The next aspect of photography I chose to learn more about is portraits. That’s because to be honest I have no idea what makes a photo a portrait, or what photographs would qualify as portraits. Or if it even matters.

A portrait I snapped of my grandfather last summer. It pretty much defines him – he’s wearing a hat with the Irish flag (we’re Irish) and a t-shirt of the high school he worked at, both things he is very proud of and talks about all the time. And his facial expression shows how content he is to be where he is at that moment, with all of our family.

It turns out that a portrait is a photo of a person where you can see their face and expression. It’s supposed to be able to describe the person photographed, so as to give a representation of their personality or what they’re all about. And they’re generally still photos – not something of someone moving around or doing an activity. So I could take a picture of my sister playing golf, but that wouldn’t classify as a portrait, even if I can see her face and expression. On the other hand, all the baby pictures of me and my siblings hanging around my house done by photography studios would classify as portraits, even though I think those are a little cheesy. But they really do convey who we are, for example, I was a crabby baby, always whining, and if you look at all my baby portraits I just look insanely unhappy, even though I’m sure the photographers were trying to put a smile on my face. And my little sister, who is the happiest/most positive person, has a big gummy smile in all of hers. And my brother just looks lost and confused, which accurately captures his personality at times too. However, I think I much prefer portraits where it looks a little more genuine, like you snapped the picture with the person looking at you at just the right moment in time and they have some great expression on their face that conveys to you exactly who they are. But that seems probably a little difficult to get right on the first try.