Creative sessions allow the photographer and the model to be artistically expressive.  For this session, I had the pleasure of working with my wife, Ashley.  When I do a creative (conceptual) session, I take my inspiration from a number of things as I said previously in another posting.  For this one, I saw Ashley first and then decided how to persue the session.  Ashley has a natural beauty – classy and timeless; she also has this undeniable presence of strength.  Her stance is always so confident and her eyes can shoot right to you.  So I knew I wanted to do something powerful and “black and white” was definitely the way to go.  So I pumped up Beyonce’s, Sweet Dreams and went to work!  Check me out…

Please view more images here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/boldlifestyle/sets/72157623187367003/.  Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Conceptual sessions allow me to exercise my creative side in a more direct way.  Normally, I tend to find the source for my creative sessions in music and various mediums of visual art.  This particular creative session was originally inspired from a song on the Basquiat soundtrack called, “Suicide Hotline.”  The mixed sounds of beat and speech are like a “sound collage” on this track.

To get the mood that I wanted I looked to some of my favorite Flickr Photographers,  Federico Erra and Kip Carroll.  Both tend to photograph beauty from a “darker” perspective.  Erra has a remarkable way of capturing the striking eyes of a subject and Carroll is a genuis of dark space.  At my mother’s house there is a painting from an Off-Broadway play that reads, “For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf.”   That became the direction for my session.  Sorry, if this is a bit too dark and demur – but I think the mood is sensitive and striking in a manner much different than Juli’s previous session.  As before, working with Juli was wonderful.  She was really able to let herself embody the concept and get some very dramatic shots.  That’s when you know you have a good model – when you can make a hangover set look glam!  Enough said, check out the session…

When the City is Too Much...

...I Find the Day is Gone

Too many images to post so please view the rest by going here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/boldlifestyle/sets/72157623265538156/.  As always, I appreciate your comments:)!

People have often asked me, “Why did you choose the name – BoldLifestyle for your photography business?”  Normally, I tell them that it is a reminder to me to remember to be bold and get the shots that I want.  It is a reminder to me to remember there is more to photography than the technical aspects of light and angle.  This being my second year as a photographer, I wanted to start off with a bang!  I wanted to shoot what I thought BoldLifestyle felt like.  The problem is – BoldLifestyle feels like so many things.  And to portray it I needed several different people that were bold enough to be photographed in a creative and artistic way.  You see the credo of BoldLifestyle Photography is “LIVE BOLD.”  You will probably notice I put it at the end of some entries or emails.  So it is imperative that I show you – the viewer – what I mean by “LIVE BOLD” to explain how BoldLifestyle Photography thinks and feels.

This is Juli.  She is a very talented hip-hop dancer here in Washington, DC and decided to be a part of my explanation of BoldLifestyle.  I met Juli and her dance group last year at the Hip-Hop Festival.  That event was the first event my partner, Jamil, and I photographed an event together.  We had a great time!  And due to some restrictions, we also had a huge challenge of photographing moving dancers with no flash! Ha!  That was a real experience:)!  The post-production work took forever – but I digress.  Here are some images from Juli’s session as a ROCKER!  Tell me what you think…

Rocking it Out!

Check out her entire session here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/boldlifestyle/sets/72157623265538156/.  And as always, leave a comment and tell me what you think. LIVE BOLD!