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Creative Matters

The Portrait I Didn’t Plan

Blog, Creative Matters, Editorial, On Assignment, Portraits, StorytellingBy BrianFebruary 18, 2026Leave a comment
This past fall, I had the opportunity to meet and photograph Danny Hillis—renowned inventor, engineer, author, and scientist—for the Financial Times. Hillis is cofounder of the Long Now Foundation and the designer of a 10,000-year mechanical clock.

A woman stands holding a hunting shotgun while wearing an orange hunting vest and an orange cap for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries.

A Year of Portraits with Maine’s Wildlife Commissioner

Creative Matters, Light Matters, Projects, Work MattersBy BrianOctober 23, 2024Leave a comment
Over the past year, I photographed Commissioner Judy Camuso of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife (MDIFW) as she experienced Maine’s natural landscapes through different seasons. These portraits reflect her deep connection to the outdoors and her commitment to conserving the places she loves.

A young construction worker with a red hard hat and safety vest smiles slightly, standing in a sunlit industrial setting.

Coal Miners, Coding and Coffee in the Age of AI

Business Matters, Creative Matters, ReflectionsBy BrianAugust 29, 2024Leave a comment
I met with the marketing director of a non-profit for coffee this week to discuss a pending project. Face-to-face meetings like this rarer now, even more than a year after the WHO pronounced the Covid-19 Pandemic officially over.

Photo studio

The Messy Art of Connection

Brand & Marketing, Business Matters, Creative Matters, ReflectionsBy BrianAugust 20, 2024Leave a comment
Yesterday afternoon, I found myself randomly picking up photographic gear—a power cord here, a light meter there, a reflector, stowing a canvas backdrop—and I realized I was way too tired to finish.

David Moses Bridges

Redundancy and Creative Resilience

Creative Matters, ReflectionsBy BrianOctober 17, 2023Leave a comment
Redundancy has a bad rap.  It conjures images of lost jobs, of being the expendable one.  But as a creative, redundancy is my secret weapon. It makes me and my creative work resilient.

Maine Cops

Cut it Out: When Less is More

Creative Matters, ReflectionsBy BrianOctober 4, 2023Leave a comment
My default mode seems set to Acquire: Get more gear, more software, more skills, new stuff. But more isn't better. It's often a trap. Over time, the act of acquiring can become the goal itself.

Bridging the Gap

Creative Matters, ReflectionsBy BrianSeptember 12, 2023Leave a comment
In the classic "South Park" episode featuring the Underpants Gnomes, a straightforward but fundamentally flawed business plan is unveiled: Phase 1, collect underpants.  Phase 3, reap the profits. This presentation humorously omits a crucial element — Phase 2.

In the Room Where It Happens

Brand & Marketing, Creative Matters, ReflectionsBy BrianSeptember 5, 2023Leave a comment
During my years as a newspaper photo editor, I often invited myself into any meetings I saw that included an editor and writers.  Leaning into the doorway I'd ask, "Should I be in here?"  Early involvement in story development leads to better visual opportunities, benefitting the story and ultimately, readers.

What’s Your Problem?

Brand & Marketing, Creative MattersBy BrianAugust 29, 2023Leave a comment
Clients hire me for all sorts of reasons—often to create content for an ongoing campaign or to make their websites look more appealing. These situations involve parameters that are already set, and my task is to execute consistently with an established look or direction.

Rituals That Preserve Energy and Creativity

Creative MattersBy BrianJuly 18, 2023Leave a comment
With years of commercial and editorial photography under my belt, I've learned that the devil is truly in the details. Never mind the big stuff, like bustling locations or fickle weather. It's the little things that make or break a shoot. Like the old proverb goes, "for want of a nail, the kingdom was lost", small errors can lead to big problems.

Five Tips For Better Outdoor Portraits

Creative Matters, StorytellingBy BrianMay 23, 2023Leave a comment
Outdoor environmental portraits offer a blend of human emotion and natural beauty and can elevate a simple portrait into a compelling visual story.

The Art of Location Portraits: Conquering Constraints

Creative Matters, Light Matters, Work MattersBy BrianMay 16, 2023Leave a comment
Throughout my career as a photographer, from my earliest days as a newspaper stringer to the present, one thing has always been necessary:   the capacity to create impactful, engaging portraits on location, quickly (if not sooner).

Master your Content Calendar in 5 Steps

Brand & Marketing, Business Matters, Creative MattersBy BrianApril 4, 2023Leave a comment
Ready to level up your content game?  Craft a killer content calendar to keep your audience hooked.  Streamline content creation, ensure a steady flow of engaging material, and support your brand's marketing objectives with these five steps.

Leave Room for the Muse

Creative Matters, ReflectionsBy BrianFebruary 21, 2023Leave a comment
When I hire a skilled professional—like the folks who installed my bathtub last year (really sorry about the non-code stuff you found and then had to correct),  I like being able to trust that they know what they are doing and can be left to execute the vision as they best see fit.

Capturing Moments

Creative Matters, Reflections, Work MattersBy BrianFebruary 7, 2023Leave a comment
Photography is synonymous with light. In Greek, the word literally means to draw with light.  No light, no photography. But what truly elevates photography to a higher form of art is something else.

Let your backgrounds tell the story

Creative Matters, ReflectionsBy BrianJanuary 31, 2023Leave a comment
When it comes to portraits: choosing the proper background environment is as important (and sometimes, more so) than the subject themselves.

Photographing the person, not the title

Creative Matters, ReflectionsBy BrianJanuary 17, 2023Leave a comment
One of my favorite projects this past year has been covering the campaign of Maine Governor Janet Mills as she ran for re-election against challenger, former Gov. Paul LePage.   Maine’s first female governor (elected in 2018), Mills faced the Covid pandemic and the resulting, ongoing economic and health impacts.  

The magic of creative constraints

Creative Matters, ReflectionsBy BrianApril 27, 2022Leave a comment
One of the best ways to engage one’s creativity is to first strip away options.   Constraint, not necessity, is the mother of creativity.    For portrait photographers, the focus of the image is the subject.  Yet background elements and interesting locations…

Creating a mood with cinematic portraits

Creative Matters, Work MattersBy BrianApril 12, 2022Leave a comment
As a longtime commercial portrait photographer, I'm thrown into situations where a standard formal portrait isn't called for.

Want better portraits? Work on your backgrounds.

Creative MattersBy BrianMarch 1, 2022Leave a comment
To most photographers—those whose focus is on people and portraits, certainly, but also those who specialize in structures, food and products on location—the subject is the star of the show.
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