KISS

Keep.  It.  Simple.  (Stupid.)

Listen, we all have our "look", our creative point of view, we all want to put our personal stamp on images and make them stand out from the crowd.  I get it.  But we become like kids let loose in the kitchen to make dessert: adding sprinkles, adding frosting, adding hot fudge, adding, adding, adding, adding.

What's wrong with a nice sugar cookie?

What's wrong with subtracting?

Dance Project

As much as I spend most of my time playing with fashion photography these days I think I still consider myself a portraitist at heart - even when the goal is to make something "pretty" I'm still striving to make it "interesting" first and foremost.  I'm sure the fault is all mine, but it's felt like I've had fewer opportunities for shooting portraits lately, so it was time to make my own!

I'm not ashamed to admit that I've caught the same Dance Fever that's been going around for the last year or two...I'm huddled around "Glee" and "So You Think You Can Dance" as much as everyone else is, though my wife gets the credit for providing the gateway drugs on those.  So when it came time to create my own excuse for a portrait project, and a little self-assignment for the slow season, shooting dancers seemed as good one as any.

Bag of Tricks

I'm still recovering from the holiday festivities and travel, but I wanted to sit down and address something that comes up a lot in emails to me and that I address in my workshops.  The question goes something like:

"When you're lighting a shoot or setup, are you starting from scratch every time?"

And the answer is: yes and no.