HMTV Canada Interviews Professional Photographer Bonnie’s Pictures

Bonnie Pictures they are full of life, positive energy and captivating the very essence of a person’s soul, filled with intelligent vibrant expression every picture tells a story.  I could probably let my imagination run wild and write a book on the pictures she takes, which triggers my senses and wondering into creative thinking and imagination.  “What is the subject is thinking or the mystery behind that emotional captivating moment. She achieves what the Artist try to capture on canvass while painting.  

HMTV Canda: Hi Bonnie Welcome to HMTV Canada. Tell me is this your first interview or have you done other interviews recently?  

Bonnie: Actually Tina, this is my first formal interview.  It's an honor and a privilege to do this with you.      

HMTV Canda: Have you been a photographer for most of your life and did you empower your education and training within this field while growing up as a child?  

Bonnie: As a child, I was always fascinated with cameras and I would study photos all the time. My dad and I would pour over National Geographic magazines. He would dream of the far-away places and I would be fascinated with the colors, vibrancy and excellence of the photos. I would play with my mother’s old brownie camera. When I was a teen, I had a Polaroid camera and did some creative work with that. I knew then I wanted to be a photographer, but ironically, my formal training was in the army as one of the first female Mechanics. I did not get my first 35mm camera until much later.... in my mid 20's and from then there was no stopping me. I taught myself through trial and error. Eventually I took a few night courses to understand what I was doing, because I was doing something right...I just did not know why. The rest of the education afterwards has been a never-ending evolution.       

HMTV Canda: My first question I been pondering for a long time now and wanted to ask you is what is your secret to capturing those expressive emotional moments out of your subjects when you photograph them?

 

Bonnie: Tina, I don't think that there is any secret. I never start snapping photos right off the get go, but ease into it. I like to chat with the subject. Joke a bit, and put them at ease. I can read people well and I love people. I feel the emotion and then I find I can photograph whom they truly are. But each client is different! I have had some people say to me, "Oh don't take my photo. I am not photogenic and no one has ever taken a decent photo of me!"  I usually respond, "You have not been photographed by me!" And then I get the shot!  

HMTV Canada: How do you develop that special rapport with your clients to make them feel comfortable before a photo shoot? 

Bonnie: I think this question is partly answered by the previous question. Each client is truly different and I approach everyone differently. Being from Nfld, some people think it is that "Newfie Charm'!  I do not like to intrude on someone. If they are not comfortable with a camera in their face, I will find a different approach to ease them into the moment, because that is what it is, isn't it??? capturing the moment. I like to make the moment special for the person I am shooting and for myself.   

HMTV Canda: Before each shoot do you usually set the lighting, props, before you stage each shoot? 

Bonnie: I have all the equipment to be a totally mobile photo studio, So, it depends on the shoot I am doing. I do a lot of photos outside and for that I will have my camera bag that has all I need. I call it my tickle trunk...if I need something, it is in there.  I will do a light check to know what settings I need for my camera and if I need full flash or fill flash. I also have a device that I put on my flash that, for all its simplicity, will give the same results as if I have studio lighting. I have had people stop me at an event and ask, "What is that?" and being a bit of a jester, I usually respond, "That is my margarine tub!" It depends on who I am photographing as to whether I will use props. I like to have a guitar player holding his guitar, or a drummer hold sticks, but it does depend on what we are trying to achieve. Sometimes props can make a photo or ruin the mood.   

HMTV Canada: The passion and hard work really come out in the expression and tones of your pictures, so what usually provokes or inspires the emotional response in you that make you want to photograph? 

Bonnie: Oh my! Such a question! I love photography. I love the thrill of capturing THE shot. I am exhilarated when the photo I am going for is successful. That exhilaration transfers to passion and the subject picks up on then passion and exhilaration and then I even get more fabulous shots. Sometimes I do not realize how hard I worked or what I put into it until later when I am home and I notice I am aching all over, but it is worth it when I get that Shot! I was on a photo shoot with Paris Black once and we were really having fun with the event. We decided to generate energy that transferred to the photos. What I would do was walk towards him while he backed up, never letting me close the gap, and then we would switch where I would back up and he would come towards me. I would go in circles around him and he would do the same to me. The photos we got from that particular shoot were used in a calendar that was published for 2009 (I still have a few copies left if anyone wants to purchase one). 

HMTV Canada: What is involved technically when taking photographs with regard to lighting, tones, avoiding red eye, and daylight or night time photography? 

Bonnie: Number one thing is to have a good lens and number two...Understand everything about the camera. If you are taking photos where there is a shiny background such as plastic or a window, you have to be extremely careful not to have 'hot spots' (flash reflections). The positioning of the flash and angle of the camera can help with that. When doing daylight photos of people, positioning with the sun shining on a person’s face usually causes a person to squint so I like to have their back to the sun so they have a halo or rim of light around their head and then use a light burst of flash to fill in any shadows that may around the subject. When I do night time photography, many times I want to keep the background lit too, so it is a challenge to keep the balance with the subject and the background. In my portfolio, you can see I have a number of shots taken at night where you can see the lights of the city behind the subject yet the subject is perfectly illuminated. Those photos work because I use a flash that is dedicated to my camera and I can manually reduce or increase the power of the flash to keep the lighting even. To prevent red eye, having a flash high off the camera works or some of the digital cameras have red eye reduction. That is a small burst of light that will make the pupils of the eye contract so you do not get the reflection off the back of the eye.  

HMTV Canada: When completing photography shoot how many pictures on average are involved with each session?  

Bonnie:  Tina, sometimes I get the photo on the first shot, but I still go for more variety and selection. There are times I get totally into the session and I can shoot hundreds of shots. After a few times doing that, I found that the sorting through the photos afterwards took a large chunk of time, so now I try to limit myself to 50-100 shots a shoot. But again, that does depend on what we are trying to achieve and are there different backgrounds to work with or costume changes. The number of people in the shoot will determine how many photos are involved. I guess the best way of saying this is as many as it takes!

HMTV Canda: Is it a good practice for photographers to do several takes of the same scene with each session? 

Bonnie:  I guess each photographer has their own way of doing this. I personally like to take a number of different shots in the same scene. Expressions change so quickly, so what may be a perfect facial shot may have been interrupted because the body angle changed, or something in the background became distracting. Everything can change in seconds, so to make sure I have what I need, I take a few extra takes of the same scene. 

HMTV Canada: When taking photo sessions do you ever get inspired with new ideas and spontaneously change the scene for the photo shoot? 

Bonnie: Oh, all the time!! I never go into a shoot with a predetermined mindset of what I am going to get and only focus on that. I am always thinking, looking and seeing. I may think that this shot or that shot will work for the subject, but I just let inspiration flow over me and go with what feels right. Sometimes I am working with a subject that is no stranger to the camera and if we are in sync, together we inspire each other. 

HMTV Canada: What type of work is involved after the photo session is completed with regard to editing the pictures in photography software programs? 

Bonnie: There are a number of programs out there that help a photographer with the editing process. I use Photoshop when I need to crop a photo, or fix a blemish. Sometimes I see in the photo afterwards that there is a bit of 'noise' in the background, so Photoshop has some editing tools that can help remove distractions from the background. If I am going to post the photos on Facebook or some other social website, I put my logo on the photo but I keep the original high-resolution file for use later if the client wants to use the photo for reproduction purposes.