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Category Archives: Personal

IAQ #2: What are things that bother you from other photographers?

Every now and then in a client consult, the couple I’m meeting with will throw something at me that is unexpected or interesting or makes me pause. The first time, I made it into a post, and now I’m thinking I should really take the time to blog about this stuff – under the headline Infrequently Asked Questions (IAQs). Some of the things my potential clients throw at me is fascinating to me to dissect and possibly interesting or useful to someone looking to hire me.

The other day, the people I was meeting with asked me what bothers me about other photographers – their images or the way they conduct themselves. Everyone (or nearly everyone) I meet with is hiring a photographer for the first time, trying to determine what is important and what doesn’t matter; how much they need to spend to get the images they want, without really knowing what they want. So really, this is a great question, assuming they actually like me and my images. So here we go – things photographers do that bother me, with hopefully enough respect:

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Scenes from the Rally for Marriage Equality at the Supreme Court

Today is a big day in our nation’s history. I am optimistic and hopeful that the Supreme Court will come down on the right side of history by overturning Prop 8 and DOMA when they make their ruling in a few months. Today they heard testimony on California’s Prop 8. I can’t tell you how disappointed I was in my old home for showing such homophobia and discrimination, but now the Supreme Court has taken up the issue and has the opportunity to make it right for all those who suffer because they love someone of the same sex. I was at the rally this morning in front of the Supreme Court, joining my voice in support of love and marriage and against bigotry and hatred.

D.C. isn’t always a perfect place to live, but it is an honor and a privilege to be able to witness history unfold so close to me.

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February’s personal project: Colors

Ever since Spencer Lum’s workshop back in July of last year, I’ve been thinking about my palette. Palette, in photography, refers to the colors that you use. In any given scene, a photographer chooses to include or exclude based on artistic choice. And a photographer chooses which scenes to photograph, obviously. My palette tends to pops of color, but I sometimes find myself avoiding color or working against it. So in February I made a conscious effort to seek out colors and work with them in their vibrancy. Here are some images from my experiments.

This is probably my favorite from the set. I’ve always been fascinated by geometry and shadows. When working with just color forms, balance becomes the key player.

I wasn’t purposely trying to be abstract, but that’s how my initial wanderings turned out. Later on I took some photos with George while we were “ingressing” (don’t ask).

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