I noticed the woman in the distance drawing me while I waited at the coffee house for my friend who was going to model for me. When she arrived I did some drawings of her, then some photos. All the while the woman in the background was drawing me. This was quite ironic since I had met my model while drawing her at another coffee house just days before.
We were right next to a big picture window and my friend had this luminous glow on her skin from the sky reflecting into the space. Meanwhile back in the establishment the woman doing the drawing was bathed in indoor incandescent light. I loved the contrast and did my best to get both in one image. I could have worked out an image that had both in focus but I liked the blurred image in the back since you could see all you needed to in it without the focus.
We were in an outdoor outlet mall in Napa. We were in an antique store, all filled with browns and golds and muted tones when through the window I noticed this pair of bright yellow vests floating against a wall. They were bathed in bright, bright sunlight and the color was so glaring compared to all the rest I just had to go take some photos.
I told them I would donate some money to their cause if they would let me take some photographs of them and they agreed. Just moments before I had passed the two cypress trees and loved their ‘symmetry / asymmetry’ against such a stark background. Once I got home and went through the photos I kept seeing these two girls with the two trees and so worked the images up to have that happen.
Day after day I saw a new addition being built about two miles away from our house. The houses looked interesting, as much as a suburban tract house can. Finally a sign appeared showing an open house so I went to check it out.
The woman showing the house was tall and willowy with a decided stylish side to her. She showed me around and we got in a conversation about how she ended up selling real estate and her background as a model. We went out onto the little front porch and as we did so the light illuminated her face in a wonderful way. That clinched the deal for me and I asked her if she would be willing to let me take some photos of her. She agreed and that was that.
In the end, after many renditions and much more complicated collage efforts I kept coming back to the beautiful detail of her skin in that light. The color was fantastic but so was the texture all by itself so I landed on the monochrome/color diptych as a way of showing off both those elements.
I was at a conference in OKC that was rather uninteresting for part of it. The light was really quite good for being indoors and everyone was so still that I could resist setting my camera on my lap and pointing it in different directions. I didn’t look at the camera, just took photos randomly, sometimes zooming in, sometimes not. It wasn’t until I looked at the photos later that day that I saw what I had captured. This was one of the best of the lot.
She served drinks at my father’s squadron reunion barbecue in Iowa. She watched and I could see she was impressed by the young marines in uniform who came to visit with the World War II vets.
It was very hot and humid day out and her skin glistened as it told a story of her own skirmishes and battles. Her bars and stars weren’t on her chest, but she earned them none the less.
I went into a jewelry store in Tulsa looking for something specific for my wife. I didn’t find it but had a great salesperson help me. She was informative and thoughtful. The whole front of the store was facing south with big windows and it was winter time so the sun was streaming in. It bounced off the floor and glass cases and landed on her in a wonderful way. I asked her if I could take some photos of her and she obliged me.
I did a collage and showed it to her a few days later. She was upset about how it looked, thinking I had made her look rather ugly. I didn’t think it did, but I didn’t post it out of respect for her discomfort. I did this one later, working with less manipulation and distortion and I think she was happier with it.
I love this piece because of how I got the hair and the line of her face to match up. She is the same top to bottom but then a second look obviously shows something isn’t as it should be. Just a bit of a skewed perspective on the portrait.
Parallel arms, lit pillow in the distance, sleep, warm skin tones, feelings, all combined so that I really liked this image. It is from a commissioned photo shoot, January, 2007.
