EXIF - SS 1/1600, ISO 400, f/2.2
Nikon D810, Nikon 85mm 1.8
EYE CONTACT
Title: Behind the veil
"This photo was created during a creative shoot with my friend and set stylist, Lindsay Mills. Lindsay and I wanted to create a set with a ton of fabrics in the shades of pink and cream. We used a backdrop stand to hang all the fabrics around our beautiful model, Balat. Then, we came up with the idea of using some of the fabrics in front of the camera. Lindsay was holding the fabric while I was focusing on Balat's eyes. I asked her to look straight at the camera for this shot."
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE
f/2.2, 1/450, ISO 100
Nikon D750; sigma 35mm f/1.4 ART
Title: Love is Love in the Highlands
I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Glencoe, Scotland to lead a mentoring session for three other photographers. The couple in this photo so graciously met us on this cold rainy day and braved the photoshoot in these gorgeous lace dresses while I directed them to show the other photographers how I use emotive prompts in my sessions.
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BROKEN REALITY
ƒ/2.4 1/60s ISO160
Samsung Galaxy S10
Title: Life Lessons With Mr. Rogers
I decided to shoot a day in the life using my cell phone a couple of weeks into quarantine. I was trying to make my home a safe, calm place for my children in the midst of some pretty scary personal and global news, so I introduced them to Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. The way he talks about difficult situations gave all of us a sense of calm an clarity.
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CINEMATIC
f/4.5, 1/60s, ISO1000
Fuji X-T20; fujifilm xc16-50mm f/3.5-f5.6 ois ii
Title: BAR
I approached the processing of this image with color in mind. I had just watched a series that was pretty inspiring in its cinematography, and thought I would push my normal editing with some complementary colors. Deepening the actual "gray" of the building to that blue-green really made the neon sign pop, and I also loved the way the yellow lights glow against the walls of the building. It took the image from a kind of grim bar in the rain to something a little more gritty.
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Title: Coney Island
The day I took this photo was an emotional day. Many years ago I spent some months in New York City, and the diverse, quirky and colorful beach of Coney Island has been an intense memory since. When I visited it again, this time with my family and a photographer friend from New York, the memories came back all of a sudden.
COLOR POP
f/7.1, 1/500s, ISO 200
Fujifilm X-T2; FUJIFILM XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR
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HER
f/2.2, 1/200, ISO 160
Nikon D850; Sigma 35mm f/ 1.4 ART
Title: Wombless
I was five days Post-Op when I awoke to the reality that my body, which had housed four pregnancies and birthed three beautiful babies, was no longer capable of creating life. Of course, I knew this reality going into surgery, and weighed it heavily in my decision to proceed. But it didn't really hit my heart until afterwards. I was wombless. I took this self portrait that evening in hopes of helping me process my grief, and to document the raw reality of the pain I was feeling- both physically and emotionally.
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HUMAN FACE
f/1.8, 1/250s, ISO500
CANON EOS 6D; Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L
Title: RAISING A CURIOUS DAUGHTER
This is a sweet little precocious baby girl who was so curious about the camera during their motherhood session.
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NO PLACE LIKE HOME
f2.8, 1/200s, ISO 320
Nikon d850; Tamron SP 15-30mm f/2.8 Di VC USD
Title: Off to the Front Lines
This is an image of my husband in our mudroom, leaving for work through the garage door. My husband is a physician at one of the large university hospitals in the city, and so is considered an essential worker. During our state's shutdown, his leaving for work every day was a huge source of anxiety for me and the kids. With Covid cases increasing and so much unknown about the future, we worried about how his day would look, when we would see him again, and if he would contract the virus at work.
