Behind The Mask

It probably would have been easier to construct a piece of photographic art from a swathe of pancakes, it being Shrove Tuesday, but tonight was another in a regular series of 'Studio Nights' at my local Photographic Society in Rotherham.

We have a pretty simple set up with a couple of studio lights and a standard white or black screen, so while it generally results in pretty formulaic and sometimes rather staid or stiff shots depending on the experience of the model, it does give members of all abilities a chance to either test their imaginations and creativity or get to know their cameras that little bit better. And it's always fascinating to compare the eye of one photographer with another. Sometimes, you'd not think we were in the same room, at the same time, shooting the same subject to see the variation in what ends up being captured.

This evening, I wanted to put my macro lens to the test having never used it for portraiture before and I had great fun doing so. I'm not sure Fatima, our model for the evening, was too comfortable at me getting so close but she was very gracious despite the intrusion.

The shot I chose to share with you is one of a collection I shot and I've taken a risk today over whether this one works or not. The focus is very much on the detail of the netting from Fatima's fascinator but without, I hope, losing the personality of the face 'behind the mask'. While that in itself has lost the detail, I hope it's not too soft to deny the intensity of Fatima's gaze into the lens.