Photo of the Day


Eye-Catching Portraits and Photos of the Week

November 29, 2021

By Jacqueline Tobin

Portrait photography can run the gamut in type and style—everything from the traditional “head and shoulders” shot to lifestyle and environmental, candid and street, glamourboudoirmaternity sessions and much more. View some of the eye-catching portraits and photos that stopped us in our tracks this week, including those with an emphasis on emotive facial expressions, fun experimentation and creative photo concepts.

It often helps to have a strong creative photo concept in mind before taking an image. Photographer Shaun Liew, of Singapore-based photography and videography collective Smittenpixels Co., had a strong one in place for this “clean-looking maternity portrait that plays with light, shadow and shape.”

creative photo concepts include this maternity shot of mom and dad to be.
© Smittenpixels Co./Photo by Shaun Liew

“We love the contrast between their outfits and the placement of the subjects facing away from each other,” says the team at Smittenpixels Co. “It’s a subtle metaphor to describe that even though the struggle to motherhood is hugely borne by the mother, she would always have her spouse’s back and support.”

Liew chose to connect the subjects through a stream of light across their eyes, “as a reminder that they will always both have each other in their mind as they embark on this journey of parenthood.”

[Read: How to Photograph Natural Light Morning to Night]

Huelva, Spain-based photographer Rosa Garrido says this image was taken in Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, on Corralejo beach. “It’s an isolated beach with golden sands, moderate waves and continuous wind,” Garrido describes, “with adobe ruins that offer an ideal background of bright colors and refined contrasts—a dream come true for every photographer who loves working in natural light.”

This photo by Rosa Garrido shows a couple agains an adobe wall.
© Rosa Garrido

For Garrido, this photograph represents life itself, love and truth. “It shows others what they are, the things that fascinate them, and the place they love,” she says. “It is a snapshot of the couple not posed, taken in a totally improvised way. I love this photograph because it stole a bit of my soul. I always think that seeing is not enough, you have to feel what you are photographing. No one escapes the fascination that photography produces; it is like a magic box that traps us. With my photos I tell what with my words I cannot say.”

Roberto Valenzuela is one of the busiest photographers and educators we know but in his “downtime” he loves to study how lenses are made and how they achieve focus. “When you study lenses and optics, you will run across many convex and concave lens diagrams showing how as light travels through a lens,” he says, “and the light rays will eventually all meet at a single point called the focal point.”

[Read: Self-Portrait Photography: One Pro Photographer’s Educational Approach]

Valenzuela continues: “As I walked around this rental home in Joshua Tree, California, I noticed the exact lens diagram design made by a patio chair backrest when the sun hit it at the right angle. I waited for the sunlight to hit the chair at the perfect angle to elongate the shape of the chair on the floor through shadows clearly printed on the clean cement floor. Next, I carefully placed my subject [photographer Lana Polic] on the floor so that her head was near the point where all the converging lines met. The shadow lines radiated from there onto her body, guiding the viewer’s eye all the way through to the other side of the photo.”

Creative photo concepts like this one of Lana Polic include rays of light on her from a chair pattern.
© Roberto Valenzuela
behind-the-scenes of photo shoot with Lana Polic.
© Roberto Valenzuela

Valenzuela says that what he loves about this photo is how the most powerful images and creative photo concepts can be done in the simplest of ways. “We often associate complicated lighting set-up and gels, and expensive studio lights with a great photo. But a great photo has little to do with equipment and more to do with skill, a great idea and the photographer’s ability to see the possibilities in the most mundane of objects—in this case, a patio chair. Keep your eyes open, your mind trained, and the confidence to execute a great idea whether you have equipment or not. Complicating a photo doesn’t always make it better. Give simplicity the benefit of the doubt. You will love the results!”

Sometimes the most straightforward images can be the most impactful photo concept there is. In this image, of couple Dom and Tai, destination wedding photographer Jonas Seaman says it all comes down to facial expressions.

Two grooms cutting their wedding cake.
© Jonas Seaman

“I love the glee and determination on both Tai and Dominic’s faces as they seem to attack their wedding cake. It’s so funny,” says Seaman. “I’d say this is a pretty standard image from a technical point of view but what makes this photo special is not really anything I did with my camera but what Dominic and Tai gave me–their personalities and being fully present in the moment. If I did anything at all, it was to make a space for Dom and Tai to be themselves on the day.”

Instead of balancing the ISO with ambient lighting while incorporating an off-camera flash, Seaman says he prefers to keep the ISO as low as possible during the reception, and just stick to the one flash on camera. “This lowers my footprint gear-wise at the wedding but additionally, I prefer the look of it. It’s ‘technically’ what they tell you not to do when learning flash photography but all rules are meant to be broken. By doing it this way, only my subject is blasted with the flash, and everything else goes dark in the background. The pros of this approach is that it eliminates distracting elements from the background, while also giving the photo more of a paparazzi feel.”

“Sometimes I get mesmerized by the simplest moments,” says wedding and editorial photographer Elizabeth Messina. “The first sip of coffee, afternoon sunlight through a window pane, a single rose all quiet and beautiful…”

© Elizabeth Messina

This image was made in Messina’s studio bathroom (where she says a large window sits to provide beautiful natural light) while she was in the middle of a branding shoot for a floral company. “It was a bustling production with lots of people and flowers,” she says. “I took this single bloom aside for a couple of quiet shots. I find myself often drawn to the simplicity in a composition. And as much as I love capturing people and the moments between them, there is something so soothing about a beautiful still life.” 

Dig into our Photo of the Day archives for even more compelling and eye-catching portraits and creative photo concepts.