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Created 14-Apr-13
17 photos
Meet Tyree

Meet Tyree. He's definitely a new face to the blog but he fits right in. I had initially met Tyree when I moved here to Baltimore. He works the front desk in the building that I currently live in and greets everyone who walks through the front door. Not knowing anyone prior to moving out here, I felt like I was in kindergarten all over again. But Tyree's congeniality and his penchant to strike up a conversation made him extremely easy to get to know. In fact, now that I think about it, he was my first "friend" on the East Coast. Nevertheless, I've gotten the chance to really get to know Tyree over the last year and despite our different ethnic backgrounds and upbringings, I've found that we've shared similar life struggles. It's like we were meant to be great friends.

Since moving out to Baltimore for graduate school, photography has become subordinate to research. But since I've been prompted to shoot another wedding in the coming month, I've decided to revive my love for portrait photography and what better male model to ask than Tyree - someone I trust and respect. To my surprise, Tyree has done a little bit of modeling in the past and secretly aspires to model for Macy's one day. Despite some initial awkwardness on my part and the challenging lighting conditions, we shortly found our comfort zone. This shoot is a first for me in Downtown Baltimore and we decided to go to Tyree's happy place - a place he goes to when he needs to reflect and ruminate. I knew it would be a fitting milieu to capture Tyree in his element.

All in all, I didn't realize how much I missed photography. It's good to be back.

Photographic note: In preparation for the upcoming wedding in three weeks, I wanted to challenge myself by mimicking the type of lighting conditions that I would encounter on the wedding day - high noon, hard light, distinct shadows. Hard light lends to easy silhouettes, as exemplified by the first picture. Moreover, hard light is great for highlighting textures, emphasizing the patterns on his shirt. We found some nearby shade which helped with the portraits

Location: Pier 5, Baltimore
Gear: D700, 35 1.4G, 85 1.4G