James Brosher Photography

Portfolio website for James Brosher, a Bloomington, Indiana based editorial and wedding photographer specializing in action, documentary, and portrait images.

Editorial

My embarrassing photo moment

Watching a YouTube video of a wedding photographer backpedal into a fountain the other day reminded me of one of my most embarrassing moments. A couple years ago Barack Obama made a surprise visit to the Little 500 bicycle race at Indiana University. At one point I got in front of him in the infield of the track, about 8 feet away from him and backpedaled to get him in the frame with a long 70-200 lens. I didn’t realize there was a chair directly behind me and – yep you guessed it – I went down. Even better: I have a shot of him pointing at the chair (second frame down). I guess I can tell my grandchildren that as a journalist I stood toe to toe with Obama … before falling over a chair in front of him. I recovered and got a couple decent shots out of the day (last two shots).

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Capitolizing on free time

After my assignment this morning, I took a stroll down to the Texas State Capitol to shoot some features figuring and made a mental note to return on a slow news day to shoot a feature or two.

A tour guide leads a group of children on a tour of the Texas State Capitol rotunda on Wednesday, July 14, 2010.
A tour guide leads a group of children on a tour of the Texas State Capitol rotunda on Wednesday, July 14, 2010.
Clouds spot the sky behind the top of the Texas State Capitol as temperatures reached the 90s on Wednesday, July 14, 2010.
Clouds spot the sky behind the top of the Texas State Capitol as temperatures reached the 90s on Wednesday, July 14, 2010.

Salad

When life gives you salad, make photos, as the slightly modified saying goes. My main assignment today was to photograph salad at a downtown restaurant called Leaf. I don’t do food photography very often if at all so the photo below is my best attempt at it using a single light. The second photo is of the restaurant’s owner. In that one you can see my biggest bad habit this summer: using a crop lens on a full-frame camera body. That’s the result at 17 mm.

A salad bowl is seen at Leaf (419 W. Second St.) on Wednesday, July 14, 2010.
A salad bowl is seen at Leaf (419 W. Second St.) on Wednesday, July 14, 2010.
Leaf owner Jordan Feiner is seen at his restaurant on Wednesday, July 14, 2010.
Leaf owner Jordan Feiner is seen at his restaurant on Wednesday, July 14, 2010.

John Wesley Coleman

One of my goals this summer is to get more comfortable shooting lit portraits. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. I’m not perfect by any stretch, but I’m much more confident than I was two months ago when it comes to strobing someone. For most of my portraits I’m asked to do, I don’t have a lot of time to scout locations or think up ideas. In these cases, it’s an additional challenge to think up a lighting scheme, background and expression for the portrait on the fly. Such was the case with the portraits below. Luckily for me, I had a subject who was pretty open and creative and had some ideas when I arrived.

John Wesley Coleman poses for a portrait at his Austin home on Monday, July 12, 2010.
Local musician John Wesley Coleman poses for a portrait at his Austin home on Monday, July 12, 2010.
John Wesley Coleman poses for a portrait at his Austin home on Monday, July 12, 2010.
Local musician John Wesley Coleman poses for a portrait at his Austin home on Monday, July 12, 2010.

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