Finally finding some time to go through photos from a playshoot earlier September with a fantastic singer-songwriter Annabelle Chvostek. The easy part is shooting, setting the exposure, composing, clicking. The difficult part is afterwards, the editing, especially when you know that the person will be even more critical because that is what we women do when we see a photo of ourselves. There are so many expressions, feelings, messages, and ideas to choose from, not one photo every being exactly the same as the next, so what do you convey, what do you show, what do you reveal or share? Instinct leads the way for that first edit, and then after that, it is feedback, good or bad, the client's thoughts, the person's thoughts - that so difficult moment when he or she will cast judgment on my abilities, my vision, my perspective, the only thing I really bring to the table, beyond the technical.

In the end, we know ourselves the best, and we know what we want to show or reveal, but the interesting part about photography, or really, the photographer, is sometimes we see something the other person has yet to discover. Sometimes we show a new side to that face, that personality, or sometimes we just confirm what they always knew. I like the surprises. I like coaxing something out of the person in front of my camera without demanding anything, without ordering them about. It has to be give and take, and going through my photos I see that I need to give even more to get more. ... This time, something subtle did happen. I can see it in the expression, those eyes, the stance, the way the body speaks. From just one little photo, I know this singer-songwriter lady has a lot to say, and she started to tell it to me, through the photography. I think this is what I love best about photography, about portraits: Connection and sharing between humans is more than possible, however fleeting. A photo shows how true this can be.

Each photo ultimately will tell me where I failed them or myself, where I could have done something just a little bit different, pushed that perspective or angle, looked at the scene with new eyes, anything to capture that je-ne-sais-quoi I want to see and don't even yet know what it looks like. This one will do, and there are a few more that will do even better. Still, there is always another level. Technically, what I am learning is that I have pushed the limits of my digital camera and it is time for a pro DSLR. Stay tuned.

Cheers.