Strumming the Ukulele

[escape]

Photo of my friend at work taking a break at subway car overhaul facility.

[RBSinTo]

Daniel,
Your friend appears to be playing a Guitalele, rather than a Ukelele.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitalele
Robert

[Manfred M]

A couple of thoughts for you:

1. Look at shooting this type of shot while crouching to be close the the subject's eye level. I think you will find the shot looks a lot more engaging when you do that.

2. The background is distracting and does not add anything to the shot. Go a bit wider and do what is referred to as an "environmental portrait" where you show the subject in his or her environment. Rather than fighting the environment, make it part of the image.

[escape]

Daniel,
Your friend appears to be playing a Guitalele, rather than a Ukelele.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitalele
Robert

Your right, I can see it has 6 strings. He kept calling it a ukelele.

[escape]

Manfred: Good tips. Will look to incorporate them. I plan on doing a series of "Enviormental Portraits". Thank you.

[escape]

I saw a worker walking carrying a fig plant and asked him if I could take his photo. He agreed. I didnt want to hold him up but I asked him to step over a bit then to move the plant a bit. ( I think I crouched down to much. He was standing. I didn't need to crouch at all.) Anyway when I looked at photo his eyes were closed. I realy didn't know this worker. Hope to enlist the aid of guys and gals I know who will alow me the time to get a good photo. I love being new to photography and having the feedback and the abundance of information this site provides.

[rpcrowe]

Totally agree with Manfred's observation that an eye level (or chest level) point of view would have been better. People and animals IMO are best photographed from those levels.
That camera angle "might" have resulted in more of an "environmental portrait" also because it would have shown the work area rather than just the floor.
However, environmental portraits can be tricky to shoot in that you need to include the subject's surroundings in a way that adds to, not competes with. the principle subject...
Often, an articulating LCD viewfinder can be handy in shooting from a lower level. I realized this many-many ears ago when I switched from a twin lens reflex camera to a single lens reflex with an eye level viewfinder. I could not realize why my people shots with the twin lens reflex were generally better than those with the eye level viewfinder. I finally came to the conclusion that as a guy six foot one inches tall, I was shooting "down" on most subjects with the eye level viewfinder while framing my shots with the twin lens reflex put the camera at a lower level. Once I realized this, I made a conscious effort to get the camera down to a better level when shooting people and animals...
I especially like the Canon 6D Mark-ii with its combination of articulating viewfinder and face detect focus as well as my Sony APSC cameras which also have articulating LCD finders but, which have the added advantage of Eye-AF (both for animals and humans). These cameras make it a bit easier for a 79-year old guy with stiff joints to get the camera down to a lower level but, still keep AF on the eyes...
Note: The Canon 6D2 is not touted as having Eye-AF like my Sony cameras but, the face detect of this camera does a great job in focusing on the eyes of a human subject even when shooting with a wide aperture portrait lens such as the 85mm f/1.8... The fully articulating LCD of the Canon also makes it a bit easier to use the LCD at a lower level when the camera is in the portrait (vertical) position...

[DanK]

I agree with Manfred's first point but would put the issue in more general terms. Shooting many things that aren't eye-level when standing--often seated people, flowers, pets, etc.--from eye-level when standing often makes the image look like what a passerby would see when walking by. That is, it makes it look like a snapshot. I don't mean the term to be disparaging. However, that's a primary reason for looking for a different viewpoint.

Sometimes, one has no time to think about framing; you just have to shoot quickly. However, in a case like this, where the person has agreed to be photographed, I would walk around a bit, looking for a perspective that works best--the right height, a position that optimizes the background, etc.

Re Manfred's second point: I would add a caveat. Using a wide-angle lens (that's what an iPhone 5S has) from this close a distance causes visible distortion in the subject's body. The way I would go wider, if that is what I ended up deciding to do, would be to step back, not use a shorter focal length. This isn't an issue if you continue shooting this with a phone, since your model gives you no control over focal length, but it is an decision in the more general case where you use a camera that gives you control.