I went to a fundraiser last night for our local charity to raise money for our local community center. I connected with so many amazing people some I have known for years and many I am just meeting. It was a huge turnout; the room was packed. I had donated some artwork and a photo session for an auction. I rarely go out, so it was quite an event for me. It seems that many people here in Montana are actually following what I am doing and the support was overwhelming. I have made a lot of very great connections and have this week completely filled with people to work with on my project. Wow I never expected this to happen so soon. It seems that everything I photograph now has a new quality. I am creating amazing images daily. I think the constant looking at images and my focus on the art is refining my sense of texture and shape. Every thing is suddenly coming alive and is so vibrant with so much energy. Simple portraits are becoming extraordinary. I finally feel in sync with the process and it is organically beginning to just rise up within me. I do not seem to question so much anymore what it is about and follow my intuition. People put complete trust in what I am doing and just allow the process to flow. I’m looking at and studying hundreds of very beautiful images every day and I’m finding balance and harmony within myself. It feels like photography has been a big puzzle that I have been putting together, where you spend a great deal of time just trying to put together some semblance of the shape of the object, but it is still perplexing where or how the pieces fit. Now as more of the pieces fit into the puzzle I am beginning to see the image emerge. Now I have so many influences on style that I will begin this week exploring some of those ideas and concepts. To take what I can from them and see how it impacts my style and work and remains original and true to myself.

I have a shoot coming up this afternoon that I have been looking forward to all week. He is a casual acquaintance that I met once at a football tailgate party last fall and while I was out with some friends at a bar. He has a very unique look, eyes that are direct and pierce though whom ever he gazes upon. He is quiet and reserved with a calm introspective personality and he has exceptional skin and face structure. After running into him in the bar, I befriended him on Facebook and asked if I could do a portrait of him. He agreed but then he sent me a message back saying he would be interested in becoming a subject for my Naked Man Project. I was quite surprised and thrown off guard at first. I have hardly spoken two words to this subject and know very little about him and he knows very little about me. Excitement builds within me as I plan and anticipate where this shoot will lead, though I have no set plan or concept for the shoot. It excites me to work this spontaneous when I think so much of what I do is calculated and planned. I love it when I see such a remarkable quality in someone who is not yet aware of or can see this quality within themselves. I will follow my instinct and respond to my impulse and allow the extraordinary to emerge naturally.

“One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.” Helen Keller