My passions are writing and photography. I am by training a photojournalist, but have been learning more formal photography techniques over the last seven years. I had a great session on portrait lighting the other day (with a great photographer named Rob Andrew). I also had the good fortune to photograph a beautiful model named Brooke. Lighting is, of course, the first key in any photograph, and Rob showed us how to manipulate studio lighting for great effects. I can’t wait to do more. For any budding photographer, I highly recommend hands-on training sessions. Books are great, but you need to get together with professionals and start snapping that camera.

Here are just a few outtakes from that session (you can see more of my shots of Brooke by going to my photo sharing site).