portraits | the-light-house

Be content with what you have;

rejoice in the way things are.

When you realize there is nothing lacking,

the whole world belongs to you.

Lao-tzu

A Vehicle of Light

People are beautiful, and the more headshots I do the more that fact is reinforced. Despite what we see out the window the world is...

Strangers No More

He was a stranger that day. He just walked up to me and asked if I could take his picture. We were in Chinatown. It was my birthday. I...

The Power of Metaphor

Metaphors drive understanding. Through metaphor we don’t just see our connectedness, we feel it. For Marshall here, the metaphor is the...

A Galaxy So Close You Can Touch It

We can’t possibly know what’s going on inside a person. But there’s a whole universe in there, an entire lifetime of experiences and...

The Ubiquitous You

Each person is unique, but each person is connected to every other and has more similarities than differences. Without over-stating it...

Emit Your Glow

The thing about portrait photography is the page is never blank. I don’t have to *do* anything, I don’t have to *think* about anything....

Calling All Hobgoblins

Not everyone wants to be seen. I mean truly seen. Many of us prefer some degree of obfuscation. The people I photograph, mostly, want to...

The Wordless Power of You

Every day I look through photos I have taken and write about one. This forces me to think about photography. This helps me to remember...

The Invitation

Do I want to meet this person? Is their photograph asking me to sit down and talk? I’ve said before that a good portrait beckons...

Suddenly Ephemeral

I could sit here and tell you all about the esoteric elements that contribute to a photograph. I can talk about light, and texture, and...

A Portrait of Eyes

What if we only looked at each other’s eyes and nothing else? Forget the head and the body and the skin. Our eyes, those soul gateways,...

How to Prepare for a Portrait, Part 1: Women

You’re getting your portrait done and maybe you dread the moment. You don’t like cameras and the whole concept sort of freaks you out....

Shooting Wide Open

Sometimes it takes a minute. Sometimes an hour or more. But that connection, that authentic bridge between two human beings always does...

It's the New Yorker in Me (that finds the real you)

I've said it before but it's worth repeating a thousand more times. Being authentic, and coming across authentic, really matters. Because...

YOU are The Lighthouse

You’re the beacon. You’re the source. Each person is filled with a thousand suns. I chose the name The Lighthouse to describe people....

The Light House Photography | Marin