People inspire me. This sounds so cliche, but I like nothing better than to take a photo of someone and really capture a part of their personality in one single frame… or a series of frames. With my clients, I sometimes only have a few minutes before a shoot starts to get to know them, to try to figure out how best to photograph them so that their personality is well-represented in the images. It’s a wonderful challenge that keeps me motivated to continue doing what I do. When I photograph those close to me, I draw from what I know about them personally and try to let that cross over into the image itself. This also sounds so cliche, but it’s honestly how my mind works when I’m behind the camera.

At the start of 2010, I made it a goal to start and work on a personal photography project this year. While I absolutely love what I do for clients with weddings and portraits, I find it necessary to photograph just for myself sometimes in order to keep a fresh eye and to keep pushing the creativity in my work. I’ve always been the girl with the camera and frequently take photos on trips, at events with friends, at social gatherings… but I have never formally began an on-going personal photography project… before now.

In the past couple of months, I have photographed a couple of my friends in shoots that I considered “just for fun” at the time. This week, while working on a few edits from those informal shoots, I realized that I had began my personal photography project without even knowing it. The photos I took of these two great friends made me realize that I have captured images of parts of their personalities that only I can see, that these images are very personal and intimate, and portray them as they are through my eyes. The moment I realized that, I knew that these two shoots were the start of a project I want to continue, a series of portraits of people in my life… As Only I Can See Them.

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Meg

Meg is no stranger to this blog, she is a fellow photographer and one of my dearest and closest friends. We met living in the dorms our Freshman year of college, were roommates for about a year after college, began our businesses at about the same time, and have been through much, personally and professionally, together. About a month or so ago, Meg was back here in LA for a few days, so we decided to dedicate a few hours one day to taking portraits of each other. Our first priority was to just get creative and have fun, and maybe even take a few photos of each other to be used on our own Web sites. About an hour before we were about to get started, Meg was sitting on my couch when she received a phone call from her Mom that her Grandfather had passed away overnight. He had been ill for quite some time, so while it wasn’t entirely surprising, it was shocking and devastating. She cried. I tried to comfort her, but in times like those, words don’t carry much weight. After speaking more to her Mom and making a few phone calls, we sat there on the couch and talked. Her first instinct was to race home, but being five hours away and having a wedding here in LA the next day, that was out of the question. She would have to wait until the weekend was over to go home and be with family. Since we were all ready for the photo session, and because the alternative thing to do was sit in my apartment for the remainder of the day, she made the decision to carry on with the shoot we had planned.

I wasn’t going to tell that story when I originally decided to post the following images, but I know Meg really well, and these images don’t represent the everyday-Meg. There is something about them that feels different, and I know that is because of the news she received not two hours before these images were taken. I thought it was important to share that story because it gives context to the person who was in front of my camera that day. She was sad and in the beginning of the mourning process, but also thoughtful and grateful for her family. She was beautiful, as she always is, and she was just a little more vulnerable.

This is Meg, as only I can see her…