Elli 1984

London, 1984

I began taking photographs and studying photography around 1982. I photographed people almost exclusively. I photographed my friends—usually with my 2 1/4 format Rolleicord camera. For the longest time I had only one lens and I only used natural light. I did later go on to using studio lights and flash and different lenses, but all of my “serious” portraiture was done pre-digital. (Actually digital existed by the early ’90s, but was really, really expensive.) By the time digital photography was in full swing, I was working more in the field of design.

Since my return to photography, my focus (pun intended!) has been my garden and dogs. While I love photographing both of those, I’ve started yearning to return to portraits. Perhaps it’s also indicative of where I am in my life now. Since moving to France 5 years ago, I’ve been in a fairly isolated cocoon while I built my creative world. (See my studio in the previous post). It’s interesting how photographing my studio and presenting it to the world feels like a marker. The time in the cocoon has been fulfilled and it’s time to be a bit of a social butterfly! (That metaphor is stretched a bit to illustrate the point. I’ll still be spending a lot of time working alone in the studio — you get the idea.)

I’m also eager to finally develop my portrait vision with new techniques and to hone the skills I had. Starting this month, you’ll be seeing a lot of posts and tutorials on portrait photography.  I have a great featured photographer lined up this month, so stay tuned.

Leslie Nicole
Leslie Nicole

American Photographer and Designer living in France with my French husband, 2 Weimaraners and Cat Rescues. Camera, Mac, studio, garden.