contrast

Gotta say this about Bobo, he exposes well.

Our old dog has so much long black hair, he sucks in all the light. No shadow detail at all. Photographer's nightmare.

a little imperfection is good for the soul

 on a shoot for the new Random House book project in VT last week

You know you're taking photography seriously when you first want to control the light, instead of having the light control you. *  I started my professional photo life in the days of exposing finicky chromes, so I got very very good at controlling light. Good enough that the Photo District News

wrote about me & my lighting. No highlights without details! Flag that flare!

Last year I noticed enjoying my visceral reaction to blownout sky and skin without pores. And then an art director asked me to shoot a project with intentional lens refractions floating over the subjects-and used it full page. Astoundingly, the earth continued to spin on its axis .  I had some fun breaking the rules.

So for 2010 I'm letting the imperfect exposure creep into my work in a serious way. Any thoughts?

* if you're amongst those yearning to learn to control light, Strobist is an excellent place to start, if you haven't popped by there already.