Katie Contini is a dear friend of mine, who graciously accepted my request to test model for me. She's an aspiring actress, and I got to take almost a full year of acting class with her, and discovered this: She's good. Me, not so much! Hope to see her in many great films one day!

Modeling is hard work. I've been learning that recently as i've asked many people to pose in front of my camera. It's really draining, and with Katie, we spent a good full day going from place to place and she gave it everything!

I originally set out to focus on mostly editorial type portraiture that day, but got to tackle some natural light photos as well. Lighting is such a brand new world to me, and I have a tremendous respect for those who do it well in photography. It makes all the difference.

My biggest inspiration these days is when I look at magazines and see stories on a celebrity and the photos capture the essence of what that person is all about. Love the details and the thought process that goes into props, outfits, location, etc. I'm taking baby steps in trying to learn how to do that well.

We started out early afternoon in the park, and took some photos that were pleasant and nice to look at, but not super interesting. Then it started raining. We quickly walked back to an area with scaffolding for shelter, and waited for a while, but it would not stop raining. Then I thought, why not make the most of this time? We started shooting there, and they were my favorite images from the "natural light" portion of the day. She was such a good sport, that she walked out into the rain and started jumping around in the small water puddles for the photos and it was so much fun! What a trooper!

Hope you enjoy these images as much as I did taking them. Thanks again, Katie!

Click on the images below to enlarge: