Or, you know, on a ladder or something.

But so it’s given me a ton more space than I used to have. And with models 5’8″ and taller, it helps to have both the vertical space and the depth to get the shots I want. I have no clue why I didn’t do this sooner, but here I am now.

And here’s Ashley, my first guest in my cold garage (I’ll be getting a space heater when they’re back in season):

Apparently in keeping with my destructive habits, I broke my flash in addition to breaking my guitar, although to be fair, I broke my guitar on purpose, while the flash, I didn’t want to break…

In the last portion of the shoot, there was a lot of wind and snow. The stand this flash was on top of, being a cheap and very light stand, toppled over and crashed down onto the cold hard cement. Without an umbrella to break its fall, although it remained in good aesthetic condition, it refused to fire after impact.

What REALLY gets to me is that for some reason, I never thought to pull out my third flash to substitute for the broken one…

And although the shoot took place over two weeks ago, I doubt I’ll ever forgive myself for that one. Grrrr… The replacement was RIGHT THERE in my bag!!!…

Bah… Anyway, so I was curious as to why it wouldn’t fire anymore and I thought I’d open it up and see what I could figure out.

I didn’t figure anything out.

It just looks like I REALLY hate Nikon.

Basically, frustrated with my work and feeling like it was headed nowhere, I finally concluded that in order to make progress artistically, I was simply going to have to shoot a whole lot more.

Nothing groundbreaking or inspiring in and of itself. Very simple.

Just shoot more.

So I started doing just that with this gorgeous exchange student (just 17 years old), called Heide. All I knew going into this was that I had seen and was greatly inspired by ads for David Yurman jewelry and wanted to do something similar.

Here are the results. I’m very excited about these! Enjoy!

Many thanks to Heide for braving the cold wind and for working so hard with me!

If there’s one constant about being a blogger, for me at least, it’s that you’re always behind.

Granted, it’s been less than a week since my last post, and to be fair, I often lose track of what day it is, but it does still feel like forever since I’ve posted any meaningful photography on the blog… And that bothers me.

A lot.

Hell, last night, my now (apparently) yearly crisis finally came to a head. I wonder where my work is going, why it’s not getting anywhere and what I should try to make some semblance of progress with it.

Deep depression usually follows. The praise I get no longer means anything, because I look at all of my work and I think, “Everything I have, sucks.”

Whatever standards I’m reaching for are just beyond my reach.

Always.

And just like an avalanche, all the rest comes crashing down as well. Should I try something new? And what’s that? What am I doing now that isn’t working? How in the world do I find time for this stuff anyway?

That last one has actually been a serious problem. I shoot a lot of weddings in the summer. I have to pay the bills, though fortunately for me, and unlike many other photographers wanting to break into the big game (advertising, fashion, editorial, etc), I unapologetically and genuinely enjoy shooting weddings. Yes, it’s routine and repetitive, but the people are different, and I love me some people. I’m not a recluse, I’m not anti-social, I’m not a loner; I love people. And weddings provide me with a lot of those. So like with anything else I do, I give 500% of myself  to my work.

The problem is, that leaves very little room for anything NON-wedding related. Especially in the summer. Between that and a host of major troubles in my personal life which, of course, happened to take place during what little down time I had (ie. the non-wedding-season months), I feel like I’ve hit a dry spell that has lasted a year and a half…

The solution that I came to, very late last night, is far from groundbreaking or exciting or somehow inspiring in its own right. Plus, the solution always seems to be the same:

Just shoot more.

So now the goal becomes to hash out a plan where I can do just that. Hopefully you’ll notice the results over time.

While you wait, here’s a model shoot I did recently. The best is already on the website, but here’s a few outtakes:

When I first met Alisha, she was one of the more depressed people I knew. Soon after we met and worked together on a few projects (all film projects at the time), she got divorced and went through a horrible separation process while I watched helplessly from the sidelines.

She was a wreck.

And I didn’t realize how much of a wreck she was until I saw her transform into the happiest version of Alisha I’ve ever known.

So what defines a person? What makes them who they are? Well. Sometimes, it’s another person.

Here’s Jeremy, Alisha and their kids:

And here’s some random model shots of both of them. Can you tell who I’ve worked with most between the two? Oh and check out the contact section of my website. It has Alisha yelling into a megaphone

Her husband Rick is from Utah, so they come out and visit family from time to time, and they needed new family pictures, pictures of their kids and pictures of themselves.

It was wonderful seeing her again, and admittedly a bit of a shock to see her all grown up with a family of her own. The kids took a little bit to warm up to me, so I asked Erneke if I could speak Dutch to them. She said “sure”. So I proceeded to speak to them in their language and Erneke quickly pointed out that “Um, no. You’re speaking Flemish. That’s not Dutch.”

Psh…

Well ok she was right, but whatever. They could understand me

But here we go anyway and I’m quite proud of some of those. I’ve done another shoot since (where the images absolutely ROCKED!!) and planning at least another two for the coming weeks.

Many thanks to all involved!

I should also mention something. I’m sure some of you have noticed this, but I’ve developed a real thing for black and white photography. So much so that the last concept I shot was designed only as a black and white shoot. Color was never an option. It had to be about movement, composition and more than anything else, the narrative of the story. More on that shoot when I post it. But if you look at the vast majority of these, you’ll see a lot of black and white. I just looked at them and though “Why the hell do I need color in these?”

Enjoy!

Day 109/365

Many thanks to Natasha Roos for the brilliant ideas that led to this shoot. This is a bit of an edgier one.

Quinn:

Day 110/365

Shear material:

Day 111/365

A glimpse into my album collection:

Day 112/365

Lamp shade:

Day 113/365

My new car. I blogged about this a few posts back, if you recall. Now you get to see it:

Day 114/365

Dandelion:

Day 115/365

Personal favorite from Carley’s bridals:

Day 116/365

Personal favorite from Emily’s bridals:

More to come in a few days hopefully. Stay tuned.

I did 2 model shoots yesterday, a long one today, I’ve got another long one tomorrow, another one on Sunday, probably no time on Monday for anything, a child portrait on Tuesday among other things, a giant shoot on Wednesday and on and on, roughly until the last week of March…

So I don’t know when I’ll be able to post pictures next, but hopefully in the coming days.

Trust me, it’ll be worth the wait