The Real Beauty Barometer

irene-young-photographer_by-sardi-kleinAs a portrait photographer, I am fascinated with beauty. Who do we consider beautiful? Why do we consider them beautiful? Does beauty come from our body or our soul? Where and why are judgements born? Can we discard our judgements and expand our concepts of beauty to be defined as internal elegance, emotional grace, and a full presence. When it comes to changing our physical bodies, we come face to face with limitations. Yet, if we set out to exude beauty through our very being, the sky’s the limit. Continue reading

The Sacred Art of Seeing

irene-young-photographer_by-sardi-kleinThe essential tools required to master the art of portrait photography include a myriad of special shooting and lighting tricks of the trade. You don’t even need a specialist camera, you can research this iphone photography guide to take the best photos possible with your own iphone. As I said, it’s all about shooting angles and the lighting. Serious photographers search for and soak up any and all information that will make us better at our craft. We’ll even trawl through the most Useful apps for creatives if it means it will even slightly improve our work. The most valuable technique, however, is not illustrated in a book, a YouTube video, or taught in even the best photography schools across the country. The most useful tool I have acquired photographing 600 CD covers and thousands of musician/actor/author promo photos has not been cross processing, Polaroid transfers, infrared technique, or any Photoshop wizardry. The real secret behind a true portrait photographer is the sacred art of seeing. Continue reading