15/52 Brenda Eval

Despite having been sick for going on three weeks now, 52 portraits marches on.

14/52 Ashley Glidden

Yet another crazy week, but not too crazy to punk out and not do my weekly portrait. This week's shoot was sandwiched between two other shoots, and once again photographing a model to whom I was just introduced. She did a great job, and I got to try my hand at using some big-light techniques with my little-guy strobes.

13/52 Nick Lacasse

This time around I revisited a familiar place and an old friend, who also happens to have previously been a subject of mine. Following one of the themes of my life, I once again found myself in a kitchen. A real kitchen. THE Kitchen.

52 portraits presents: How-Not-To

Welcome to a new special segment: 52 portraits presents: How-Not-To. This series will detail my misadventures in dealing with lighting and shooting in less than ideal situations without access to the appropriate tools. Every photographer encounters situations in which they are under-prepared to deal with adverse conditions, and we each must grapple with just how illegitimate we are willing to be to get the job done.


In this photographer's case, the answer is VERY.

12/52 Crystal Hernandez

Shooting on time? I give myself an A.

Processing the photos? A+

Uploading? A+

Blogging about the shoots? We're hovering around a C.

Hey, still a passing grade...

11/52 Stephanie Schilling

Raptor pose!

Being back in Indy gave me a bit of time to catch up with old friends. This being a business-related voyage, I was a bit pressed for time. We still managed to meet up with my friend Steph for lunch, then later in the evening for a bit of a photo shoot. Definitely time well spent. Next time there will be more emphasis on the hanging out and less on the photo front. Really glad to have gotten some awesome snaps of her though. More on the shoot after the jump.

10/52 Jon Sands

This week and the past I did shoots while I was visiting Indianapolis. For this installment of my 52, I shot my associate, collaborator, and friend Jon.

09/52 Samantha Gribble

So in my rules, it clearly states that the photo has to be taken in the allotted week.


...it says nothing about when I have to blog about it.


So the lazyness busy-ness ends here. The good news is not only do i have pics from the last two weeks, I'm already done this week as well. Now all I have to do is write up about all this stuff. More details after the jump.

08/52 Mo Krohm

This week marks what should be the end of the crazy 20 hour days split between jobs. Things at the studio are winding down for the fall, and hopefully this will give me more time to plan and execute these shoots. This week, something and someone a bit different. Mo is the first person I've shot other than my roommate Jeff and myself that I've photographed in their home, and also the first person I've shot that I didn't really know that well.


Hi, nice to meet you. Awesome apartment. Love what you've done with the place. Please stand over here, do what I say, try to look nonchalant, and stare at this uncomfortably bright light.

07/52 Wendy Alas

Hustling hard at two jobs recently has left me with very little time to plan and execute these shoots. Lucky for me however I have a\ model at my disposal pretty much all the time, and it just so happens that fall is the perfect time to let her natural light shine.

06/52 Jason Olexa

Down to the wire again, the name of the game this week is quick and dirty. And Earthquake.

05/52 Ignatiy Vishnevetsky

Better late technically on time than never.

04/52 Dante Lopresti

I've decided Sunday is flex day. If I'm a lazy bum, it still counts as the previous week. If I shoot the coming week on Sunday, I'm just being a go-getter. It's like If I'm scheduled for work at 5pm and show up at 4, no? Either that or it's like I'm scheduled Monday and I show up on Sunday. That's even better, right? You can never be too early. Or at least that's what I'm convincing myself.

03/52 Jay Diaz

This week I did what very well could prove to be my best smelling shoot of all 52. What could top it? Shooting R. Kelly in an actual chocolate factory? That's next week.

02/52 Jeff Geesa

Okay, so let's get this out of the way right now.



I am so dumb.

I am really dumb.

...for real.


Now that I've preempted anyone else in saying that, let's continue.

A quick technical note

Just a quick word for all the techies and strobists out there. I shoot primarily using radiopopper JRX studio triggers. Because of this I usually have no idea what the intensities are of the individual light sources. Perhaps I can try to make educated guesses? Or maybe I can simply speak of the intensities in terms of stops. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Regardless, I apologize that I can't give slightly more detailed information, due to the fact that I'm too lazy to shoot on manual and am in LOVE with the simple rheostats of the JRX system.

01/52 Jay Schroeder

Hey! I know that guy.... he looks pretty familiar...

Welcome (the exposition)

So,  as soon will be depicted, I've fallen into some relatively slothful habits. Lots of doing nothing and not much of doing everything else.

Self portraits? That was my first inclination. But really. Seriously. I wouldn't do that to you. I like you all way to much to subject you to 52 pictures of my dumb ass making silly faces. I know you all, and you are kind and patient enough friends to support me even if I were to undertake such a venture. All the more reason why I'm NOT doing that to you. As I said, I like you all way too much to do that.

Lighting is my passion, something about it really excites me. The ability to take an otherwise mundane environment and turn it into something fantastic. The ability to take your everyday average Joe off the street and make him look like a total badass or a rockstar or a villain. What's more is you can use light to expose someone's true nature, to show in a single image what they're about and what they do. This is why I decided to do 52 portraits in a year. A different subject for each, showing a different aspect of a different person in (hopefully) a different environment each time. The following are my stated goals:



The portrait must be lit

I love lighting. I think it can be used (to a greater or lesser extent) to improve the vast majority of photos taken. I want to get better at it, and use it to help with my second goal:


The portrait must somehow reflect the subject

I could get all post modern and speak about how none of us have any "true" nature, or how the idea of "truth" is ridiculous in the first place. Screw that, that's not what this is about. I want to attempt to reveal something about the nature of the subject, who they are, and what they do in each photo. It can be fun to play dress up, and sometimes I may take the "true nature" thing more literally than others, but it's important to the concept of the project that I try to incorporate it in each one. This is to be done through light design, environment, and posing of the subject.


One a week

Not one posted per week, one shoot and one finished product per week. I'm allowing myself no exceptions.



That's it. Should be simple, given effort on my part. Thanks for "joining" me on this "journey" (should you make the perilous decision to choose so). The first shoot is already complete, the corresponding post to come soon.