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These are from my Golden Hour “Light Play” session with Bre Thurston.

It was so amazing to watch her hunt down beautiful light while encouraging us to play with it and try something new.

This was my take at “directional light”.

This was shot at a beautiful mission in San Antonio, inside a room with just a sliver of window light. It was hot, not just warm, but like full on clothes dripping WET, makeup melting off HOT! There were around twenty of us shooting side by side, trying to get in for our shot, and then quickly backing away to make room for someone else. Despite all those distractions and my ankles burning like fire (either from burning grass –apparently that’s a real thing in Texas– or fire ants), I slowed myself down long enough to feel the moment. To just step back and let the fact that I am here in Texas, shooting alongside a group of amazing photographers, in this gorgeous light, wash over over me until all I could feel was grateful for this opportunity. We played in lots of different light around the mission, but the light in this room was peaceful and still. In order to translate the feeling I had while standing in the room, I made a few deliberate choices when selecting my camera settings. I  wanted the images to feel slow, patient and deliberate with a painterly quality, so I slowed the shutter down past where I normally would for a portrait session and left myself open to just feeling free enough to break the rules. Which after all, is exactly what we were there to do.