Bringing Ideas To Life

A bulk of my daily thoughts are of photographs.  I imagine ideal situations and what would work for an individual based on their spirit and personality.  Sometimes when I get these ideas, I jot them down on a piece of paper to remember for later.  I have a few pages of them for people I know.

I was challenged to make one of these ideas a reality.  I took the challenge and I am glad that my friend Kristy Jo was up to help me realize the vision I had of her.

Most of my portraits include the surroundings to give you a sense of place of where I took it.  I don't tend to get close to the face until now.  I am starting to move in closer to get a more intimate look at each subject.

K. J. writes her own music and plays the guitar so I wanted to incorporate both in the shot and keep it up close. I saw she had a small wall painted in chalkboard paint so I thought it would be perfect if she hand wrote some lyrics on it and stand in front of it with her guitar on one side of her face, her face in the middle and the lyrics on both sides of the frame.  As you can see with my scratchy sketch, I was able to get close to my vision.

When I take a portrait of someone, I am open to let things happen naturally.  She turned the guitar around and hugged it and it turned out to be my favorite of the bunch.  Although I wanted the image I drew out to be serious, the one that seemed to bring out her personality is the one with the smile in it and by chance, her "smile" lyric happened to be in the background.

I look forward to get more images out of my brain...

Morning Coffee With Kristy Jo and Valentina

When I spent most of my days on the road, I took photographs every day.  Even on days when I didn't feel like shooting anything, I did.  I did it because I never knew what I was going to come across and the amount of time I had in one spot was limited.  That was the motivator to keep going.  Now that I am home, it's been a challenge.

I am taking photography classes and this is an added push to get me to get out and take photographs.  Most of my photography has been done by chance.  Meaning, I like to take pictures of what is going on at the time and capturing a moment with no interruption with direction.  Now, I am in complete control of a situation.  Actually, I am never in control but I can get an idea and run with it to see what happens.

I have been thinking of certain situations for my friends to try to capture their personality and essence.  This is not an easy task but it's been fun the first week trying.

My friends Kristy Jo (K.J.) and her girlfriend Valentina (Val) said yes for me to come over and photograph them around their house.  We mingled for a while while we sipped coffee.  I looked around the house and decided to take a few shots in different rooms, hanging out on the porch and my favorite, sitting in a planter tub outside in the backyard.  Once I saw the tub, I immediately got excited.  Good news for me is that they were up for anything.  Even their dog, Clayton Wembley was up for anything and he made himself at home.

It was a fun morning of shooting and chatting a bit before we all carried on with the day.  I look forward to sharing more shooting adventures with you here soon.