Back in April I was given the opportunity to work with 3-time Olympic medalist Jordan Larson @gov1007 for @espn. In the pre-production call with the creative team, I suggested a couple of techniques I could use as a way of capturing her power and grace…
Read MoreSlipknot X Revolver Magazine Photo Shoot
This shoot was a make-it-work situation, if ever there was one. I was given 30-minutes to shoot a magazine cover as well as individual portraits of each member of @slipknot for @revolvermag. Apparently I didn’t think this was tall enough of an order, so I decided to shoot four different color schemes, both with and without a prism…
Read MoreProcessing Trauma: Photo Shoot with Covid Nurse
Meris is a nurse that witnessed profound trauma during Covid. She kept a journal as a way of processing all that she experienced, which included journal entries and collage art. When she asked me to take her portrait and mentioned the journals, I suggested that I could photograph some of the pages and use them to make in-camera multiple exposures (seen below)…
Read MoreIdentity: A Commission by Unsplash+
The team at Unsplash reached out to me to commission a body of work around the theme of identity. Identity is such a broad, subjective concept that I ultimately used several different technical approaches to create the portraits…
Read MoreMicro and Macro with Katy
I had a wildly varied session with @cortadh0e last week…
Read MorePhoto Shoot with Ballerina Dancer
I rarely go into a shoot with a fixed notion of how I want it to go, or how I want the images to look. I often base my techniques, color palette, and post processing on what the moment dictates…
Read MoreShelby X Creative Portrait Workshop
I had a blast hosting a sold out workshop at my studio this past weekend. Thank you to my students for coming from places as far away as Boston, Seattle, and the Cayman Islands. Shout out to my incredible models (@yesandso seen here) for making it easy to turn these techniques into moving art.
Read MoreWe Are More Than the Sum of Our Parts: A Photographic Pushback Against Artificial Intelligence
Many AI images look are impressive at first, in a too-good-to-be-true kind of way. Interiors brag gravity-defying architecture, or scenic terrains depict features that have never before been seen on this planet. However, there is inevitably an element that seems off when viewing these images. They are too perfect, and lack the tactility and weight that feels believable, a phenomenon referred to as the uncanny valley. This begs the question, are AI images a success or a failure? Are they successfully creating visions of an ideal human or world according to some programming and an amalgamation of stock imagery, or are they a failure in coding, with the author lacking the awareness to include nuance and imperfection in their vision? Its these details that, I’d argue, that inform us that a person or a place is real…
Read MoreKinstugi and the Art of Self-Care: Adult Survivor of Childhood Abuse
Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing a broken vessel with a precious metal, such as gold or platinum. A repaired vessel isn’t the same as it was before the trauma, nor is it diminished. The essence of the original vessel is still there, but golden scars now trace the lines where the fracture occurred…
Read MoreImages From January's Creative Portrait Workshop
Here are a handful of my favorite images from January’s Creative Portrait workshop. I’ve been teaching workshops since 2011 and have been slightly modifying the format each time until I found the current iteration. I now cap the two-day class at five students, which allows for more hands-on time and exploration of each technique. Since there are endless variations that can be created from any one of the techniques that I teach, I start by showing the class three iterations, and then I guide them, one at a time, in helping them fold it into their own visual style. This allows students to really retain the knowledge, as well as work it into their personal style.
Read MoreFluid Portraits Commission by Unsplash+
These images were all created using in-camera effects. No Photoshop was used— only color grading in Lightroom.
I was recently commissioned by Unsplash+ to create a library of fluid portraits. Last year I began working on a new body of images where I explore fluids and in-camera multiple exposures. My Canon 5DIV allows me to select an image from my memory card and overlay it on my viewfinder, when in “live view”, which allows me to intentionally compose multiple exposures. Even though I know more or less how the fluid and the portrait will merge, there is always a moment of surprise when the final image pops up on my screen. As you can see in the gallery below, the same fluid shot will produce wildly different results depending on how the subject is light, the clothes they’re wearing, their hair, the complexion of their skin, etc. This makes each image a one-of-one.
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Zenith Pilot Big Date Flyback Editorial for Road & Track Magazine
I’m excited to share this editorial that I did for @roadandtrack magazine. I’ve been working with fluids such as food dye and ink a lot lately and decided to use them in this shoot to create an elemental feeling, fitting with the theme of the issue: air. I find a still life to be harder to photograph than portraits because there are no happy accidents. All you get out of a shoot is whatever you put in.
Huge thanks to @cassidyzobl for the trust and opportunity. Swipe for #BehindTheScenes
Facing My Shadow Self
Five years ago my dear friend and mentor Sara Lando challenged me to turn my camera on myself, but I wasn’t ready. In the time that has passed since I was her student, I have been faced with more than a few dark nights of the soul. I have been forced to look critically at what I’ve experienced and endured in my life, and learn to accept all of it— the good with the bad— because the whole messy lot of it is what makes me, me. As such, I am warily venturing out into a new series of self-portraits…
Read MoreNew Flower Portraits and a Fine Art Print Sale
Historically, whenever I create something that I’m really excited about, I immediately get overwhelmed (this latest shoot is case in point). I’ve thought about reasons why it may affect me in this way, and here are just a few…
Read MorePhoto Shoot with a Projector and Prisms
New work with @fulltime_babe. Been continuing my trip down the prism rabbit hole. I’ve learned the importance of waiting to edit a shoot until I’m in the proper headspace to really explore where the images want to go. The smallest tweak to my color grade can completely change the vibe of an image.
Read MoreGlowing Halo Photo Shoot (In Camera Effect)
This glowing halo effect is latest technique that I’ve been exploring. The possibilities are as exciting to me as they are overwhelming. I want to dive in and try everything at once, but I’ve learned to let the process dictate the pace…
Read MoreI Discovered a New In-Camera Glow Effect
This was my first shoot exploring a new technique, and I’m ecstatic at the potential. This is just the tip of the iceberg. I’d love to shoot a music video in this style, so hit me up if you’re in the market for one.
Read MoreImages From the Glow Photography Workshop
Here are a few selects from my “Glow” workshop this past weekend. One of my favorite things about teaching is that I often end up discovering new things, such as this concentric circle halo effect that I stumbled upon…
Read MoreLess Is More: Slowing Down with Sondos
Lately I’ve been intentionally slowing down the pace in which I engage life. Though I’ve never been good at being still or meditating, I have found lately that stillness is what I’ve been craving the most. My favorite pastime these days is to sit in what others might call silence and listen to the sounds of the world around me. Crickets chirping; the wind moving through the trees; jets passing overhead; neighbors listening to a ball game on their porch radio. If I can manage to stop thinking about each individual sound, I can start to hear them all as one, and accept my place within it.
Read MoreImages from Photo Workshop Intensives
Last month, for the first time ever, I offered several different workshop intensives. One focused on using just one strobe; one focused on color theory; and one focused on techniques that warped the subject’s appearance. These classes focused on a specific technique, rather than my Creative Portrait workshops, which focus on a broader range of creative techniques. I found the format helped both me and my students pay more attention to just how vast any one technique can be.
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