A few years back I had this idea to shoot a series of portraits in which the catch-light from the light source was the motivation for the photo.  The catch-light comes from the reflection of the light source in the subject’s eyes, and is what gives a person the so called “twinkle in their eye”.  I thought, why not cover the light source so that the resulting reflection was the shape I wanted it to be; as long as it was a simple, graphic shape it might be kind of cool.  I kind of forgot about it for a while, but not long ago I realized that my original idea was very much in sync with the way cartoonists use shapes in the eyes to display actions in the cartoons they’re drawing.  For instance when a cartoon dies you might see it’s eyes covered with an “X”, or if a cartoon see’s a large amount of money, it’s eyes might pop out of it’s head and the pupils be replaced with a “$”.  This idea re-invigorated my drive to shoot this project, so after finding some great models and getting Robbie Forrest, stylist extraordinaire, to help me out, I finally got around to shooting it.  I  did three shots where each element of the photograph and the expression of the model served to better exemplify the shape of the catchlight in that particular photo.  These are the results, hope you like them:

I just wrapped up a project with CrossFit Raleigh and it’s owners: Christmas, Chennelle, and Kim.  I’m super stoked on what we got and after not posting anything in quite some time I’m delighted to show you what came out.  First I shot a series of photos featuring each of the women doing a workout that is essential to CrossFit.  Then I thought, what better project to begin introducing myself to the world of video than one involving a few bad-asses doing some bad-ass workouts?  So with the help of Josh Steadman of Steadyfilm Productions I produced, shot, and edited my first video.  The learning curve was steep but it’s been invigorating to begin learning a new skill set.

On a side note the CrossFit Raleigh team, of which these women are a part of, recently qualified for the 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games. The Crossfit Games is the Olympics of CrossFit and the CFR team will head to California the end of this month to compete against the worlds best for the title of fittest team on Earth.  So good luck CFR!

Here are the photos (Make sure you click to see them big):

And here is my first video!:

In this week’s edition of the “Independent Weekly” you can find a photograph I took of Jill Sockman of Blue Lotus Yoga and Movement Arts.  They were finalists in the Indy’s “Best of the Triangle 2010″ in the yoga studio category, and I can vouch for their awesomeness.  If your looking for a place to do yoga in downtown Raleigh then look no further, because it doesn’t get much better than this!  Congratulations to Jill and Blue Lotus!