Soldier profiles

I am an amateur photographer and a US Army soldier. Lately I've been thinking a lot about my photographic style (or lack of) and where I want to go with my photos.

I decided that I should give myself an assignment, a project, and run with it. I think one fun project that I might be able to do, and one that I have access to, is to do profiles of the soldiers I work with.

Like any Army unit we have soldiers from very diverse backgrounds here, some were homeless before, others had six figure salaries, we have christan arabs, jews, mormoms, buddhists, soldiers who joined because they had nowhere else to go, soldiers who joined because they love their country. I think each and every one of them has a story waiting to be told. I'd like to tell it through pictures.

Questions I have: how long should a project like this take? I am not looking to finish it too quick, but I am not looking to drag it on forever. A few months, a year...? I will be conducting a small interview with each soldier befaore the shoot, to both knowmore about them and to provide a background for the pictures. What kind of questions should I ask that are not so obvious? What kind of questions would you ask of a soldier, outside of politics? I am not looking to make any political statements, so political questions will stay out of this (being a libertarian lin the ArmyI know that political arguments are largely one sided here). Anything else?

One inspiration for this project came out of my new commander having asked me to take pictures of our recent change of command ceremony. I enjoyed taking pictures of our soldiers more than the ceremony itself. Below are some of the pictures I've taken before and after the ceremony.

MAJ Bridenback, our new commander
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_YmRgdrBWVOo/Sk...0/IMG_5638.JPG

Staff Sergeant Scott, electrician, native of Guyana
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_YmRgdrBWVOo/Sk...0/IMG_5508.JPG

Sergeant Rodriguez, avionics repairman, won our soldier of the quarter competition
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_YmRgdrBWVOo/Sk...0/IMG_5512.JPG

Private First Class Bradley, sheetmetal repairman, half Korean, half African American
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_YmRgdrBWVOo/Sk...0/IMG_5654.JPG

Private First Class Pe, turbine engine repairman, Burmese, our unit's color guard
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_YmRgdrBWVOo/Sk...2/IMG_5492.JPG

Specialist Knight, electrician, recently promoted to Sergeant
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_YmRgdrBWVOo/Sk...0/IMG_5655.JPG

Private First Class Wiegel, electrician, used to make six figures with a home painting business in Florida. The recession destroyed his business.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_YmRgdrBWVOo/Sk...0/IMG_5656.JPG

Specialist Williams, cook, always has a goofy sense of humor.
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_YmRgdrBWVOo/Sk...0/IMG_5659.JPG

Specialist Rizkallah, logistics specialist, Egyptian, Coptic Christian
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_YmRgdrBWVOo/Sk...0/IMG_5286.jpg

Specialist Falla, helicopter mechanic, Colombian
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_YmRgdrBWVOo/Sk...2/IMG_5322.JPG

Photo critiques please. These were taken with a Canon Rebel XTi and a Sigma 30mm 1.4 lens.

For this project my intention is to take pictures of each individual soldier in their work environment, whether it be an office, on the engine bay of a humvee, a helicopter, etc.

Anyone has any ideas other than these I must consider? Hints, tips, etc..? All criticism is greatly appreciated.

I think you need a fill-in flash.
Not high powered, and not a bare flash.
Use a softbox on the front (not a lightsphere) to stop harsh shadows.
I see you used flash on PFC Bradley, the bright spots are distracting.
You could have done with it on your staff sergeant, too.

Something like the attached photos.

Thanks for the tip, I'll play with that. I don't have a lightsphere, but i do have a Gary Fong Puffer, would something like this do? I am currently saving for a good flash, either a Canon 430 or 580.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/i...345/522116.jpg

I did use the flash on Bradley, I think even at f1.4 I was getting blurry pictures, and I didn't want to go ISO 800 or 1600 because of grain. If I remember right that pictrure was taken at ISO 400. Light was very hard that day, one side of the hangar bright with sunlight, the other side dimly light with tungsten. The ceremony was half indoors and half outdoors, a nightmare for taking photos!

You can see the rest of the pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/renato.p...eat=directlink

I think it is a good start, but you said you wanted to tell their stories though pictures, and I think portrait shots like that just aren't going to do it. The uniforms are there to make everyone, well, uniform. I think you could do a very neat series of portraits like you've done, but then you'll need to tell their story as a story, and not with the picture. I think you'd need to do more candid type shots - catch them in their element - in order to tell their story with pictures. Are you planning on doing just one photo of each? Because if you were to do a series on each soldier, you could do one nice portrait and several candid shots.

What questions would I like to ask or know? I think asking someone why they became a soldier can tell you a lot, and then your questions could branch off from there. Someone who lost their six figure job and had to join up, I'd want to know what they thought about that decision now that they were emersed in the Army. Someone who joined out of love for their country I'd want to know where that came from (family/friends/movies/video games :) )? Someone who had nowhere else to go I'd like to know if they planned to stay in for life and if not, now do they feel like they have somewhere to go? What has the Army given them so that they now have direction? I'd just stick with the one question and go from there.

Good luck with your project, I hope you'll give us updates!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gracie_r

I think it is a good start, but you said you wanted to tell their stories though pictures, and I think portrait shots like that just aren't going to do it. The uniforms are there to make everyone, well, uniform. I think you could do a very neat series of portraits like you've done, but then you'll need to tell their story as a story, and not with the picture. I think you'd need to do more candid type shots - catch them in their element - in order to tell their story with pictures. Are you planning on doing just one photo of each? Because if you were to do a series on each soldier, you could do one nice portrait and several candid shots.

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Yes, absolutely, I plan on taking their shots in the environemt they work with. One formal portrait shot, then the environmental shots, doing a series on each soldier. If I was doing just portraits I could complete this project in about a month, but doing more in depth should take much longer...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gracie_r

What questions would I like to ask or know? I think asking someone why they became a soldier can tell you a lot, and then your questions could branch off from there. Someone who lost their six figure job and had to join up, I'd want to know what they thought about that decision now that they were emersed in the Army. Someone who joined out of love for their country I'd want to know where that came from (family/friends/movies/video games :) )? Someone who had nowhere else to go I'd like to know if they planned to stay in for life and if not, now do they feel like they have somewhere to go? What has the Army given them so that they now have direction? I'd just stick with the one question and go from there.

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Good ideas.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gracie_r

Good luck with your project, I hope you'll give us updates!

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Thank you!

It's a good start, but it only makes the area of a pop-up flash a bit bigger than 430/580. As a result you'll get less sharp edges to the flash, but from a distance it'll still look like a spot.
With a large softbox, it loses even more light (which is why I bought the 580EX II) but being a foot across as you can see it filled in the shadows on David Coulthard's face and lit the kitten quite evenly.
I also bought a flash extender for the Canon that lets me get the flash off the camera and still use the ETTL automatic control.

But you don't need a Canon flash if you're willing to adjust things manually.
I admit that could be a problem if you don't have time to setup and plan the shot, but when you're going to follow people in their work you should have time to setup and adjust.

I strongly recommend you visit strobist to see what you can do with a few relatively cheap flashes.

Renato,

Let me first say - thanks for the great service to our Country.

About your project. I think it's a tremendous idea! You could really do your comrades a great service with this project - and it should be a lot of fun. I don't have time to critique your images, and others are helping you there. I just want to encourage you. This is a very creative project and one in which you will certainly get to know more about your friends - and most especially give others the opportunity to know who they are and how they work together with such diverse backgrounds and lives.

I hope you enjoy every minute of your project. I'm glad you came here to share and get help. I really hope you stick around so I can watch it grow and learn too. :thumbsup:

Liz