Greg Molyneux Photography

New Jersey landscape and nature photography

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Hair Points West

April 29, 2016 by Greg Molyneux

Photographer Greg Molyneux practices portraiture on himself

Hair Points West — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/100

Sometimes a fleeting thought rises up through the dusty burned out barnyard that is my brain and implores me to do more portrait work. Then I quickly remember my own fears and the notion fades faster than a military barber buzzing out a high and tight. It is something I’d like to work on, but it’s going to take some real effort and some real discomfort. Not to mention some subjects willing to work through what’s sure to be lots of awkward everything—and lots of bad photos.

Thinking back to my Art Class Days when I cut my teeth doing pencil work, portraiture was the last world I entered. I wasn’t good at it. I didn’t want to be good at it. Eventually I broke down and gave it a go. My high school senior year concentration project wound up being drawn portraits of The Beatles. It was surely a challenge with plenty of pain points, but it wound up being a great period of personal and technical development. Were the pictures great? No. But they wound up being the best things I’ve ever drawn. (I’ve since abandoned drawing altogether. Essentially right after this project. Let’s hope this does not a pattern make.)

A decade and a half later, into photos now, I am thinking it is getting close to time I bring this broadening of horizons to my lens work. As with this shot, I imagine I’ll dabble more with myself as a subject. Admittedly this is hard in its own right because I am holding a camera to my face and hoping for the best compositionally. Spray and pray shutter action. It would be much better behind the lens with an actual subject. But hey, baby steps. Not only am I going to have to get comfortable with a new kind of subject—a human—I will also have to learn how to use artificial lighting. Being a landscape only guy this is completely foreign to me. But I won’t get nuts with flashes, strobes, etc. until I at least become serviceable in the craft and decide if it’s worth pursuing further.

So any friends want some new profile pics? No guarantees on quality.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: 35mm greg molyneux monochrome portraiture self portrait

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Photos from the archives

A seven frame black and white composite exposure of a wooden bulkhead and mounded jetty rock define the portrait orientation scene with Barnegat Bay expanding off to the right.
Shallow depth of field landscape sunset photo of small bay waves lapping on shore
14mm wide angle landscape photo made low key at blue hour. Soft pastels color up the sky above an oxbow lake feature of the Cedar Run Dock Road salt marsh.
A subtle HDR sunset photograph with soft yellows and a touch of pink marking the racing clouds. Taken at the Stafford Forge Wildlife Management Area.
A black and white photograph taken by Manahawkin, NJ, photographer Greg Molyneux of the south facing marshes of Great Bay Boulevard in Little Egg Harbor Township.

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