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<p>For me, the camera is a way of making art. The chief requirement of a visual artist is <em>imagination</em>. I am not a photographic technician, though I admire those who are. I bore very easily. After the first few shots, I want to know what <em>else </em>I can do with the camera, with the lighting, with props, with the subject (wardrobe, or pose). In the moment when I am photographing a pretty woman, it is a bit like "love at first sight," a kind of intoxication with the capture of the image. I have the same experience when I <em>don't </em>have a camera, and just wish my eyes were a camera. (I know myself well enough not to mistake the visual delight in the moment with anything more significant, for those who get anxious with this kind of talk. :-) It is easy just to keep going for that moment of delight, and I often take several shots of the same pose, just to see if I can get a "best of the bunch." Digital photography is so cheap that it is easy to just keep firing away.</p>
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<p>It is helpful to photograph the same pretty or beautiful young woman a number of times, because the impulse to create something beautiful forces me to think of something different for each session. When I am thinking, What do I do with this person in front of this light and this camera? I get an idea, which is a kind of "pre-visualization" of the shot. I take the shot, look at the back of the camera, and can see instantly what is good, and what could be better for the next shot. Often the model does something unexpected and it works, or works well enough that with a tweak or two I can get something more pleasing.</p>
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<p>Photography is "light-writing," and by implication a photograph requires at a minimum a dynamic range of tones -- even if it is very high-key (bright) or low-key (dark). </p>
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