Environmental Portraiture: Tell Your Subject’s Story and Create Dynamic Portraits with One Bag of Gear

Portray Action

Action, like emotion, is a great eye-catcher. Assessing whether your subject is able and willing to jump off the rock or get into the pool can be tricky—but you have nothing to lose by asking. If you see a picture in your head of the suited tech guy throwing snowballs or the acclaimed lawyer on the rooftop rowing his way to fame, you have to offer up those ideas. In my experience, the subjects will be willing more often than you think. Sometimes asking subjects to show you how they perform a key work task or an activity they do for fun will open up opportunities to photograph them not posing—and really liven up your images.

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