Less talkie, more clickie. Remember talkies? They’re just a phase.

Chapter 1

Brandon

Aiden

The Reverend Craig Hensel

Sorry, Priscilla. I had to.

Chapter 2

Yes, these chapters are totally arbitrary.

Ingrid

Sam and Rachel, future Mr. and Mrs.

This is Esteban. I’m not wild about his haircut (sorry buddy), but he’s one cool folk.

I think his name is David. And I know her name is Molly. I am bad at this.

Brandon and Priscilla wanted to find out if eating two tablespoons of Cinnamon makes you puke.

The answer is, “Kind of.”

Chapter 3

We helped out with a program called Safe Place while we were in Chicago, and this was one of the kids. He’s pretty crazy, and has a wicked snowball throwing arm.

Brandon ate Cinnamon too.

Aiden liked the Bean. A lot.

This was my favorite photo from this trip, maybe.

Last one for tonight. Probably more to come.

Keep it real, folks.

It’s hard to know what will catch your eye on any given day.

Maybe you’ve seen it a thousand times in your life, and maybe never before.

Maybe you even sat on it.

Photography is in many ways unique among the visual arts in a way similar to jazz. Much in the same way that Jazz is freeform and improvised as opposed to the more rigid forms of classical music, so too photography can be improvised and freeform. Painting, while can certainly be done hastily, cannot be done nearly as quickly as a photograph in daylight (unless you can paint faster than 1/8000th of a second).

However, just as Jazz can be rehearsed and perfected to a certain style, so too can photography be planned out, and created in a very deliberate fashion with precise composition, controlled lighting, and subject matter.

The improvisation or deliberation of a photograph does not obviate the power of your style, however. While Jazz can be improvised, it is rare that you’ll hear a speed-metal solo in the middle. But it can be done. But generally speaking, in photography your style is dictated primarily not by what is in front of you, but rather by what you see in what is in front of you. The angle that nobody else spotted, or even if they did, the means and prowess to actually capture it effectively.

In the coming weeks I’ll start going through some of my favorite photos, and detailing specifically what it is that I love about them, and what I did to see and capture them. Perhaps that will give better insight into the photographic process than what I could perhaps accomplish otherwise.

I recently came up with a photo project that I plan to undertake very soon here, which I am calling 40 Faces. I won’t go into specifics, but essentially you need to know that it’s more or less a study on the duality of man.

I’ve included a photo here that, while not a member of the project, is an illustration of the general idea that will be attacked.

Keep fighting the good fight.