They came to me when I stopped at the convenience store, asking if I wanted to have my
car windows washed in exchange for a donation to their cheerleading fund to send them
to the national championships. They are from my daughters’ high school (they all
graduated a few years back) and they are currently state champs so I was more than
willing to help them out…IF they would also let me take their photos.
We had a fire drill where I worked and as we all gathered in this little outdoor area
I was up close to a woman I hadn’t met before. I introduced myself and she told me
where she worked in the building. I noticed when she was gesturing that she had this
great scar on her arm. I had my camera with me and asked her if I could take some
photos of her eyes and her scar for a collage. She was very excited about the idea,
much more so than most people and graciously allowed me to do so. I am sure any
number of people around me were wondering what the heck we were doing.
She later saw the collage and loved it, purchasing 2 prints to have framed and given
to her family. She had grown up hating the scar but in recent years had come to see
it as a good part of her body and life. The collage was a sort of confirmation of
that she thought.
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.
These were all taken on a brilliant October day in Luray, Virginia. My eldest daughter was getting married and some of our dearest friends took the day off and drove from Annapolis, MD to be there. This is a collage of the mother and the eldest daughter of that family. It includes the fabric from their dresses, a necklace, freckles and collarbones.
Way back when, in the 1980s, there was a very young and stylish guy who came to work at the restaurant where I worked, Eulipia. He was 18. We became friends over many years of working together. He moved down to LA eventually and I met him once down there for dinner with his girlfriend. They eventually married and he became a flight attendant on USAIR.
They settled in Annapolis, MD and many years later what should happen but my daughter attended St. John’s College in Annapolis. We reconnected with him and his family and my daughter ended up very close to them all, babysitting the young ones, staying at their home one summer, etc. We would visit whenever we came to town.
So, now that 18 year old kid who met my daughter when she was born, was at her wedding 18 years later with his wife and daughters who I was able to photograph. It was a great and glorious reminder of the beauty that is within the longevity of relationships.
My photo session with this friend consisted of following her throughout her day, from waking on. I noticed when she was doing her make up that she held her eyelash curler with both hands. I asked about it and she said she had once been getting ready for a date, curling her eyelashes when something startled her and she tore out all her eyelashes on that eye! The date arrived moments later and they spent the evening looking for false eyelashes. They didn’t have a second date. So, from then on has used two hands to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
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 met these three women at a Starbucks in Phoenix, Arizona, September, 05. The one with the head restraint was a jokster, having lots of fun, flirting and talking to everyone. I had to negotiate between them all to get my coffee then to use the creamers where they are standing.
She gave me lots of grief about my BIG camera being in the way and ribbing me that I probably just had it with me to impress women but didn’t really take any photos with it! When I asked her if I could take a photo she said ‘You need to tell everyone who sees it I really truly use to be a beauty queen!” I told her I would and so world, here is the Starbuck’s Beauty Queen of 2005!
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.
