The secret to RAW emotion in your photographs.

Have you ever wondered how I can extract such raw emotion???

The answer is so simple that you might just facepalm yourself..

I go there!!!!  Yep… I know the RAW emotions that make up the images I want to create so I GO THERE!!!!!

I was on a shoot the other day when myself and the model were weeping…..  For me to understand and get my subject to go to a place I have to be able to do it myself. Anyone that has worked with me on emotive shots will testify that it can be a mentally challenging experience.   It takes a lot of energy to drag out the depths of your soul, let alone to do that in front of a camera, I must say results are spectacular.

RAW Emotion
RAW Emotion

121 Comments

  22. I had a friend in College, from Rome who used to smoke Hash everyday! lol…we became good friends…lol…never saw her again….She must be in Hash heaven…or back in Rome….Doing like the Roman’s Do…Oh maybe i should have gone to sleep…he he he he

  40. I’ve never been good at games….but I’ll go for ” I want people to see “What you see is what you get””. And you wnated the image to be as symmetrical as possible. Just guessing for all I know you could have been thinking… “Damn…suddenly I want to pee.”

  42. You really need to dig deep… drag out the emotions that you never wanted to show or let loose… Its hard I know… I have many people try and do it an most fail… I have only had one that went there and she was talking and reliving how her mum died from Cancer and how she lived her last day and last few breaths…

    Its hard and raw… It take guts and pure emotion… it hurts and it pains but we all have it… We all suffer form it and we all feel like this photo at some point

  46. 🙂 I am sure you can agree I dont think emotions should not be hidden away Tash Battersby We all have them and we all have good day and we all have bad. So why do we always capture the happy faces when in reality we all look like this at some point…. Ok Ok maybe with more hair and less beard but you get the point… lol

  54. I don’t know you well but looking at the photo I see a stoic face, the jaw set a little aggresively against what might come next and sad eyes that still can look people (or camera) straight in the eye. For me the strength in the fave overrides the sadness…sorry if I have it wrong.

  75. Brendan…this pic has affected me deeply because I know you, but I have never seen this raw side of you as you call it. I can honestly say this image has made me cry. I miss you and all I want to do is hug you. It’s disturbing and has stirred up some of my own raw stuff like the reality of loneliness.

  76. It is a quality image and if you can treat it purely as that I think it would be a wonderful image to put into a competition like the Moran Contemporary Photography Prize, National Portrait Prize…just an idea. I see it huge on a big white wall.

  77. Lily Troupe I must admit I have known you for a long time. 15+ years I guess.

    It was a very tough image to take but I knew I was going to make it public. Most of us hide behind life and do not touch the inner pain that comes with life…… so for me I had no choice but to capture the incredible pain I was in.

    I must admit no one has ever seen me like this, not even my daughter but it is important to know that we all feel like shit… we all fuck up and we all just wan to die.

    for me this image says lots of thing. It says I need a shave… lol.

  97. My boat took a detour and now there will be dancing…lots of it. So you never know where you’ll find yourself. Come to a comp or two you’ll be greated like a long lost relative. And as for entering the image in a comp next year there isn’t a time limit on it’s impact.

  105. Rare to see such an authentic emotion in a portrait piece. Thanks for sharing and from the thread there are obviously a lot of people whose lives have been touched by you. I don’t have brownies of any type, so sending you a virtual hug instead.

  107. Thanks Tracy Williams. You have seen a lot of my images over the years I am sure. This image was a tough one to take.

    Would you believe that I only took the one image? The focus is out a bit I must admit but considering I guessed the focus I was surprised it was very close, especially at f2.8

    How you going btw? You sell that camera

  109. Sheila White Guevin yes it is rare. People don’t like to see if feel like that, which isn’t a bad thing, but at some point in our lives we all do and it is important to capture that.

    You know from our coaching sessions my thoughts on capturing emotion and how it can be captured in people, so it is good for me to be able to share my personal experiences with you in this manner.

    I like hugs and brownies. Thank you.

    How are you going btw?

  111. Thanks. I hope so also, as its a dark place that is scattered with the rotting bodies of the past and where the evil within hides. It’s a place that we all have on some level and a place that can draw you in and never let you go.

  118. You did a fantastical job on guessing the focus 🙂 No my husband talked me out of selling it and into do another 365 project next year lol. It just seemed silly having such an expensive camera for what I do with photos, however I would be sad if I sold my dream camera. 🙂

  121. Can I just personally thank everyone that posted and liked this image. 🙂

    I really do appreciate the support, and it appears from the comments and the private messages that this image stirred a lot of emotion in a lot of people.

    It has only been greeted with positive comments both here and other places which it was posted. So thank you all.

    Oh just in case you were wondering…. All is good in the world..

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