Dallas, TX has a lot of fun nooks and crannies to explore. When you get four doodes together that crave exploring and capturing the scene you’ll never not end up with something fun to capture.

Let’s side track for a moment and talk about creativity. It can get EXHAUSTING quick. Not like the “omg I’m rubbing blisters on my heals” exhausting; more like in the “my brain is fried” type of way. There was no pressure to capture a great shot on this day other than that I put on myself. I didn’t have any deliverables, but I did want to create something I’m proud of and more importantly (in this case) something that Kyle was proud. I bring all of this up to say… it’s ok if you get the shot; it’s ok if you don’t. When I overpressure myself I tend to shut down a bit and that’s not where I want to be in my creative process.

This explore x shoot session just so happened to be focused around Kyle as this weekend marked 10 years of marriage with his wife Amanda. The event brought me, Brenton Little, and Nathan Michael in town to share in the celebration. When we all got in we hopped into a car and head downtown where Kyle knew of a fun rooftop access location; with the top floor of the building being renovated, we got to revert back to little children and go exploring.

WE FOUND THE LIGHT!!

Kyle and Michael were on the other side of the floor when Brenton whisper shouts (as if he wanted to keep it to himself for just a moment but got too excited and let his discovery be known) “light leak light leak”, and immediately darted over to this amazing laser beam of light as if he had just found a large group of Easter eggs and wanted to get there first. I follow suit only analyzing the scene and letting Brenton have his moment before Kyle and Michael come over to capture their version of the spot.

Shortly after Brenton and I have our moment Kyle and Nathan find us. Since Kyle was the man of the hour (or day if you will) Nathan directed him into place and away we went to snapping.

Lets stop here for second and talk about photographical direction. Nathan Michael is a pro at this! Figuratively and literally. It was very interesting to watch as he gave micro adjustments to capture his subject and how clearly he got the idea across to the person being shot. I very rarely direct, more so capturing what’s happening and do my best to envision where the shot is going to happen before it actually happens; so for me this was very educational. Cheers to you Nathan! Thank you for that.

SO… on this day our roles played out like this:

Kyle – Model

Nathan – Photographer

Me – Photojournalist

Brenton – Stage Manager

Kyle, Nathan, and myself are all self explanatory rolls. Brenton on the other hand…. he had the scene on lock! With pipe in hand… Brenton starts puffing away to get the spot nice and smoke filled! It was awesome… he knew what the spot was lacking and did his damndest to make it the next level! Shortly after everything is coming together his pipe runs out. But that didn’t stop Brent… he goes and finds a big ass push broom to conjure up some of the dust on the floor. Although we all probably have mesothelioma at this point… we got the shot. Thanks Brenton!!!

Here are a few shots from this day. I hope you enjoy.