Dessa & Jonny

This is actually a few years old, but I've never posted it. It reminds me of The Kiss by Rodin, which I shot recently and will post next...

Sonia & Dessa & Iris

I've shot the "hair in the face shot" so many times that I wouldn't want anybody to count. They usually look too "not quite right", if that makes any sense. That might be just me, for someone else might say that it's nice to see me loosening up... anyway, here's a few that I like.

Christina & Kellie & Donna & Jess

With the exception of suspensions, I regret spending as much time as I have in the past shooting with a white backdrop. With the suspensions, I feel that it gets rid of the unnecessary distractions, therefore keeping things elegant. With some of these, I actually tried black backdrops first, but too much information disappeared into them— the white gives everything a nice pop and a sense of depth that black was missing. Otherwise, in retrospect, the white backgrounds feel kind of soulless. They also feel fake, like a fashion shoot— which is what I originally got those types of backgrounds for. They still represent, for better or for worse, my past work.

Ash

A (very) small window into a cutters world. I've photographed quite a few that have engaged in self-harm. Although I tend to be rather interested in the personal psychology of those that I work with and often ask questions, cutting is something that really bothers me (I can't relate) and I don't typically go there. Just like that my subjects typically look introspective but not depressed— that's not a coincidence. My genuine interest here is aesthetics... I like marks that are thoughtfully carried out while having a rhythm & order. I've seen so many scars that are as chaotic as perhaps the thoughts that made them. I've tried shooting those, but I never pick them in an edit— probably (definitely) because they really bother me. Everybody has different limits as to what they can look at, and while images like this please me, I can understand that it might bother someone else.

Percolate

The Delights of Familiarity. When you use the same few lenses, you get used to them focusing the same way, and the aperture ring moving in the same direction, not to mention knowing what kind of image you can create with them before you even attach them to your camera. It’s the same with the camera. Put another way, more familiarity leads to fewer obstacles, and there’s far greater fluidity in the whole experience— something I greatly value in making photography an immersive and rewarding pursuit. I’m definitely guilty of going through phases where I'm in camera tester mode, rather than true photographer mode... where I'm doing a shoot that is probably compromised because I'm testing a different camera out, only to find that I'm not really comfortable using a said camera. What I mean by that is that I use a particular camera because I'm at least slightly (if not completely) making it a fetish object, rather than using my tried-and-true equipment. My confirmed and proven equipment isn't hip & cool, but instead completely reliable for getting the job done. I find that using equipment that you’re so familiar with it almost becomes invisible is the best equipment to get the best images. Knowing how your camera and lens will perform in any scenario— where shooting becomes a meditative, almost zen-like experience of seeing and capturing each image. While I typically appreciate the experience of trying some really cool new or vintage camera out, I tend to ultimately treasure the comfort (and the results) of the tried-and-true.