Joe Barrentine
Daily Evergreen
Junior
Washington State University
Kim Smith, right, watches as her daughter Alexa looks at her new tattoo in a mirror at Mystical Tattoo in Pullman. Smith drove the 70-miles from Spokane, Wash. to visit during Mom's Weekend at Washington State University. Smith had her ear pierced, but refused to get a tattoo. Photo by Joe Barrentine
Today’s image on the chopping block is from Joe Barrentine. That sounds familiar…hmmmm…where have I seen that name before. Anyways, Joe’s photograph is a nice little moment from a Mom’s Weekend at Washington State University. If this was an assignment, I applaud Joe for taking the initiative of getting off campus and spending some time with his subjects. The Smith women seem totally at ease and appear to be acting naturally despite Joe’s presence. This is a telling look into the mother/daughter dynamic and will eventually serve as a historic document on what it was like growing up in the early 21st Century. I like the intimacy of the moment and the fact that Mr. Barrentine assumed a low angle to improve his composition while attempting to make sense of the visually messy environment. Well, nice try Joe, but the only thing that could clean up this background is a two-man crew and an 8-hour workday.
The depth of field you get using a 14mm lens like the one that Joe is using here is too great and everything in the frame ends up being tack sharp. When I was a young pup, I constantly used a 20mm lens and in the process missed a ton of great opportunities because I was way too wide. Unless you are from Denmark and are going to put a huge out-of-focus head in the foreground of all your pictures, put away your super wide-angles and invest in a 35mm f/2 or a 50mm f/1.4. The look of your images will benefit from the change. I also encourage photographers to crop the photo while you are making it and not later in Photoshop.
But, despite its flaws, among them the bright white light in the top right and the disjointed body protruding from Alexa’s mid-section, I still think this is a successful photo. Life is messy and so sometimes are our photos.
