Alignment...

Music | Little Bird by Imogen Heap

It happens on occasion... Not often enough... It's when stars align and everything just falls into place. Of course, it is not without effort that this can occur. You want all your shoots to turn out this way, but for whatever reason, only once in awhile does it happen. So you imagine in your minds eye what the photo will look like and when the plate is prepared, the exposure ends, the plate is developed and then fixed, as the image appears, the reality of the image is better than your imagined perfect plate...

I officially met Erik a few weeks ago. I had put together an event where a few photographers got together to shoot analogue. A few of us met face to face to show our prints of what we had shot. We knew of each other via a community forum we both are members of. His exterior facade is very intense and I knew I wanted to capture that.

I've said before that most of my sessions are collaborative. I set up a frame and let my subjects work within it. I may suggest a turn here or there, but I don't lean on an idea and try to force an issue. Erik just fell into place.


2012-04-22 Erik

So not only was the perfection carried out with my subject, but technically, I adore the light. The symmetry of highlights and shadows here are perfect to me. I've got detail everywhere! And the Petzval lens I am loving more and more! The fall off from the eyes to everywhere else is as creamy as the light.

This is why I love what I do... It is this particular feeling I get where I have conquered my own world...

John Coltrane

Music | John Coltrane

http://youtu.be/BPyWCkoOXYM

Stella...

Music | Western Eyes by Portishead

It has been a busy end of the week photographing kids. It was a nice change of pace and most certainly has kept me on my toes. I shot a 2 1/2 year old and 8 and 9 year olds. 2 girls and a boy.

Stella was my last subject for this week. I loved how serious she appeared to take the shoot. She was the consummate professional at such a young age. It was nice that she lent her own twist to my direction, which I usually do, as I love collaboration.


Stella

Gianni

Music | Days to Come by Bonobo

When Gianni walked in, it was like seeing a manchild. It is just that I have memories of this little kid, really quiet and shy, kind of like a little brother to my daughter from years ago. He is 9 now, and though he didn't talk a lot, one can sense a self condidence and big spirit. When we were working on this shot, I asked him to think of himself as a character and just play it out. All the sudden, he turned into this teenager. He jokingly mumbled something under his breath, and finally said it outloud... "Modern Gangsta!" Though still subdued with strangers and acquaintances, his self confidence, just like in this photo will shine bright.


Gianni

Anna

Music | WBGO Jazz 88.3 fm

Sometimes you take what circumstance gives you and sometimes you are rewarded. My shoot with Little Anna went really well, though I had some technical issues in the beginning. I have to also say I didn't shoot a bad plate of Anna. She was a great little subject, challenging, funny and charming. However, she is also 2 1/2... I don't think I need to say more. :-)

I love it when things just work. This was the last plate, even though I was really happy with the image before. I decided to go after just one more and press my luck. When I returned from loading the wet plate, I had a lot of trouble getting Anna's attention. Though she was all over the place, I waited... and waited... to what seemed like much longer than maybe the 10 seconds I did wait. I finally lost my patience and opened the lens, hit my flash and made an exposure. I marginally thought I was close to where I needed to be for focus, but I honestly had no idea... As the plate came up in the fixer, my attention and focus became more and more acute. As the image slowly changed from negative, to nothing, then into a positive, I was kindly treated with this...


Anna

and the other plates...

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Scream... Rant...

Music | Nowhere Warm by Kate Havenevik

I've taken a few breaks from the various social media outlets I am apart of from time to time... Facebook, Twitter, and forums of interests I have. One of the big things that really irritate me is what the sole purpose of what the internet is best at... passing on information. I am not at all opposed to bringing knowledge and sharing it, but when people are looking for so much information as to not do any work for themselves, I have to say, WTF? If they spent half the time doing searches and asking inane questions about what they want to learn and going about trying to figure it out for themselves, they would be so much the wiser.

Start walking the walk and stop talking!!!