Faces of the Iowa Caucuses

Experience the Iowa Caucuses

I like Faces.  I like politics.  And I live in Iowa.  For me, there is no better place to combine all three then at the Iowa Caucuses.  As a photographer, I am drawn to the human face.  So much is written on a person’s face.  For me, the more we study a still image of a particular face, the more information it reveals and the more we can see.  It’s why I named my blog Infinite Stills.  For me, photography is the study of the Infinite Depth of the Still Image.

On Caucus night in Iowa, I took a camera and while participating, I roamed the venue capturing the faces of participants.  When we typically see photos of people, they are looking directly at the camera and “posing.”  As such, we glean very little from the image.  But when someone is engaged in an activity, such as conversing with another or simply observing an event by standing in the scrum of a political caucus, we see so much more.  And when that person is unaware of the presence of a camera, the image becomes active, not static.  The longer we look at a particular face, the more we are drawn into the depth of the image.  However, once in a while, as you will see below, someone looks directly at the camera and the depth of their true self comes through.  And that’s rare, but wonderful.

Excitement in the Air

On this night, there were three major candidates, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley.  As the night unfolded, it became clear that Mr. O’Malley did not have much support, and the entire impact of that fact is visible on the face of his Precinct Captain.

The other thing to become apparent was that support for Hillary and Bernie was a virtual tie.  We split across the Callahan Middle School Gym, Hillary’s folks on one side and Bernie’s on the other.  We stood in rows of 10 each, to get an accurate count.  There was a sense of excitement in the air, as people were continually getting update on the totals from across the state.

Since we’re in Des Moines, we are canvased by national and international media.  At our location, there was a film crew from Sweden and a television reporter with camera from Israel.  It’s amazing when you have the chance to experience this event.

I invite you to look at these Faces at an Iowa Caucus to see what you can see.

Click on an image to enlarge it.

Geek Speak

For this photo shoot, I tried out my new Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Prime Lens on my Canon 5D Mark II camera.  I’m very happy with the results.  Processing was first in Lightroom, and then NIK Silver Efex Pro 2.

Thanks for stopping by.

Tom

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