As the ennui of my super shitty 2020 begins to wear off, I am making a conscious effort to chill the eff out and do more of what brings me joy. The things that bring me the most joy are my dog, travel and photography. In fact, I used to make my living as a photographer but by the time I moved back to DC in late 2017, I was sick of people and tired of the business of it all so I all but stopped shooting. I had a few clients through 2019 and then 2020 happened and it has been months since I picked up an actual camera.

But, Thursday night I pulled everything out of storage, cameras, lenses, lighting and have committed to myself to shoot something each day, even if it is just a photo of the cathedral, the puppy, or my dinner. So, here are two shots of Beau from yesterday using my 60mm 2.8 lens. 

I played for about an hour, switching between lenses and trying different lighting set-ups. The first shot uses the ambient light from the windows and was augmented by a speedlight resting on the back of the sofa and aimed at the camera and I do love lens flare. The second shot is all window light. I don’t love heavily processed shots but each image got color balanced and a contract bump. I had forgotten just how much I enjoyed the craft of assessing the scene and mentally figuring out the sethings.

And, it helps to have a willing victim…..model, that is. 😁