Inspirations
STUNNING IMAGERY FROM THE WORLD OF CANON PHOTOGRAPHY
Check out our favourite portraits from home in this month’s Photocrowd comp
SILENT STRENGTH BY CHRISTINE JACKSON
Christine took this marvellous portrait of her daughter while they were in lockdown, she tells us: “I wanted to try my hand at some indoor portraits using natural light and my daughter was an eager model. She was finding it hard being away from her friends and teachers, so this image is showing her inner strength. I hung a large blanket in the background to keep it dark and also added water drops from a medicine syringe to make the picture look a little sadder.”
Lens Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8l II USM
Exposure 1/160 sec, f/6.3, ISO1250
CARNIVAL BY LAURA BENVENUTI
This is a brilliant self-portrait shrouded in mystery and full of smokey textures. The central composition works really well and the golden embellished mask does a fantastic job of pulling the eye in and anchoring the image. One eye can be seen through the mask, while the other is covered by the smoke created by an e-cigarette. It’s a very powerful and impressive self-portrait that Laura should be proud of, and one worthy of first place in our Portraits at Home contest this month.
Lens Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8l II USM
Exposure 1/125 sec, f/6.3, ISO400
SELF-PORTRAIT BY KARLEY KOSMOS
If I could only say one thing about this image it’s that it’s very pink! Karley tells us, “Being stuck indoors during the lockdown really unleashed my creativity. I went through my closet and found this tassel background from a birthday party and hung it on the wall to take some colourful self-portraits. It was tricky to get the tassels to fall in the right place in the frame I wanted, but after many attempts I was happy with this result.”
Lens Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM
Exposure 1/320 sec, f/4.5, ISO1000
OUR BABY BY LENKA CONTOSOVA
This is a wonderful newborn baby portrait from Lenka, who has cleverly shot down low at eye level with her baby to make it feel more intimate. The black and white treatment works really well, and her composition allows the image to breathe with lots of active space this helps keep the picture light and bright. The shallow depth of field at f/2.8 is ideal as this brings all of the attention to baby’s captivating eyes.
Lens Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM
Exposure 1/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO100
HAVING FUN BY KIM SCHOU
Kim’s caught this wonderful moment between his two young grandchildren Lua and Nohr after their mum gave baby Nohr lots of kisses and teased out lots of giggles and smiles. Kim has expertly used a fast shutter speed of 1/200 sec, utilized flash to freeze the moment and took the shot at just the right time to create this lovely heart-warming image.
Lens Canon EF 24-105mm f/4l IS USM
Exposure 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO50
KIDS ON A QUAD BY STEVE MORRIS
Steve’s caught a lovely moment between brother and sister roaming around on their quad bike. He’s managed to nail a pinsharp focus and used a rapid shutter speed of 1/2000 sec to eliminate both camera shake and subject blur. The photograph is also packed with colour and has a good amount blurred foreground grass in front of the kids, with space in the left of frame that they’re riding into, which really helps to balance the composition.
Lens Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8l IS II USM
Exposure 1/2000 sec, f/2.8, ISO100
SILVANO BY JOHN THORNDIKE
This portrait is packed with character thanks to John’s ingenius use of props that he had lying around his garage and his model Silvano’s warm and welcoming expression, which has been frozen with flash. John tells us, “I had a bunch of props lying around from car boot sales that I wanted to use in a portrait, so got my friend Silvano to pose with them in an interesting way.” Plus a beer always helps!
Lens Canon EF 24-105mm f/4l IS USM
Exposure 1/125 sec, f/8, ISO100
STORYTIME BY LAHIRU RANASINGHE
Placing a flashgun inside the book is a wonderfully clever way of illuminating Lahiru and his daughter in this story time scene. We love this image, which is his third attempt at creating the shot he imagined – must be third time lucky! Lahiru’s done a brilliant job at capturing this magical moment between him and his daughter and is well-deserving of a spot in our top 10.
Lens Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Exposure 1/200 sec, f/6.3, ISO100
RON BY NADIA PAUL
Nadia’s posed her stepdad Ron next to a window light to illuminate half of his face and leave the other half in shadow which makes it moody and it’s razor sharp too.
Lens Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II
Exposure 1/60 sec, f/5.6, ISO100
MUSIC TAKES ME AWAY BY ANDREW JORDAN
A good portrait should tell you something about the person in the shot, and that’s what this portrait from Andrew does. He tells us: “I set up my camera on a tripod and used an off-camera Godox flash fitted with an octobox to provide lighting.”
Lens Canon EF 24-105mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM
Exposure 1/125 sec, f/4.5, ISO400