What do you shoot with? What's your studio like? I photograph digitally, usually with a Canon Powershot G3 with a standard or wide angle lens. I prefer natural light to artificial light, but when artificial light is required, I use basic continuous lighting, not flashes or strobes, as I feel that flash lighting tends to create a less comfortable setting, as well as erasing available light. My studio space is in my home in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, and is small and informal, suitable for headshots and portraits, and adaptable for wider shots like full-body nudes. Group work requires a different location, and on-location work is always an option. During the warm seasons, I very much prefer to work out of doors and on locations. Why did you choose photography as your visual art form? Because I'm a truly awful painter. That's not modesty: I seriously suck. What's with all the self-portraits (or, who's that model with the messy hair and all the tattoos)? Click here to find out. What's the difference between erotic work and pornography? Well, ain't that the $60,000 question! Ultimately, that's something you have to answer for yourself, but you can read my thoughts on the matter right here. Do you think there's a difference between male and female photographers? I do. It's always tricky to talk about sex or gender differences, because so few are likely nature, rather than nurture. But I do feel that female photographers, especially when working with female subjects or the nude, bring something different to the table, and leave other things behind. In my case, I find that compared to many male photographers I or my subjects have worked with, I am more easily able to forfeit typical beauty standards, to keep from projecting what interests me sexually on a personal level unto my subjects. Whatever ideas I may have about what is beautiful in women has a more personal aspect because I am female myself (and have spent considerable time as a subject myself). I am not looking for an ideal or for perfection, I'm doing my level best to see the actual person in front of me, as-is. My female subjects have also expressed a greater level of comfort in shooting -- especially nudes -- with me as a woman than with a man. What should I expect in a photoshoot with you? Working with me is very informal, frienmdly, and a collaborative process. Clients coming to my home to shoot are generally greeted with a cup of coffee or tea or a glass of wine or juice. I set aside plenty of extra time, so am never rushing clients in any way, and am happy to answer questions throughout. I'm a very friendly and gregarious person, so I do not stand behind the camera, silent and staid during a shoot: conversation during the shoot is normal. I generally ask my subjects to let me in on any sensitivities or limitations, issues with movement, insecurities and the like to make them the most comfortable. I'm also very open to and interested in my clients' creative ideas. I have several previous and ongoing clients who are glad to provide references should you want them.   While it's not a promise I want to make (nor something any client should feel is expected), it's very common that photo subjects or commercial clients of mine turn into friends: working together in this way tends to be a uniquely intimate experience. Where and how can I use the work I do with you? Use of the work is something we can determine together when we talk about what you want in a shoot and what you need it for. Any work done with me can always be used for personal use by a subject without any barriers, and that includes things like personal websites, shared prints with friends and family, prints for your home and the lot. Commercial use varies, and depending on what the commercial use specifically is, how borad that use will be, and who it's for, cost and permissions may vary.   Some subjects have often asked me to do work of them for other websites. I determine this on a website-to-website basis, so if you're interested in work being done of you by me for other sites, simply email me and let me know what the scoop is. Most of the time, this sort of work is doable for me, especially for things like author or artists promotional sites, websites the subject runs for his or her own businesses or art, etc. However, I will not permit work to be used for websites which requires my work or that of a subject be work-for-hire, where the work can be resold or republished (or put in a very different context than I or the subject intended), and there are certain websites, such as Suicide Girls, where I have had a longstanding policy of declining to do any work for or associated with them in any way in regard to my own ethicsfor my work and fair treatment of photo subjects. How do you figure your rates? Is it possible to cut back any of the cost? Pretty logically: I factor in the cost of my labor before, during and after a photoshoot, as well as the cost of things like the electricity used, rental for my space (and additional cost if I need to rent out another space or location), my equipment and upkeep. Many photographers rates are higher than mine, a few are lower, and those differences for the most part are about our costs.   The cost of a session can be cut back if need be. For instance, if you don't want prints, or want to print photos yourself or with another printer, I can deduct for that. If you want your photos completely unedited, we can burn the work I've done to a CD the same day of the shoot, and a deduction will be made. If you're a returning client, rates are slightly lower. Ask me about it, and we can see what can be done. If you're okay with me using the work to show on my site or in galleries, and cool with me doing most of the art dirction and deciding what I'm interested in shooting, then shooting with me will likely cost you absolutely nada. Do you offer discounts for students and other poor folks? Thing is, much of the time your average student has a greater income than I do myself, and it costs me money to do the work as a poor folk myself. So, while in some instances I may apply discounts, and I am often open to barter arrangements, I expect any alternative arrangement to compensate me at a value equal to my standard rates. For information on personal projects where you may sit for me at no cost to you, click here. If you have a super-duper-fantastico idea for a project you think I'd be interested in doing at little or no cost or for pay, run it by me via email: you never know. How do you rectify some of your work with your feminism? I'm generally only asked things like this about nude work, and in that regard, the answer is pretty simple. I don't believe that the body is separate from the mind: I feel they are unionized as one, though many people live with them as divided entities, intentionally or via cultural mores and mandates. I certainly think that we are all more than merely our bodies, but I feel that visual art with the body can present that greater spectrum, especially when a viewer is coming to the work wanting to see it, rather than limiting it. I do not feel that the body is always sexual, and that presenting it nude can only be done to arouse sexual excitement in the viewer. In fact, I find that often, the nude body is less rife with artifice than the clothed one, and that being nude -- moreover, being naked, on as many levels as possible -- has a directness, a sincerity and an honesty that is very artistically inspiring to me. I also feel that it is valuable to present the female body, and women overall, through visual art and photography, as well as other media, from a multitude of perspectives: the vast majority of women who are the subjects in art have been presented not by women, but by men and/or for men. Lastly, through much of history, women's bodies have been used, abused and presented in such a way as to remove power from them: I very much believe our bodies are instead greatly powerful and can be a source of claiming our power.