Some of my favorites

"I put my pants on the same way he does." That was a familiar refrain to me growing up and likely has become just as familiar to my kids. It was the response my mom gave...and the one I give now...when talking about not being intimidated by other people who would appear, at least to some, to be powerful, important, or famous.

Because of this understanding of all God's children being pretty much equal, I have never shied away from trying to contact people...experts in their fields...asking questions and generally trying to learn something from them personally. Somehow I always seem to get responses. And you know why? Because they really are just people...and oftentimes super friendly to boot!

Two people that immediately come to mind are Cole Thompson (I've about begged you all to check out his work and buy something) and most recently Forrest MacCormack. These are both awesome photogs and I love their work. Cole's B&Ws are amazing and Forrest's night shots blow my mind. Forrest does some things with light painting that I want to try, so I emailed him asking some more specific questions about his technique. I didn't know if he'd write back or not...you know, maybe he wants to keep everything he does a secret or something. Well, he wrote an extremely nice email back, shared several great tips, gave me some resources I didn't know about, and even asked if I had any photos to share with him. Awesome huh?!

I wrote him back today and told him that I laughed while telling Vicki about him asking if I had any shots I might share. I've gotta tell you that while I think I've taken some good photos, it's pretty darn intimidating to think about someone with that kind of talent (I'd feel the same way with Cole) looking at my stuff. It'd be like a high school trombone player playing a solo for a principal chair trombonist in the Chicago Symphony (oh yeah, did that too...and was petrified!).

Well, I did want to share a few of my shots with Forrest since he was so nice to ask. And I thought I'd share them with you. They were taken over the course of the last 1 1/2 years or so and I guess they are the shots that stand out in my mind (yes, the "no makeup" shot made the list...hehe). Several have hit the blog...but others should be new. If you'd like to see them, here's the link.

So, I guess this could be some encouragement to you to try to contact the people you admire...those who you think you might be able to learn from or who might be in a position to help you grow. You never know what kind of relationship might begin from that one simple email. And you definitely never know what you might be able to learn through the little effort it takes to type something up and hit send.