Quick Portrait: Zak Braverman in a Coffee Shop
Zak Braverman quick portrait yesterday at Tully's Coffee -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2013 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/200 sec, f/5, ISO 4000 — map & image datanearby photos
Zak Braverman
quick portrait yesterday at Tully's Coffee

Zak needed a headshot for some kind of online profile related to his shakuhachi-flute playing, so I met up with him for five minutes yesterday morning at a coffee shop for a quick shoot.

The lighting was horrible — mixed fluorescent, LED, incandescent, and daylight — so we should have moved elsewhere, but time was short so we went with it. (I lost quite a bit of time on the way because I found someone's wallet in the middle of the street, and it took a while to find a police box that was manned, and then there's paperwork involved in turning it in, and such.)

Anyway, I like the B&W treatment above, but here's the uncropped color version...

Same Shot as Above -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2013 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Same Shot as Above

Zak himself prefers this next shot instead. The difference in mouth and eyes from above is quite subtle, but the result is vastly different, I think.

Zak's Preference -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2013 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/200 sec, f/5, ISO 4000 — map & image datanearby photos
Zak's Preference

Zak likes this one, but I think it's relatively flat. The eyes are essentially unchanged from before, yet somehow this one seems to lack the twinkle and life of the first. At least, that's my view.

Zak's view is probably just him trying to project his cynical side, but I've known him long enough to know what's really behind that façade, well revealed in the following shot:

The Real Zak Braverman -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2013 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/200 sec, f/5, ISO 4000 — map & image datanearby photos
The Real Zak Braverman

This was the first “formal” (so to speak) portrait I've done of Zak, but I've snapped plenty of shots of him while sitting across the table from him at a coffee shop, such as this one from January, or this one from five years ago.


All 2 comments so far, oldest first...

Actually, now that I see them side-by-side, I agree with you as to preference.

I am absolutely sure, however, that the final shot is misnamed!

— comment by Zak on June 15th, 2013 at 7:18pm JST (11 years, 6 months ago) comment permalink

Hurry up and publish something else already! I’m tired of seeing my mug at the top of your blog!

Done. Is this any better? —Jeffrey

— comment by Zak on June 18th, 2013 at 4:54pm JST (11 years, 6 months ago) comment permalink
Leave a comment...


All comments are invisible to others until Jeffrey approves them.

Please mention what part of the world you're writing from, if you don't mind. It's always interesting to see where people are visiting from.

IMPORTANT:I'm mostly retired, so I don't check comments often anymore, sorry.


You can use basic HTML; be sure to close tags properly.

Subscribe without commenting