“Love Yourself” || Photo copyright Mariah Doka
“Love Yourself”
Many people say that your younger siblings look up to you and want to be like you. For me it’s the opposite; I wish to be like her. She is so full of life and energy. She has no shame is what she does and what she does always has a purpose. She’s very smart, lovable, comfortable, funny, and cute. My sister has a personality that rubs off on anyone that is near her. To be able to capture her personality in a photo is an accomplishment. Although I will say that it wasn’t that hard to do; she is very photogenic.
I’m not sure if you would call this a portrait. I think of it more of as a candid shot. I didn’t pose her this way, I didn’t tell her what to do, nor did I tell her how to look. All I did was point the camera at her and she just moved and moved. She did different poses, different facial expressions, and I was just the one to click the shutter button. We took almost a hundred photos and each photo had a different pose. She’d be smiling in one and in the next it was a more serious expression. This one is my favorite simply because her smile is beautiful and there is a “cuteness” and a “comfortableness” to her and that’s what I wanted to portray in a photo of her.
I’m going to be honest and say that I don’t do “portraits” a lot, not as much as I would like to anyway. The only reason I don’t do portraits is because I’m not very good at talking to people and that’s probably a trait that any photographer needs to be successful. The reason I’ve taken such an interest in photography is that there are a lot of aspects that don’t require talking to people. Landscape, nature, and whatever else is out there. Although, yes I will have to talk to people eventually but I’m not looking to be a professional and sell my photos and take clients. I’m simply here because I want to do something for me. I want to capture an image that shows that I did something amazing and keep it for myself. With photography, I imagine I can take some awesome photos and not have to talk to anyone about it.
This photo was for a photography assignment that required a portrait of someone using an off camera flash. For this particular set up, using an umbrella flash kit, I set it to my left and had my Canon 5D Mark III camera in my hand. The lens I chose was a 50mm with an aperture of 2.8, shutter speed of 1/100 and an ISO of 1000. I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t realize my ISO was so high and it really didn’t need to be. As far as post processing goes, I did very little. I removed some blemishes and adjusted the contrast and exposure.
About the Photographer:
My name is Mariah Doka and I am currently a student at Northern Arizona University. I am majoring in Criminal Justice with a minor in Photography. Everyone always says that those are two random subjects to put together, and I know they are but those are two things that I’ve come to love. As far as photography, I didn’t do much shooting before college but my interest in it has definitely taken off since I started taking photography courses. I like to do it because photographers have a different way of seeing the world. We’re always looking for interesting things and figuring out how we could take a picture is various ways. I’m here for the aspect of thinking differently and looking at the world differently than the average person.
To read more about the Northern Arizona University “Behind the Image: Guest Blogger” project on our blog, please read the introduction at youcansleepwhenyouredead.com/wordpress/4th-annual-northern-arizona-university-behind-the-image-guest-blogger-project. Please take a minute to leave your thoughts and constructive comments in the Comment section below – Mariah would love to hear from you!