neinlives

This shot is from my first-ever shoot on Friday, July 3, 2009. In this

image, I experiment with rim lighting. I think I may have overdone it;

the subject is surrounded by a weird nimbus that looks a bit like a

cheesy Photoshop effect. The image has been heavily processed in

Photoshop, as you may have guessed. Does the image, as a whole, seem

amateurish and distasteful? What could I have done better?

I met Tommy at Rascals after having seen him around town on several

occasions. Four feet tall. When not riding a motorized cart, drags

moreso than swings his legs forward with forearm braces that do their

best to hold him upright, though on occasion have been known to

fail--Tommy groaning and whimpering at the discomfort, the

inconvenience, the shame. Warm personality with a somewhat crude sense

of humor. Speaks with all the bright-eyed optimism of a five-year-old

child promised play time at McDonald's if only he would first brave a

visit to the doctor. Every now and again, between bouts of rapid-fire

conversation with everyone and no one in particular about things I

cannot presently recall, the smile would fade from his lips and his

eyes would glaze over. I couldn't help wondering then, much as I do

now, what memory, reckoning, epiphany, daydream had lured him so far

away only to return him to the waking world with so much joy and

laughter. Shortly thereafter, I rose from my chair, leaving him there

just as you see him here, lost in that place which will forever remain

to you and me a mystery.