Keels Photography

So day two and we get personal.  It’s a strange thing taking pictures of yourself at least for me.  Had an idea and went for it but wasn’t prepared for how personal the images struck me.  Catching glimpses of your parents and your children in your face at the same moment can be a profound thing, it was for me.  here I am.

I’m back from what was one of the best photographic learning experiences to date for me.   I must say the setting of Santa Fe holds a bit of magic,  royal blue skies perfectly compliment brilliant orange adobe.  Everything is radiant in the south western light, the same light that attracted droves of artists from O’Keefe to Weston and Ansel Adams.   A gallery mecca, I had a chance to visits my favorite, The Monroe gallery, where I took in actual Esinstaedt prints as well as Arnold Newman and  Eddie Adams.  History in frames, amazing.  I had perfect cups of coffee in an artist’s atmosphere on Garcia St. and loving every minute of it.  So I would like to roll the photography from the past week in parts.  Each day of the workshop David Robin laid the ground work with great imagery (his and also the masters) and then handed us the challenge of light, intent and composition.  Our first day we photographed each other, sounded easy until we figured out most of us didn’t have the modeling chops.  Here are some from that lesson.  All studio work here, one of my great friend Gil (our third workshop together) and Shevaun, an amazing photographer and person who taught me so much by

just watching her work; missing them both.

As promised I wanted to share some of the student’s fantastic images from the lighting workshop I taught some weeks back.  Again thanks to all who participated and a big bellated thank you to Andrew List, your help, enthusiasm and friendship were invaluable.  Coincidentally, Nick Fancher produced a great short video, a sort of highlight reel from the class, you can check it out here: BRILLIANT LIGHT WORKSHOP.