Of White and Black "Restricted Waters"

             In this world we as humans are constantly disagreeing; arguing about the differences in one another and our respective ways of life. Often times it is mentioned how much hate is in the world, how much anger and deceit fill our lives. Which always leads to the sayings such as: “Why can’t we all love one another?” “We need less hate, more love.” “Why can’t we just get along?” Here is why. As long as love is a staple in our society, hate will be as well. Love needs hate. Love needs hate like good needs evil. Think about when a certain group of people be it race, religion, sexuality or any other sort comes under attack of those who hate what it stands for. Look at how quickly other members of said groups bind together to show love for those who are being persecuted. Love then thrives, it grows stronger. Stronger and stronger it continues to grow in order to stand against its persecutors. Hate is the same way though. It is just as easy if not easier to have a mutual hatred of something than it is a mutual love. The reason I say it is easier is this. I may like the orioles, and you the red sox. We are able to find a mutual ground despite having a difference in favorite teams however within in our hatred of the Yankees.

            So what is the answer? If more love isn’t the answer, what is? I think more respect is the answer, a mutual respect of one another as humans with differing opinions. I try very hard to respect others that I come into contact with, which can be hard because so many in this world don’t have respect for themselves let alone others around them. It’s our job as individuals to be a voice in this fight. In public it is our responsibility to be the bigger person, to not give in when others wrong us, but to step back, analyze the situation and handle it rationally as grown human beings with a bit of dignity.

I shot Brooke a few years back with her family at the time. I distinctly remember a photo of her and her father by a fence in the woods. Of course she looked a lot younger then. Even still I could see that she would grow into a stunningly gorgeous woman. Let me tell you this, I was right!

Brooke contacted me about being a part of my “Of White and Black” series a few weeks ago. I hadn’t seen her in person to know who I was looking at in several years. Naturally I did what every red blooded human who is active in social networking would do……I stalked her photos. I use the word stalk loosely. What I mean is that I went through her photos learning what angles she looks best at, what colors flatter her. What features she has. All of these things play a pertinent role in deciding what the shoot will entail.

            Going into my shoot with Brooke last Friday morning I knew two things that I wanted to capture. The first being her hair, hair is one of the most attractive things on a woman to me. Hair can either make or break a woman’s physical beauty in my eyes, her collar bones being the second physical feature that I had noticed.

            The first location that Brooke and I went to called for us to walk through an upper level of an abandoned factory to a distant door leading onto the roof of said factory. After climbing a ladder to a second level of the roof we found ourselves atop one of the tallest places in town. The roof nearly blinding us because of the white material it is made out of, not to mention we had just walked through nearly complete darkness through the factory. Growing accustomed the brightness and wind we began shooting. The white of the roof along with the black of Brooke’s dress made her skin glow.

If you have been following the other sets from this series then it will come as no surprise to you that one of the main things I try to capture in these photos is a state of grace. I feel confident that the 2 main images from the rooftop really captured Brooke’s graceful nature.

             It was at the next location that I really began to get to know Brooke. The first set of shots I took laying on the ground. What I didn’t realize before lying down was that there were ant hills all along the area we were. Mid shot I jumped up swatting these biting ants off of my arm violently while trying not to drop my camera. Needless to say Brooke got a little kick out of that. You know what they say though, “Anything for the shot.”

             After a failed attempt at creating a crown out of flowers we moved along to this next area. Down a hill, crossed a stream, and through some woods it was off to grandmother’s house we went. Crawling atop a fallen tree I positioned Brooke’s body and bouquet of flowers and began shooting the next set of images. Nearly falling on too many occasions I finally captured those beautiful collar bones perfectly, with the piercing strength of her eyes as a bonus.

             Brooke is gentle, her mind is innocent, and her spirit is both caring and aware, but strong and driven as well. She knows who she is and who she wants to become. A sense of pride enables her to stand up for herself and those who disagree with her choices as a woman.

While eating lunch with Brooke after our shoot together it became evident that a foundation for a wonderful friendship had been built. Constant joking along with serious dialogue made for a beautiful fit. I’m glad I had the opportunity to spend time with Brooke. I wish there were more amazing humans in the world like her.

I hope you enjoy the images I was able to capture of Brooke.

Danielle

            Only in the last few months have I developed a friendship with Danielle. Even in as short of a time as it has been she has quickly grown to in my eyes to one of the most valuable people in my life. Learning more and more of her story every time we meet together or talk I am constantly reminded just how amazing she is  as not only a woman, but a friend too.

