The team at Unsplash reached out to me to commission a body of work around the theme of identity. Identity is such a broad, subjective concept that I ultimately used several different technical approaches to create the portraits…
Read MoreMicro and Macro with Katy
I had a wildly varied session with @cortadh0e last week…
Read MoreEyes and Ears and Mouth and Nose (Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes)
It’s been nearly five years since I’ve photographed @kate_sweeney and it was interesting to see the parallel in tone with our last shoot (third eye vibes)…
Read MoreWe Are More Than the Sum of Our Parts: A Photographic Pushback Against Artificial Intelligence
Many AI images look are impressive at first, in a too-good-to-be-true kind of way. Interiors brag gravity-defying architecture, or scenic terrains depict features that have never before been seen on this planet. However, there is inevitably an element that seems off when viewing these images. They are too perfect, and lack the tactility and weight that feels believable, a phenomenon referred to as the uncanny valley. This begs the question, are AI images a success or a failure? Are they successfully creating visions of an ideal human or world according to some programming and an amalgamation of stock imagery, or are they a failure in coding, with the author lacking the awareness to include nuance and imperfection in their vision? Its these details that, I’d argue, that inform us that a person or a place is real…
Read MoreKinstugi and the Art of Self-Care: Adult Survivor of Childhood Abuse
Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing a broken vessel with a precious metal, such as gold or platinum. A repaired vessel isn’t the same as it was before the trauma, nor is it diminished. The essence of the original vessel is still there, but golden scars now trace the lines where the fracture occurred…
Read MoreWarped and Fragmented Portraits of Rachel
I had a blast playing around with a range of different prisms, refraction panels, and ring lights last week with @rachelluree. As always, these effects were created in-camera, with the only post work done being color grading in Lightroom.
Read MoreImages From January's Creative Portrait Workshop
Here are a handful of my favorite images from January’s Creative Portrait workshop. I’ve been teaching workshops since 2011 and have been slightly modifying the format each time until I found the current iteration. I now cap the two-day class at five students, which allows for more hands-on time and exploration of each technique. Since there are endless variations that can be created from any one of the techniques that I teach, I start by showing the class three iterations, and then I guide them, one at a time, in helping them fold it into their own visual style. This allows students to really retain the knowledge, as well as work it into their personal style.
Read MoreFluid Portraits Commission by Unsplash+
These images were all created using in-camera effects. No Photoshop was used— only color grading in Lightroom.
I was recently commissioned by Unsplash+ to create a library of fluid portraits. Last year I began working on a new body of images where I explore fluids and in-camera multiple exposures. My Canon 5DIV allows me to select an image from my memory card and overlay it on my viewfinder, when in “live view”, which allows me to intentionally compose multiple exposures. Even though I know more or less how the fluid and the portrait will merge, there is always a moment of surprise when the final image pops up on my screen. As you can see in the gallery below, the same fluid shot will produce wildly different results depending on how the subject is light, the clothes they’re wearing, their hair, the complexion of their skin, etc. This makes each image a one-of-one.
Read MoreFacing My Shadow Self
Five years ago my dear friend and mentor Sara Lando challenged me to turn my camera on myself, but I wasn’t ready. In the time that has passed since I was her student, I have been faced with more than a few dark nights of the soul. I have been forced to look critically at what I’ve experienced and endured in my life, and learn to accept all of it— the good with the bad— because the whole messy lot of it is what makes me, me. As such, I am warily venturing out into a new series of self-portraits…
Read MoreAstral Projection: Psychedelic Fashion Shoot with Foxx Smoulder
In an effort to keep things interesting as well as continue to evolve as an image maker, I’ve learned to embrace an element of chaos in my portrait sessions. In the case of this shoot I set up a series of controls, such as a strobe and a projector, and then I added the unpredictable element of video…
Read MorePhoto Shoot with a Projector and Prisms
New work with @fulltime_babe. Been continuing my trip down the prism rabbit hole. I’ve learned the importance of waiting to edit a shoot until I’m in the proper headspace to really explore where the images want to go. The smallest tweak to my color grade can completely change the vibe of an image.
Read MoreGlowing Halo Photo Shoot (In Camera Effect)
This glowing halo effect is latest technique that I’ve been exploring. The possibilities are as exciting to me as they are overwhelming. I want to dive in and try everything at once, but I’ve learned to let the process dictate the pace…
Read MoreLess Is More: Slowing Down with Sondos
Lately I’ve been intentionally slowing down the pace in which I engage life. Though I’ve never been good at being still or meditating, I have found lately that stillness is what I’ve been craving the most. My favorite pastime these days is to sit in what others might call silence and listen to the sounds of the world around me. Crickets chirping; the wind moving through the trees; jets passing overhead; neighbors listening to a ball game on their porch radio. If I can manage to stop thinking about each individual sound, I can start to hear them all as one, and accept my place within it.
Read MoreImages from Photo Workshop Intensives
Last month, for the first time ever, I offered several different workshop intensives. One focused on using just one strobe; one focused on color theory; and one focused on techniques that warped the subject’s appearance. These classes focused on a specific technique, rather than my Creative Portrait workshops, which focus on a broader range of creative techniques. I found the format helped both me and my students pay more attention to just how vast any one technique can be.
Read MoreImages from the August Creative Portrait Workshop
This past weekend I held my latest Creative Portrait workshop at my Columbus studio. We kicked off the weekend exploring color theory and shadow sculpting…
Read MoreThe Negative Side of Social Media : Commissioned by Unsplash
As some of my longtime followers know, I’ve had a complicated relationship with social media. In 2019 I was experiencing so much anxiety that I permanently deleted all of my accounts (60,000 followers over 3 platforms) with no plans to return. I spent the next year off the grid. Though I’d already been in therapy for years I also began going to a support group for adult survivors of childhood abuse (ASCA). I started climbing and began regularly cycling again. The combination of processing trauma, moving my body, and removing myself from situations and relationships that exacerbated my anxieties, I began to heal…
Read MoreFlea of Red Hot Chili Peppers for Los Angeles Times
Flea has a new podcast called “This Little Light”, on which he interviews a broad range of people from the music industry such as Patti Smith, Earl Sweatshirt, and Rick Rubin, thus mirroring his own diverse taste in music. When Calvin Alagot asked me to make portraits of Flea for the Los Angeles Times, I began thinking of different techniques that I could employ in an effort to reference the breadth and length of Flea’s career as well as his influence in the music world.
Read MoreA Study of Form: High Contrast Black and White Dance Shoot
A study of shape and tone. Thanks to @kristielatham for bringing power and grace to every shoot, and thanks to the @ohioartscouncil for the grant which allows me to make art.
Read MoreProjector Photo Shoot : A Collaboration with Digital Artist Christopher Royal King
I recently collaborated with musician and digital artist @christopherroyalking. He created a bunch of images that I used to project onto @_soniaconstable. These images were created strictly with in-camera effects (no photoshop was used)— a fact that I especially pride myself in, in a time of AI-generated imagery.
Read MoreImages From the Previous Icon Session and New Event Announcement
Back in October I opened up my studio to host a day of portraits, which I call Icon Sessions. The idea behind it was to have a reduced session fee, making it more accessible for people to have creative images of themselves. Sessions are limited to 15 minutes, which allows for two outfits and lighting scenarios. Below you can get an idea of the range of portraits that were created that day…
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