A series of posts now following a family holiday in Crete. First up - location portraiture:
I felt that whenever I was with family or friends any portraits were so opportunistic that I never had the chance to make the most of really amazing locations.
On many of the walks and explores on this trip I used a posed portrait as the focal point in a street scene or landscape to bring it scale, depth and relatability.
This way of blending architectural or landscape techniques with controlled portraiture is a great deal of fun and I think generated more purposeful and representative photos of the time we had, the people and the places, than if I had only photographed what was immediately happening with no creative intervention.
A landscape photographer who largely inspired in me love for this approach is Bastian - A German landscape photographer who features in many of his own (polaroid & tilt-shift) images. See his outstanding work here.