              During the "beautiful simplicity" series every girl Who contacted me about shooting with me flipped out when I would ask them about a sheet photo. They all wanted to be a part of it. I was always ready to take on new people for that series because it was very dear to my heart and it being my first fine art series I wanted it to be amazing. You will see Danielle's "beautiful simplicity" photo is one of my top 3 from the entire series. Seeing how strong that Danielle's face is and how fierce her eyes can be I took advantage of those traits and used red for her sheet. Bright with bold colors and a strong look her "beautiful simplicity" photo was an instant hit. This was Danielle's first time in front of a camera so this was an entirely new experience for her, however she rocked it! The photos we took were amazing so of course when contacted by her to shoot with her again I naturally jumped at the chance.

                My main focus in this second shoot with Danielle was to capture her personality. A personality that is sweet in nature, playful, kind, and genuine. In my opinion her true beauty is her personality. Let me rephrase that. An understanding of her personality is what makes it possible to really comprehend her true beauty. The look of innocence and a tender heart that I was able to capture in her eyes was beyond any expectation that I had hope to accomplish .

                I always tell her when we talk to tell me something about her that I don't know. My philosophy behind that is this. If every time you are with someone they tell you something about their life that you don't know, by the time you get to the end of their story you have become part of it. Hopefully a part that they will feel vital enough to tell the next who asks about it.

                Danielle's story is amazing, truly amazing! I don't even know all of it yet and it has to be my favorite.

I hope you enjoy the photos.

Thanks for your support.

Of White and Black "Calming Path"

        As I scouted locations while waiting for Jamie and Blair to arrive for their shoot, I slipped down a muddy river bank. This lead to a muddy butt, which makes for a miserable shoot let me tell you. I then frantically scurried back to my car where I grabbed a towel from the backseat and began cleaning myself off. Morgan, a dear friend to me had come along to assist and hang out, being as both Jamie and Blair are two of her best friends. Morgan has seen me at my worst. I probably see our friendship in a different light than she does, but none the less. She is an amazing Human. I have shot Morgan in the pouring rain, we have been eaten up by biting flies together, nearly froze to death on the water for shoots, and even with all of that she still trusts me to get the image that will stand out from the others in our area. Anyways, back to the story. Morgan was the first to arrive at the spot. I am glad it was her too, because if it were anyone else I may have been embarrassed. The reason being this, I was in my boxer briefs on my hands and knees scrubbing mud out of my jeans in hopes of not looking like a complete mess during the shoot. She took a photo of it, so I am assuming she is saving it for blackmail. Luckily I had gotten the majority of the mud out by the time Jamie arrived for our shoot together.

            One of my oldest friends recently went through and read every one of my blog posts. She said to me that its evident a connection is built between me and everyone that I shoot. That she can tell I take the relationships I have between my clients seriously and really value them as humans over subjects in a grand idea. When asking another what her impression of me while we shot her words were “calm, focused, intrigued, and dedicated to boosting confidence and creating a comfortable environment.” I recently asked another client of whom I have worked with numerous times their opinion of me and the way I go about shooting. The response they gave brought a grin to my face. “you always try to make me or whoever the model may be comfortable be setting the mood of the shoot to friendly and easy. It’s never like we are working. We just have a conversation and take pictures. But at the same time you deliver results that make it seems like we were strictly on business, on a professional level.” It’s great to hear these things from people I work with. It is even better when someone who is looking at my photos says things like “you really capture the essence of your subject.” I ask tough question. I push the envelope and really try to get to know the real person that I am shooting. I am not interested in the person that everyone else knows them as. I am interested in knowing and capturing the person that they see themselves as. The person they strive to be. My main statement is this “Tell me something I don’t know about you.”

            When working with Jamie It was a little harder to build that connection because there were so many people with us as we shot. Four may seem like a small number but when I am used to me, the model, and one other it is a lot. Don’t get me wrong. I loved having Blair, Morgan, Jamie’s stepmother and sister there to experience the shoot. It was just a different experience is all. We have plans in place to shoot again. I am hoping that with the next shoot I am able to learn more of Jamie’s personality. Even with that being said, I would’ve been blind not to notice that the gentle nature and classic beauty that Jamie has are slow down time. At one point during the shoot I remember zoning out thinking about how beautiful she was. Not just her beauty but how naturally it came. Both effortlessly and flawlessly she amazed me with the amount of ease that she blended into the scene that I created for her.

             I hope you enjoy these Images of Jamie. Be on the lookout for more photos from her in the future. I look forward to photographing her again.

             Thanks so much for all of your support. For questions on booking, buying prints, or just to say hi   use the contact info below.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/emptyframes

Instagram: @spencer_bunting

Phone: 252-813-2977

Email: efphotog@gmail.com

Of White and Black: "Awakening Beauty"

Blair’s beauty is the most eloquent and innocent beauty that I have ever seen in a human being. It is safe to say that she is the most beautiful human being I have ever laid eyes on, let alone photographed.

