Inside the Portrait Studio ~

We had another terrific lighting and posing workshop at our studio earlier this week, again hosted by my friend Jordan Sleeth from Advance Camera. With six students and five hours, we have plenty of time to cover a lot of ground and get tons of hands-on experience. Courtney Stevens was our model for the evening, and she was just great -- and incredibly patient!

Working in the studio has always been the most fascinating aspect of photography to me. It boils photography down to its essence: pure light. What I really love doing is have the students put down their cameras for a few minutes and just look.

We watch as light and shadow do a little dance on our model's face, and create such a range of texture and shape, motion and emotion, that the seemingly simple act of making a portrait becomes something much more creative and intimate. Ultimately it is this that I want to impart more than anything else.