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| Nina Leen's Whippet behind Mamiya-6 |
If you are a person who likes to be the center of attention, I have two suggestions when getting photographed: (1) do not pose with a young child, and (2) do not pose with a cute dog. I guarantee that either of these two will blow you off and steal your show. Hence I may be making a big mistake in composing the picture above.
Nina Leen shot this fawn-and-white whippet in 1964. The dog became a superstar in Great Britain. To my eyes, the photo has that classic portrait feel that I thought would be a cool background for my classic Mamiya-6. Initially the vertical photo above was going to be my tribute to the Mamiya-6 but I ended using Bill Beall's Busted as a background photo just because it looked better on screen. In doing Icons behind the Lens series, I realized that the horizontal or landscape format worked better when displayed on the screen of a computer. My dilemma is that horizontal formats do not work well in books as opposed to vertical or portrait format. I'm still trying to figure out a way for the audience to appreciate looking at photos in both a book form and the web. Sometimes, the square format is the compromising solution. But this would mean cropping the picture since I'm using an SLR with a 2x3 format. I think that would be a waste of pixels.
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