Building a character portrait

I’ll start with a statement: I’m very proud of this photo.

THAT’s Mauricio. He’s what you call “a character.” The moment you meet him, you realize this. I took other photos of him that day I believe are great representations of his character but this one was special.

When I shoot character portraits in my studio, I go in wanting to express an idea about who that person is. I genuinely want the photo to tell me a little bit about the personality. Sometimes it’s a word, sometimes it’s a photo I saw in the past, sometimes it’s a characteristic… and sometimes it’s a physical feature or just an interesting face. In Mauricio’s case, it was a little bit of everything…

And I always start with a Pinterest mood board (click the link to view that little mood board). I wanted to channel Irving Penn’s awesome photo of Salvador Dali. I mean… come on… you can’t look at that face and tell me he doesn’t have a Dali thing about him. Mauricio has one of those faces. You want to know him. Mauricio is funny, eccentric, intelligent and a fiery individual. He’s a cool dude.

When I shoot one of my “Famous” character portraits (nooooot! but maybe one day), I don’t like to go in too prepared because I like to have inspiration and spontaneity guide the way. I am an instinctual photographer (aka not a technical one) and I like my gut to do the work when it comes to lighting and posing. After all, I consider this type of photography just an extension of my wedding and family work.

Here are the other facets of his personality. There are a couple I really love because I SEE my friend at his truest. Which one is your favorite?