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SEEING DOUBLE
f/ 2.8, 1/80, ISO 400
CANON EOS 5D Mark iv; Canon EF 24-70mm
Title: Perfect on every side
When I created this double it became very emotional for me, because it evolved into a story about her. There is a quiet battle being waged in our home. It's a battle against self-doubt, anxiety, fear of loss, a sense of not being enough or ever giving enough. As hard as it is to believe, it's this girl we're fighting it for. She is amazing. She is a lover of the down-trodden, insightful, hard-working, creative, thoughtful, generous, and an A-student to name a few. She fills are home with music and dance. When I take a photo of her it is my hope that she will someday see that all of her is beautiful and worthy. I want her to face the camera and life with every side . There is no bad side.
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SELF PORTRAIT
f/4, 1/200s, ISO 2500
CANON EOS 5D Mark iv; Canon EF 28mm f/2.8
Title: Welcome To Spa Quarantine
This is an image out of a series of self-portraits made in hopes to better cope with the effects of isolation and the uncertainty during the time of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is with humor that I find it is so much easier to make it through rough times, even if that means pretending your bathroom is a spa or a cocktail lounge.
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STORY IN STILL LIFE
ƒ/16, 1/250s, ISO 1250
Fuji X-T3; fujifilm XF18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS
Title: Kaffee and a Tart
After 2 weeks vacationing in Italy and indulging in gelato and pizza, it was a shock to pay 3 times the price for an espresso once we arrived in Switzerland.
This image reminds me of our first coffee stop and how we picked, more wisely, what and where we ate for the remainder of the trip.
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TAKING SHAPE
f/2.5, 1/400s, ISO 3200
CANON EOS 5D Mark iv; sigma 35mm f/ 1.4 ART
Title: At Home
This photograph shows how much my daughter has grown while also showcasing a part of our farmhouse. We have lived her just over a year but have had this farm & house in our hearts for over a decade.
I have had a lot of "pinch me" moments in the past year, that we get to be the stewards of this land and 218 year old farmhouse. So this image is more to me than just my daughter in a pretty yellow dress in our bathroom. It's a realized dream in motherhood and the meaning of home.
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1/400 sec at f/3.2, ISO 160
Canon 5D mk IV, Sigma Art 35mm Sony A6400 + 20mm
Title: Inside Cats
What most resonates for me in this image is a sense of both longing and hesitation. The raindrops on the window tell the immediate story of being homebound because of weather but the light signals a clearing and the potential to get outdoors. At this time, we were coming to the end of the winter season indoors and at home with the pandemic. Both the kitten and the boy had not been vaccinated and were living a small quiet life indoors. But things were soon to change with the kitten's impending adoption and with the release and relative freedoms of the summer season. The expressions of my boy and the kitten capture my own conflicted feeling of wanting to stay in a space where my son is small and protected at home but also a longing to rejoin a wider community and to get back to adventures outside of our home.
GEAR
SETTINGS
website
ISO 400, F 1.4, 1/2
Canon R6, Sigma Art 35mm
Title: The Face of a Warrior
This photo has been on my heart for many years. I created this photo specifically to advocate and bring awareness to the reality of childhood cancer. I just don't understand why they don't get more funding for research, 4% of all funding is not enough. I don't feel like it is fair. John - the strongest boy I know, was diagnosed with a rare form of childhood cancer called Retinoblastoma at 2 weeks old. We chose to remove his eye in order to save his life and to keep it from spreading to his brain. He is now 8 years old and to this very day, does not like having his prosthetic eye out at all. During the timing of this photo, he developed an eye socket infection and needed to keep his prosthetic out for about 2 weeks. I decided to take advantage of the timing and snapped this photo. You can still see a little redness from the infection around the eye. I wanted to keep it kind of a serious photo, in order to keep the mood. He otherwise took many photos right after this of him being his silly self.
GEAR
SETTINGS
WEBSITE
1/400 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 50
Sony a9ii & Tamron 17-24mm f/2.8
Title: Boop the Snoot
This is a photo of my own dog Loki, when we were exploring a new part of Slovenia, with a new camera, and new lens. He is really the perfect model, and his long snoot and perfectly triangular ears just made this work perfectly with a wide angle lens.
GEAR
SETTINGS
website
Winners are also featured in the Winter issue of Click magazine.