Beau was here last week for his senior portraits. I photographed his sister a few years back. What I like so much about portraiture is I am given the task of capturing the person’s essence and seeing them at their best. Setting them at ease is key, having a camera in your face is daunting to most. This takes a little time and finesse and a genuine openness on my part. At 46 allowing a person to see me is OK. I am what I am and am OK with that for the most part. This allows them to be the same in my presence. It is such satisfying work that given I didn’t need to make a living I would do it for free. I never tire of people and I am always happily surprised by what I find.

I saw Beau as beautiful and talented. We will see great things from him. An exceptional guitarist  and self taught; I know the kind of dedication that takes. I felt honored he allowed me to see him so that I may document this moment, a passing of a mile stone, his senior year, for all in his world to remember.

Gulp Gulp I always get choked up getting to see people in their stages.

Beau’s pictures are some of my favorites so far and I know, I say that about all the boys.

She asked me if I would photograph her with her mother and sister in their favorite style.

I first saw her at a wedding I was photographing. I caught her eyes sparkling with my camera while she was looking at him. I thought, I have to shoot this wedding when it happens there was such great chemistry between the two of them and she’s stunning.

I photographed them in Chico’s Bidwell Park with all the props from her mother’s shop The Plant Barn. I had so much fun!

Vintage grunge with a little country added…..

This week the theme was prom. Beautiful dresses, daughters and life. A time and a place for them to shine and feel beautiful. They are beautiful inside and out.

Portraiture isn’t my main source of income  weddings are. I do portraiture because I love it. I do portraiture because I have time to be creative to think things through. I do portraiture to get better at my craft. I do portraiture because I never know what the experience is going to bring to tangible fruition. The images usually will surprise me. I am clear there is a large mystery to the process of portraiture and that has very much to do with the soul that is encased in the body I happen to be photographing. I am a believer that we carry around a soul and a personality very much inmeshes with an ego. It is amazing to observe who comes to the front for the camera. The only people that this rule doesn’t apply to are babies. It is my experience that once there is a self consciousness, then, the self doubt, the editing of one’s authentic self begins to happen. I have never photographed a person who was not somehow affected by their own personality. Ego, personality, self-doubt is a part of me and all around me in the humans I observe. My job, as a photographer, is to get all aspects of my shoots ready for the soul to show. Hair, makeup, clothes, light, camera settings, background, props then I wait for them sometimes it’s a long wait sometimes a short one, but inevitably they show up, my job is to see it and capture it. It’s like catching hummingbirds with a net. I have no judgment about who they are I feel so lucky when I have captured them, it’s really hard, but fun and really satisfying.

People try to be what they think I want. I want to see them; most don’t know who they are yet so it becomes a part of the process them hiding, me waiting.

As a model in NY , SF and Paris as an agent in SF as a photographer traveling Northern California I have come to understand I have a passion for being with young people and sharing with them what I know about many subjects. I am comfortable with them inside and outside my house. It helps I have many children and like them.

There really is no more of a gratifying experience;  photographing a young person who has never been in front of a camera professionally before is golden. I was a fashion model maker in SF and I loved model development. The people I shoot today are going off to careers in other fields, but I have never seen why not share what I know about fashion and photography and make up and styling and energy and how the camera sees the truth of emotion. The product usually brings surprise to them. They have never seen themselves that way before. 9 times out of 10 they tell me it’s a confidence booster. They leave feeling good about themselves. I love that part.

Last night’s shoot.

That Hair

Movement

The meadow with snow

one of my favorites

A really cold day

She plays the violin

Lights and Darks

against the wall

A Happy look

She left in her junior year to live in Switzerland, forgoing the normal school functions, prom, senior trips, dances, graduation. While she was there she finished high school. She’s in JC now and only 17. She played woman’s soccer while she was there, worked as an Au pair for my cousin and was able to travel to Germany and France. I don’t believe in 11th and 12th grade or 4 year colleges for 18 year old kids (unless it’s a full ride or their parents have that much money to throw down) or the SATs. It’s been my experience that 11^th and 12^th grades for 65% of the high school population is an education in partying and procreation. We don’t have Ivy League money and our local school isn’t producing many scholars for full ride academic scholarships, so our college path differs a bit. It’s a fast track through the 11th and 12th grade with our local charter school then straight to the local JC while living at home and then leave home at 19 with an AA and a plan for a BA through grants and scholarships. No loans, no credit cards, modern day slavery we think. I am not saying it’s the right way I am saying it’s our way and it makes the most sense for our finances and geographic.

Last night she went to a dance with a friend and I did her makeup and we decided to pull off her senior portrait pictures her way. She said it was way more fun than the dance. I love that! We still have great fun together and I love teaching her how to do make up although her career of choice is RN.

it reminds me of a 1982 Vogue Cover Shoot

with her girl

very late 70s

Her eyes

O la la la

Kimmy is  a senior this year  and came to me for her portraits. She is a major athlete and music lover. 

grass shadows accross her face

I thought this would be good for her first CD cover

We live in a remote area of California. We came here from the Bay Area 16 years ago, exactly, to be a tighter family and work together as a family to manage a small Inn. A lifetime later I find myself waking to a sunbeam through my window. As I rise I feel golden filtered light cascade through the windows to touch my body. I gaze out to the same view I have seen for years except everyday a bit different. This morning the mists are up, nothing between my porch and eternity. Out across the tall dried grasses marking the beginning of fall are the mists, reminiscent of the moors of Ireland. As they rise they make way for the view of the top of our Lake Almanor, the marshy area where wild things grow and then it begins. Boom Boom…Boom ….Boom Boom Boom, shot guns sound off, duck hunters first light.  I make my coffee to this view and sound. Thinking of my journey from San Francisco to this remote and cold place and I think, I am so lucky and I never want to move away from this view or Lilly’s ashes.

So they come to me or I go to them. For high school senior portraiture they come to my studio, for weddings I go to them. This is a session I shot last night with a beautiful senior inside and out. I am sure I say this all the time, but portraiture is so special to me. I get to spend 2 hours getting to know the essence someone. It is 99% of the time a spiritual growth experience for me to get to document their moment of the in-between, just before they go off into the world and they know they are going. Photographs to mark the beginning of this journey of the evolution of their being.  Big stuff for them for me.

back light

Id kill for this skin

What a smile

Studio

All there

Happy

The meadow

Lovely

I have known Ty just about his whole life!! It’s been my pleasure. I love this kid.

All there

A boy and his dog

a boy and his girl

A cold day

The studio

My favorite

Kim you kill me

His way

I met Monica when she was 5 another of Livs great freinds and I feel so honored to get to see her all grown up be a little part of her teenage life. She is a joy to be around.

The Wall

Simple make up

an odd angle but we like it

Int he party Frock

Sun going down

Sittin in the Mud.

A little Bella

Twilight Light

The Meadow

The Meadow

In the Mirror

Brandis tonight…..more to come.

On the Meadow

For a run

Fall on the meadow dusk

up close

Just Moving