About Lyn Millett and Unframed
Welcome to my photography site! I am a 30-something amateur photographer who's been taking pictures off and on since I was about 15. My first camera was a Pentax K1000, which I still own. Since I went digital in early 2000, I've amassed a large number of pictures on various hard drives, some of which I'm very fond of. So, I decided to build a site to showcase some of my favorite shots for friends and family and any others who might be interested.
I have no formal training in photography and only a rudimentary understanding of its technicalities, so I won't spend a lot of time on this site talking about f-stops and shutter speeds and all that. Instead, any writing I do for each picture will probably be about the subject, why I composed the picture the way I did, or reflections on how it came out.
Philosophical Perspective:
I believe everyone can contribute creativity to the world -- in some cases it might even become art. When it comes to photography, I believe that creating print-worthy photos requires a bit of thoughtfulness and keeping one's eyes and mind open to possibilities. That's it. Equipment and technical know-how are all secondary to finding 'the moment' to click the shutter. I also believe that in order to get pictures that I'm happy with, I need to take a lot of pictures, most of which I won't be happy with. This is the primary reason I prefer digital photography -- it allows me to experiment, time permitting, in ways that analog never did.
On Being Photogenic:
Photographing people is hard. Especially when you're interested (as I am) in creating pictures of people that the subjects themselves will like. I used to think that the notion of 'not being photogenic' was a myth people used to avoid having their pictures taken. I no longer believe that. Having been in situations where I've taken multiple pictures of the same people over spans of time, I now believe that it is easier to get good pictures of some people than it is for others. And this has nothing to do with how attractive they are when cameras are not clicking. That doesn't negate the photographer's responsibility, though -- it just means that more thoughtfulness and the taking of lots and lots of pictures is required.
I have no explanation for why some people are easily photographed well and others are not, I just have empirical experience that this is so. The upshot, though, is that it's the photographer's job to get a good picture. Every time I've put my mind to getting a nice portrait of someone, I've been able to (not always on that day, but over time.) One time a relative of mine who hates having her picture taken said to me, "Oh, but it's ok if you do it, you get really good pictures!" Others have said similar things. Producing good pictures and not publicizing the unflattering ones will engender trust over time.
Privacy:
I believe that it is usually inappropriate to post pictures of people on the web without their consent. It is disrespectful of their right to privacy. I have not always abided by this, myself, but I try to. Accordingly, any portraits on this site are posted with the permission of the subject (or their legal guardian, as appropriate.) Exceptions include crowd shots at public events, public performances, and very public figures. (Note that I do not consider most webloggers to be public figures.)
Technical Details:
Generally speaking (and I'll try to remember to note when this isn't the case), the pictures on this site were taken with a Canon EOS 10D using a Canon 28-135mm image-stabilized EF lens.
I size the images for web use using Photoshop and I'm saving them as medium-to-low quality jpegs in order to keep bandwidth low and reduce page load times. I also occasionally adjust color balance and contrast to my own taste and may crop the photo, as well. Usually, I won't crop to anything other than typical print proportions (4x6, 5x7, 8x10, etc.).
Contact:
You can contact me by email: lyn at lynmillett.com.
If you would like to receive an email notification when there are new pictures at Unframed, send a blank email message to unframed-update-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Images and text © 2003 Lyn Millett; html and css © 2003 Steve Bogart
