The Department of youth...

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I find it easy in this day and age to point out the differences in my generation and the younger generations that will someday inherit this world. I have to admit sometimes I feel a little cynical and wonder if they will be up to the challenges that they will soon have to face. However after spending a morning with my friend Misty's daughter Mina I began to worry a little less. This young lady has more answers then questions and the world is a much better place because she is in it. I bet all of you have someone like that in you world so please take the time to acknowledge and encourage them. Saturday morning Mina encouraged me by modeling for me in the woods across the lake.

Gratitude Walks...

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It has been a very industrious year for me so far with lots of commercial work and traveling. When I'm really busy picking up my camera and shooting just for fun or art becomes more difficult. However I've learned over the years that it is crucial in maintaining a balance with my creativity. Recently I slipped in the woods with my friend and dancer Jessica for a morning of light chasing...

Minor White

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Many years back I had a professor share a Minor White quote with me and it has stuck with me all these years. " The camera is always pointed with in..." As I pour over thousands and thousands of images there is always a common thread in every picture - me... Recently I turned my camera towards my family something I do not do very often.

LIfe moves pretty fast...

If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
I heard this great quote from "Ferris Bueller's Day off" recently and it reminded me how lucky I am to do what I do for a living. Being a photographer has turned me into a curious person that not only wants to look around but also capture it for all the world to see. Never underestimate the revealing power of a fast shutter speed.

Bresson's Patience

I was talking to a friend the other day that had just visited the Bresson exhibit in Chicago.
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/exhibitions/Cartier-Bresson/

Bresson's work taught me a lot and so many things I admired about his work still motivate my shooting today. More than anything he taught me how to wait. How to slow down and wait for a picture to unfold into a definitive moment. This any many ways is like chasing a white whale and it's the failures that keep me coming back again and again. Sometimes I get close...

He looked up...

I remember one time shooting some interior architecture with a friend as students. I questioned her composition and asked why she had choose to place the camera where she had placed it. Her reply " it just looks right to me"... I took her around to the front of the camera and showed her that she had placed the lens at exactly her eye line. We all see the world from one view and it's important to remember that all our views are different. I learned the hard way that I could never make a living by shooting up people's noses - hurray for short models and step ladders. Maybe this is why I like to work with kids so much. Good pictures hide all over the place you just got to move the camera and look for them. I found this shot recently while walking a trail alone in a quiet Maine forest.

European Fashion...

Can be really funny sometimes...

I think this was in Denmark.