Well, "portraits" - at least the way this board thinks of them - seem to be based on the idea of communicating something meaningful about the subject. I really approached this (as I did the others) from the opposite standpoint - with only the desire to create a strong image. In this case, however, the result is somewhere in between, both because of the subject's involvement and probably because he feels pretty relaxed with me since we've known each other for a while (and he used to do photography too). And personally, I think that's the ideal relationship for any shoot: let the photographer concentrate on creating the image, but with the active involvement of the subject.(posted 8548 days ago)As for the background, I don't think pictures need to be self- explanatory. (After all, it could just have easily have been a painted canvas back there.) This picture will probably end up being used in the CD insert along with some text about the tree. We'll reshoot this without the necklace and with less smile and then crop it square from the left and right down the center of his face for the cover, leaving plenty of room for the title over his shoulder.