I wasn’t quite sure how to answer my friend when he asked what my purpose was with photography. What was the point? It calms me down. More than that, though, I can work a fifty or sixty hour week and feel completely unproductive. But that changes so fast and it becomes clear in those moments that apparently all I need is my camera, my subject and my location. And then I feel as if I did something.

The first of those three was my camera. Right now I’m working with a Canon ELAN 7n and four lenses: a 28-105mm f/4.0-5.6, a 19-35mm f/3.5-4.5, a 50mm f/1.8 and a 100mm Macro f/3.5.

As far as film goes, I primarily use 200 - 400 speed film. On black and white shoots, I use contemporary, which is true black and white film. I will also do an occasional color shoot, using color slide film. I develop my own film. This gives me far greater control of the end product.

I’ve spent countless hours scouring the coast and inland for the right locations, and then trying to ensure that the location will suit the subject. My favorite models are ones who don’t pose, but do what comes natural. I like catching the reality of something in pictures. This is why I almost always use natural lighting and don’t alter the photos digitally.

Some people like adding new tones and messing with color correction. I don’t Photoshop my pictures at all. I mastered Photoshop to a professional level so now I don’t have to bother with it. It can become a cheap way of never learning how to actually work with film. I’m not going to do something ‘shabby chic’ like adding film grain or lens flares, or something tacky like embossing or ripple effects.

I’d like to end up with something much more real. If someone thinks that’s silly or not exciting enough then they’re not looking. It’s the same reason you look into someone’s eyes and you have to look away. There’s life there. And I’d rather catch someone with the flaws as well as the form, and then when you saw them, you saw a personality. And you developed an opinion of them. And you felt something, or you thought something.

I’m not working for a catalog. I’m not designing an album cover. I’m trying to capture a person and a place and let its realism not be lost, either in capture or development.