I love this girl.  Nikki and I found each other through the blogosphere sometime last year and finally met in real life yesterday.  I felt like I was hanging out with a long lost friend — we could have talked forever I think … we had so much in common.  We did a shoot for a few minutes until my fingers went numb (I am not into winter outdoor shooting at all — even though I want to be).  Nikki was amazing though — trampling through the snow in just her TOMS shoes.  She’s also a killer photographer and blew me away with her fashiony posing knowledge.  It was so much fun to have her shoot ME.  I’m really not good in front of the camera, but she put me at ease unlike almost anyone else (i can’t wait to see the photos — no pressure or anything, nikki ;)).

Nikki was also awesome enough to let me experiment with my tilt shift lens that I have hardly used yet.  It’s all manual focus and has 4 crazy knobs — I feel as if I really have to pay attention to what I’m doing technically with this lens.  In most cases I shoot very much from the heart and in the moment.  I expose for the scene correctly and then just go with what feels right — rarely taking the camera down from my face again — focusing quickly in between shots.  Can’t do that with a tilt-shift.  It was a great lesson in patient shooting and composition.  I’m not sure I’m sold on the TS lens thing yet, but I’ll likely pull it out here and there in the future because I love its ethereal dreamy look.

Nikki, thanks for a truly great day.  I cannot wait to hang out again and more often!