I dove deep into photography when working at the University of Arizona and, as a perk of the gig, I was fortunate to attend four Photoshop World Conferences. In 2008, in Boston, I was introduced to HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography which is still quite popular among shooters. It’s a process that makes your images look almost painterly. I experimented with it quite a bit for a couple years until both the novelty wore off and everybody’s pictures seemed to look the same. I will say I learned from the master of HDR that year, Ben Willmore.

Photo ©Ben Willmore

In 2010 I attended my 3rd Photoshop World Conference, this time in Las Vegas. I felt like I struck gold that year as I stumbled into a class by the great Joe McNally, a master of the flash. In class that first day I had several AHA moments, as it seemed to open up a new world for this grasshopper, both in my work at school and for my personal shooting. I had no idea of the amazing potential of what those little strobe units could do.

Photo ©Joe McNally

So it was that I started shooting friends, family, anyone who would let me in their door. Today I thought I’d share the two sessions shot in the month of March one decade ago.

First up was a session with the Giambelluca family (Chris, Melissa, Dominque-3, and Calvin-1) who wanted to get some casual photos taken shortly before they decided to move to California where both mom and dad were raised. Chris was the original bassist in my band, The Carnivaleros, and was the first to come by my house back in 2001 when I started writing some quirky instrumentals.

This is one of my favorites of about 30 or so keepers that I passed on to the family.

The second session was our dear friend, Gary Tebor, who was passing through town on his way home from San Diego to Lawrence, Kansas.

Ten years gone by in a ‘flash,’ as it were. We hope to see and give hugs to these people again before long.

And now, I’ll leave you to ponder this…