An absolutely amazing Veteran's Portrait Project session...

tirediron

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I had an absolutely amazing Veteran's Portrait Project session today... A couple of months ago, I saw an article about a WWII Veteran who lived about an hour's drive from me, so I called the editor of the paper (who I know through my Wounded Warrior work), explained the Veteran's Portrait Project and asked if he could put me in touch with Commander Chance - he did, I called him and he was the most genuine, pleasant and forthcoming person I have talked to in a very long time. Today I went out to his house and we created his portrait, which I feel turned out nicely.

Commander Chance is amazing not only for the fact that he's 97 years old, lives on his own, has a VERY cool 'E' Type in his garage, and completed a 30+ year career in the Royal Canadian Navy serving in both WWII and the Korean conflict; very few people can claim that! For @baturn: Commander Chance was the NAVO on Cayuga during Operation Sitting Duck - the shore bombardment!

Additionally, after we were done and I was packing up, he said he had a photograph I should see and showed me a photo of himself as a young teenager holding a bow. He said, "Look at the signature" - you could have knocked me over with a feather when I read "Karsh"! Yes, that Karsh... his family knew the Karsh's well, and he'd posed for him several times. His father had also been photographed by Yousuf... I can't imagine that there are many father and son duos that have been photographed by Yousuf Karsh!

_DSC3928_VPP_Chance_WEB_A.jpg

Commander Peter Chance, CD, RCN (Ret'd)

For reference, this portrait was created in his living-room in a space that might have been 8'x10'!

As always, comments & critique greatly appreciated!
 
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Very nice job on your part -- good photo.

Joe
 
Wow! Great story. Amazing man. Outstanding portrait. BZ.
 
Nice portrait and project. I hate to think how many stories never got to be told.
 
Awesome story. Portrait is spot on. Commander Chance doesn't look anywhere near 97, incredible.
 
Very nice job on your part -- good photo.

Joe
Thanks Joe!

Excellent portrait.

He looks like he has some entertaining stories.
He does; some good dits about a run ashore in Kowloon... ;)

Well Done, Sailor.
Thanks Gary!

Wow! Great story. Amazing man. Outstanding portrait. BZ.
Thanks Brian! :)

Nice portrait and project. I hate to think how many stories never got to be told.
That really is the best part of the project; talking to these folks and hearing their stories and memories!

Cool story! Nice portrait.
Cheers!

Nice shot.....
Thanks Jeff!

Awesome story. Portrait is spot on. Commander Chance doesn't look anywhere near 97, incredible.
Tell me about it... I hope to be half that capable when I'm 20 years younger!
 
I've always been a fan of this series and what it represents, but I've always kept my critique to myself on these photos for some reason. This is a great shot, as are the rest in the series that you've done, but as a whole for the entire series I've always had just one nit-pick: the uniforms seem to mostly blend into the background, giving your subjects the look of being floating heads. The light on their faces is always great and really captures them well, I just always find myself wishing that you used light to somehow better distinguish the uniforms from the background. Perhaps a liiiiittle bit of a kicker from behind, or an additional light that's placed at a low angle up at the subject (like a loose clamshell setup), which would act both as a light that illuminates the uniform, and adds some fill light from below. Or you could even perhaps do that with a silver reflector. Another option would be to aim a light at the backdrop, just to illuminate it enough to allow us to see the form of the uniform and to distinguish it from the background.
 
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Thanks Dan; coming from someone who turns out the quality of work that you do, I take that as high praise!

You're not the first to make that comment and looking at the image in a browser, I agree. That said, the underlying concept is for these to be printed as large prints (>20x30) and displayed for public viewing. My idea is that I want to highlight the face and decorations (if they're wearing any). When these are printed, there is just enough separation to make this work (for my taste at least). Looking at this image on TPF it is very 'floating head', but when I look at the .tif file in PS, the shoulders are distinct and the background subtly, but clearly visible and separate and becoming less so gradually toward the bottom of the image and the images that I have had printed so far (for the most part) have turned out exactly how I envisioned them. For some reason, when I first decided to undertake this, I had an immediate idea of how I wanted them to look, and for the most part, I've stuck with that. Right, wrong or indifferent...
 
He has an E type?!!!

Since you aren't showing us pictures of that..... I'll just have to say this is wonderfully done. It is a little on the dark side but I've noticed the quality of photos posted here isn't the same as what people have on their Flickr, etc. so I assume it looks even better in person (as a print).

You certainly captured the personality in those eyes.
 

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