Yesterday, Luvia Lazo, our instructor, scheduled an online review of photographs I had taken during our recent Day of the Dead Photography Workshop in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca. Everyone who participated sent Luvia a selection of what they considered to be their best 10-15 shots taken during the three days we were together. She arranged a personal session with each participant to talk about strengths and ways the photography could be improved upon.
During this time together, I focused on street photography, still life, and portraits. Luvia pointed out that she felt my strongest work captured people’s faces. I had taken these during arranged portrait sessions in local homes or when I stopped people on the street or in the market to ask permission to photograph them. She sifted through the 17 photos I had submitted for review and selected those she felt were the strongest — capturing light, shadow, emotion, telling a visual story.
Luivia’s comments were instructive. She said these captured natural moments, with the subjects looking at the photographer and not at the camera, how the shot was framed, perspective, composition, with shadows deep in the image. She recommended that each photograph provide enough information to keep the viewer’s attention. She called out those she didn’t like as much (I haven’t published them), telling me what could have made a difference and improved the shot — some were out of focus, others needed cropping, a few were overexposed, several were out of kilter and needed better framing.
It demonstrated that I need to pay attention to set up the shot and take my time. Morever, Luvia was a guest at Apple’s launch of the iPhone 16 in Cupertino — all expenses paid! (Yes, she is that famous.) They gave her a new phone as a gift. She showed me technical features on my iPhone 14 Pro Max that improved my picture-taking capabilities. Very, very helpful. Yes, I took all these using my iPhone!
We are considering offering this workshop in a longer format in 2025 or 2026, but not during the Day of the Dead. All types of cameras are welcome — from SmartPhone to DSLR to mirrorless! If this interests you, please email me to get on an interested list.
3 responses to “Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Portraits”