Friends...

Here we go with Episode 4 of my newsletter (Some say it's the best one).

Catch up on the past issues right HERE

To recap for the new arrivals:

It'll always be about what's going on in my photography world
I'll send something only when there's an interesting update.
I think you'll be relieved to know that I'm not really selling anything.
This is really so that we can stay in touch.
It'll be inconsistent in quality. ;)

Today, we got 2 big things and an afterthought.

Here goes... in a galaxy far far away.

A.

Oh look, I discovered something everybody knew about:

Rembrandt... He's a little painter from the Netherlands. He's not suuuuper popular yet but his star is on the rise. Mark my words, I have an eye for these things. He'll be huge one day... the new Banksy.

The reason I bring him up is that it's one thing to know he exists, it is another thing entirely to understand what he did, the importance of his work on other painters, on previous photographers, on my photography.

But why now? Well, because I met the photographer Luke Edmonson and his knowledge of art shook me. He popped my Ignorance Balloon with a very sharp needle (it was a very thick Ignorance Balloon, mind you), and now I have eggs on my face (boy, I am aaall over the place with my analogies today).

I now understand that I am standing on the shoulders of (many) giants.

To be clear, that is not to say that I am an expert --far from it-- but it is titillating (yes, titillating) to scratch the surface and to have a glimpse of a soupçon of an understanding of my art. It can only make me a better photographer.

Which leads me to my next point

B.

I won a thing:

"Way to bury the lead idiot!" I can hear you say
Yes... yes I did.

... kinda.

There was an excellent reason for that and here it is: I had to explain how my newfound knowledge came directly into play during my last shoot. My studying Rembrandt's signature lighting technique found its way naturally into my latest photoshoot with Brayden.

Now, I don't usually do high school senior portraits but it so happened that Brayden and Laura (his mom) wanted to do something different, something unique and my first thought was: "oh it's on now! let's do this!"

(queue Rocky Balboa training montage)

the result is the winning photo below at PPSDC's image competition. I am incredibly proud of this photo. It stretched my skills, my creativity, my knowledge... I want more.

C.

A new thing I do:

SHOTS! I do shots! lots of them. Headshots that is... my apologies, that was me trying to be funny.
It turns out, they are fun and challenging to do! Who knew!?
Everybody, that's who.
Don't underestimate the importance of a great headshot and what it can do for your LinkedIn profile. :)

Here are a couple of my favorites that I took recently.

and ... D.

Here's a quote I like about photography:

"A work of art is a work of Order. Everything goes in its right place. "

-- Luke Edmonson

That's it for today.

Episode 4 of my newsletter - about Rembrandt