My Nephew

Meet Baby Alexander.

I’m a very proud first-time Auntie. This is incredibly exciting for me because I now have a baby to spoil and adore without the long-term child-rearing responsibilities.

This is Alex at five days old. I mistakenly thought that shooting newborns would be a piece of cake. They sleep. You snap pictures. Needless to say, it was unexpectedly harder than I imagined. Every time I pulled out the camera, Alex needed his poopy diaper changed, peed on my blanket, had to be breast-fed, or simply cried for the sake of crying. This exercise gave me a whole new level of respect for moms. It also made me realize that I will never be the next Anne Geddes and willingly devote my entire photographic career to newborns.

Seriously, my nephew is the cutest baby ever, right?

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Simplifying Portraiture

I’ve been in a black and white picture-making mood lately.  This need to “go dark” emerged during my earlier black and white portrait experiments and has stuck with me stylistically since then.

A lighting instructor once taught me that shooting a subject against a black background was cheating because it was too easy of a thing to do and doesn’t challenge you creatively.

I disagree.  I like to strip the background of all distractions so that my subjects become the center of attention.  I want their expressions and emotions to fill the image.  I don’t want their faces to compete with any other element in the photo.  It actually forces me to work harder to create a classic, timeless portrait that is both beautiful and meaningful.

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