My Style

If you haven’t had a chance to peruse my gallery yet, or perhaps are curious to understand how my brain works when I pick-up my camera, I wanted to share a few thoughts and insights about my style.

To begin, I do not fit neatly into one niche or specialty. That’s intentional. If you asked 10 photographers whether this is the right approach, I’d confidently assume 9 of them would say I’m doing it wrong in this respect, but that’s fine. As the great Cuban-American artist David Le Batard (Lebo) once said,

Now, to be fair, when I’m taking portraits or modeling photos, I have to work with my subject (dare I say, creative partner) to produce images that achieve both our goals. For me, the goal in this sort of situation is to create “interesting art.” The shape of the subject’s poses. The use of shadows and light to insert drama. The color or lack of color to create tension. All of these opportunities contribute to the overall success of the image. With that said, I don’t forget my subject’s goal either. Generally, our goals align well following this train of thought. 

I need to make an important point about my approach to portraiture and modeling photos. If you want “traditional leaves falling in October, highlights turned up” images, I may not be the right photographer to work with. I can certainly provide that type of look, but it’s way overdone and frankly not that creative. Look on Instagram and you’ll find a hundred different photographers in your area who can all get you that type of image. I’m probably shooting myself in the foot, because this look is definitely in high demand, but it’s a personal stance to be a bit more creative than that. I love neon light, dark noir looks, extreme close-ups, etc. All are way more interesting.

Now, back to my earlier point for a minute.

I don’t spend 100% of my time on portraiture or fine art or product marketing, etc.

I’d go insane.

I’d much rather get out into the world and shoot whatever I find interesting than not shoot at all because I don’t have anything booked for the day. Those opportunities allow me to push myself and make mistakes, and even learn, without fear of rejection or disappointment. I can be as creative and crazy as I want and get such an adrenaline rush from trying new ideas.

Once I’ve taken a day’s worth of images, the only post-processing I do is run my images through Adobe Lightroom to make adjustments. Call me old-fashioned if you’d like, but I think some of what gets passed off as really amazing photography is more the result of Photoshop mastery than photography prowess. To be clear, that isn’t a dig at Photoshop users, because many of them are amazing at what they do. It’s simply a personal opinion that helps to describe my style and approach to creating images.

With that said, I hope you enjoy the images I’ve taken and shared. Whether black and white or color, I’m working to continually solidify my style and make it more consistent and recognizable. It’s not there yet, but I’m working at it and making a concerted effort to keep this goal in mind as I’m shooting and touching up my images.