I am going to try to take some time today and bring the focus back to myself. We had rain last night and it has brought a fresh relief to the area. It seems Montana we are the polar opposites of weather. The heat tends be make people crabby and they begin to grumble and I feel that rising within myself. The pressure has finally broken and I need to get back on track. I have some help coming this morning that is going to assist in the process of putting the portfolio together. Hopefully I will finish the final printing today and we will begin mounting everything for the box.

Today’s image is of Lucas in a big office chair. For some reason I totally love this image. I think it was the simplicity and honesty of it. Ian was an amazing kid that, when I first met, absolutely captivated me. He had a gentle nature that just pulled me into his dark brown eyes. It took us about a year to finally come together to create an image and I was not entirely sure what to do with him. I knew it had to be about the grace and comfort of natural light. In fact the first time he walked into my studio and we sat down to talk, I was captivated by the natural light on his skin and began to shoot some snapshots of him naturally. When I looked at them I knew he would be a remarkable subject. The key would be to allow him to be natural and feel natural through out the process. I have access to this old Victorian house that its beautifully decorated with opulent furnishings. I took Ian to this house and we spent an entire day just moving through the house shooting. All the images were amazing. Ian just felt like he belonged in this place. For the most part the house is very dark and for this set or series of images I stopped down the camera to a very fast ISO and shot with the natural afternoon window light. I did not work with a tripod, so I hand held the camera and braced my body to steady the long heavy lenses I prefer to use. My lens of choice is a medium telephoto that tends to compress the subject into the background or environment, but I need more distance to use it and make it happen. The focal length of the lens is essential for shooting good portraits and brings it’s own psychology to the subject. The narrow depth of field and compression of the subject creates the intimate feeling within my images, brings us closer and tighter, so that we as a subject cannot look away but are compelled to be drawn in. The art of photography works on so many levels and it is a mastery of all these levels that make up a great image. So that even the simplest of images can show such grace and beauty.