I remember when I first met Blair. I was photographing her best friend and a person I consider to be a dear friend of mine, Morgan Wooten. It was a cold, rainy, all around miserable Thursday. Never seeing Blair before, of course I was taken by surprise by her beauty. With auburn shoulder length hair, fair skin, bright brown eyes that just pierce right through you, and a smile full of gorgeous white teeth I found it incredibly hard not to stare. I continued shooting Morgan while building a friendship with Blair in the meantime as I do with most people who come along on shoots. As I reached the end of my shoot with Morgan that day I found the courage to ask Blair if I could photograph her. The reason I say courage is because Blair’s beauty intimidated me. I know Morgan, Morgan is an amazing and beautiful girl, but with Morgan it comes natural between us because of the relationship we have built. She knows that I am going to say “chin up.” a thousand times a shoot, and that middle way through is when things start to become amazing. The same with her, I know and can read her facial expressions and body language and am able to accommodate and regroup to make the shoot better. Blair on the other hand, I had just met her. No relationship had been built between us other than the hour and a half we had just spent in the rain together. That sounds a lot more romantic than it was. The images of Blair that I took were good; she was presented in a good way, capturing what is probably the most captivating thing about her, her smile. However I wasn’t satisfied with them once I got back to my computer. The human I captured was beautiful but not to the extent that I remembered her being. It would be another month before I saw Blair again.

I was yet again shooting Morgan downtown Rocky Mount when the phone rang with Blair on the other end looking for directions to get to where we were. The exit number I told her to take was incorrect so it put her a few streets over and a couple of blocks down. After running a half mile through a rough neighborhood I reached Blair’s car and just like that we were riding back to the location catching up on how one another had been doing.  For those of you wondering if I left Morgan alone. No, I did not. She was with my friend William who was helping with the shoot that day. Anyways, back to the story. I am riding with Blair. Even in yoga pants, with little to no makeup, a small fleece jacket, rainbow flip flops, and her hair down Blair’s beauty still intrigued me. It was at this point that I began to realize that it’s the experience of being around her that aids to the sense of beauty I see in her. The apparent glow and grace that she radiates provokes a sense of calmness from me that I very rarely feel. The only photo I have of Blair from that day is the snapshot posted below as she keeps my Alien Bee from blowing away; which she is really good at doing by the way. You’d be surprised how hard it is to find a good light stand holder these days. 

Seeing Blair’s photos on both Instagram and Facebook as time progressed, her beauty never seemed to fade and another thing I noticed was that she looks the same in every photo from every age. Almost as if she doesn’t age, in her face at least. I mean she has gotten taller and her hair grown longer but her facial features never differ.

When I approached Blair about being a part of this series her words to me were: “If you want me to, I would.” Of course I wanted her to. I then expressed to her that it had irked my nerves that I was unable to capture the beauty that I had experienced when meeting her. Also that in my eyes she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen and or met. That is something I don’t say often, never even. I have told others that they are one of the prettiest I know but never the prettiest as I did with Blair and have done so on many occasions. I find beauty in all people. I try very hard to see past the physical beauty and find traits within them that make them even more beautiful in hopes to not show favoritism. At the same time though, I am human. Of course I have favorites; of course I am attracted to certain ones in different ways than others. We as mankind were born with selfish natures. Blair exploits mine. Without even trying, mind you.

As Blair and I were walking to the spot where we would begin our shoot we talked about her being nervous, how her day was going and other random pleasantries. Truth is I was probably more nervous than she was. I had just shot Stacie’s photos the day before and Jamie’s just hours before my shoot with Blair. Both had turned out great, but Blair’s scared me. What if I was unable to do her justice, or capture her beauty the way I was experiencing it right now as we walk through the park?

The white summer dress she was wearing belongs to Allie, a previous model and very old friend of mine. However you can’t tell because to see Blair wearing it is almost as if it were created just for her. We began shooting and getting in the swing of things and I could feel that my demeanor has changed. I had transformed from a confident photographer to an awestruck 22 year old guy. I continued working delicately with Blair from spot to spot. All the while she was patiently following my instructions and tolerating my crazy ideas. Trusting that the idea I had in my head was indeed worth it. It was after this photo below that I calmly said, “Blair, I got it. I captured the experience of your beauty.”

I hope you enjoy these images. Thank you for your time and patience in reading this article. Also thank you for your continued support of me and the work I am doing. For inquires about prints, booking info, investment, or just to say hi please use the info listed below.

Phone (252) 813-2977

Email: efphotog@gmail.com

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Instagram: @spencer_bunting