Joy.

Joy © Michael Robert Williams :)

Got up this morning, made coffee, and went to my desk with coffee to check my email. It's a beautiful morning and the sunlight is pouring in through the window and I sit down to see the light make the word 'Joy' on my desk as it passed through a glass.
This tiny little scene put me in a good mood for the whole morning, despite the sun not lasting very long sadly.
Simple things.

Its a long holiday weekend and I'm taking it easy. Nice to just have time to drift a little for a weekend. Read the paper, listen to music, I've been listening to a lot of Bowie this week.
I love the Aladdin Sane album. And Hunky Dory. And Low.
I may do some editing tomorrow but today is lazy.
m

'An Idea Begins To Take Shape...'

'I have a very mystical and spiritual approach to photography, which I can't explain. An idea begins to take shape, a dream coming to life, a memory awakening, and it is then that I open the curtain and prepare a reflector; it just takes a little light and a little courage to make a photograph. Every photograph enters the world as a sign of hope.'
-- Paolo Roversi.

10 Questions For Annie Leibovitz;

I've only just seen this short interview with Annie Leibovitz from a few months ago but I found it interesting;



I know I've mentioned Leibovitz's work before, she is one of the photographers I respect, so its interesting to hear her comments, especially about when a shoot is working or it isn't. It's only a very short interview, I'd like to hear more. She is one of the legends. I love a lot of her work, but especially from the 1970's, her Rolling Stone years.
Two of her Rolling Stone covers from that period are below;

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards - RS 191, July 17, 1975

The Blues Brothers - RS 285, February 22, 1979

Recent Work; Little Boots Portraits, Etc...

Little Boots, 2009 © Michael Robert Williams

These are six of the portraits from my session with Little Boots recently. They have been added to the website portfolios too. The site was updated recently with some of the portraits from the last few months.
I'm very happy with the Little Boots portraits. I'm shooting more often like this now.
Its funny, when I first started out I was mainly just using natural light, no styling, shooting Black & White, and often just me and the person being photographed were there. The work has gradually had more added, and evolved I guess. Now I still sometimes shoot very simply with natural light, etc, like with the Speech Debelle portraits, put up here recently, but more often the shoots are bigger productions, using controlled lighting, styling, assistants, and carefully selected locations.
There are things I enjoy in both approaches, it depends what I'm trying to achieve. During the past two weeks I've photographed the band Wild Beasts outside for a quick 30 minute session in natural light in Hackney. Also controlled flash-lit portraits of Brendan Benson at the hotel he was staying at in London, but then also photographed Pixie Lott inside with a crew including styling, and hair & make-up.
I like the variety, and I'm really enjoying my recent shoots. I'll post more new portraits here very soon.

Michael

Little Boots, 2009 © Michael Robert Williams