaos was all-consuming. Finally, though, I've caught back up (or at least come close enough).

Looking forward to 2016, I want to improve my portrait game. It's one of my biggest weaknesses and anxieties. How do you form a bond with a stranger in such a short time? What lighting do you use? How do you make a boring situation better?

There's a lot of improvement to be had. There's also a lot of practice to be had. I have a tendency to avoid portraits.

No more. 2016 is the year of the portrait.

Here's to making better photos in general. And here's some of the portraits I made in 2015 in approximate chronological order. Thanks for looking through another blog post! It's my last one for the year... and hopefully until the end of January.

I should also make a resolution not to fall behind on these posts again... Happy New Years!