One evening I sat down to do some editing and marveled at all of the pictures that I have taken over the course of this year. I was pretty stoked, but then...I realized something. I take fun and interesting pictures for other people, but I don't have any fun and interesting pictures of myself. I'm always behind the lens, framing my subject, composing and investing my creativity in each shot. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE what I do...but I would also like to look back 20 years from now and see ME in a creative way. SO...I decided to do a selfie shoot!


I've been wanting to play around with different lighting setups for a little bit now, so I decided to make my selfie shoot a lesson in lighting. I loaded up my tripod, camera, flash, remote trigger and light stand, and headed out to the front yard to set up, sparking off the flash here and there. I'm sure that at least one neighbor looked out the window, questioning my sanity. One actually came outside for a bit. I can only imagine what the scene looked like to an outsider. But it doesn't take much for me to have some kind of fun, so fun times were most certainly had. It might be an only child thing? *shrugs* Plus the shoot was an awesome learning experience.


But the real learning didn't occur until I made a mistake. I moved the light stand to set up one of my shots and it wound up in the frame of the picture. (gasp) When I reviewed the picture and saw that my flash looked like an orb of light, I was like, wait a minute...that actually looks pretty cool. Why not incorporate in into my picture somehow? So I played around with it and love the effect that was produced. Now every time I see this picture, I find myself reminiscing on Poltergeist and Tangina, weird voice and all, telling Carol Anne to look into the light.

Meet Angel! I had the awesome privilege of photographing her along with her friends this past week. Angel just recently celebrated a milestone birthday. Woot Woot! She was looking to do something to not only commemorate her life, but also the friendships that she had formed throughout her life. Hearing her vision for the friendship/girlfriends shoot, I was honored that she called on me to capture those bonds.


Fun times were had by all! While I photographed the ladies...and a gent...we laughed, posed off and even sang. At one point during the shoot, we're walking down the street and the ladies bust out singing the theme song to the hit show Girlfriends...you know, with Joan, Maya, Lynn and Toni...anywho, these ladies did it and it made for some awesome memories for the photo album. Our gent was cool as cake and seemed used to the rambunctious outburst from the ladies.

But what really touched me were the stories and the length of time behind each relationship. Angel shared with me how long she had been friends with each person. The responses varied from around 6 to 20 years! While she shared their stories, I photographed them. In those moments you could see the unbreakable bond between them as they recalled how they met and joys that they've shared. I'm thrilled that I was not only able to be a part of this experience, but to capture it for Angel.

NYC! The city that never sleeps and the place that I'm proud to call home. I grew up in a small neighborhood in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn. Outside of living in Raleigh for the past few years, I've never lived anywhere else. I hadn't been home in a while SOOOO, after some thought I decided to go home for a few weeks. It would give me a chance to spend some time with my mom and grandma, meet the children from South Africa that my mom is hosting this summer AND see my best friend who recently moved to Seattle to be with her hubby. Not to mention that my sister-in-law could visit there with me and experience NYC like a New Yorker.


Needless to say that my 11 day "vacation" was jam packed. We walked to our destinations the majority of the time (in 90+ degree temps) in true New York fashion, took the train to various places in The City and did theeee most every single day. But through it all I made sure to take some time for my photographic expression.


I finally made it down to Lower Manhattan to see the Freedom Tower. You can see this building from virtually any point in NY, Brooklyn and Queens. It's crazy. It's even more impressive to see it up close.