photographer spotlight: leslie

hello again, we are taking a trip to the beautiful san francisco bay area. i hope your ready to shine the spotlight on another amazing flickr photographer! this lovely lady sure knows her way around a camera. her photos always put a smile on my face.

please let me introduce you to:

1.) what draws you to photography?
I think it is the fact that after a few adjustments, one can lift that relatively small box up to their eye, frame what they see and, in my case, utilize nature’s light, find some lush vibrant color – then just that click. Out comes a captured moment. And on a good day, a visual story. I get a thrill from it.

2.) do you prefer digital or film? why?
For clients, I am 100% digital. It just can’t be beat for the efficiency, speed, and ability to have your “dark room” right at your fingertips. I use Photoshop for minor post-processing, FTP the files and – boom – happy clients. This can all happen in 24 hours on a small job. Having said that, for personal projects, I love my Holga and am excitedly delving back into 35mm film with a new toy – my Pentax K1000. Perhaps if you asked me this question in six months I will have convinced a few clients to go film? Now that would be great.

3.) what is your favorite camera to shoot with?
I am a Nikon girl and love my D200. I am really jonesing for an upgrade to either the D700 or maybe even a D3 but that will take some serious financial planning or a winning lotto ticket!

4.) can you share three favorite photos you took & why you picked them?
Very difficult but I’ve decided to include three shots that fall into my very favorite category. All of them spontaneous, I had an idea at the edge of my mind of what I wanted to get but was so immersed in the moment that I threw out the rules and just shot. Then the “zing!” of goosebumpy delight upon looking at the back of the camera.

5.) can you name a few photographers that have influenced your work?
A imagine a lot of us have some of the greats in common: Eisenstadt, Bresson, Leibovitz. Among lesser known photographers that I really admire are Henry Wessel who I had not heard of until I stumbled into his exhibit at the SF MOMA several years ago, Sarah Remington is a stellar food photographer and Paul Leibhardt whom I was lucky enough to take a class from at Brooks.

leslie, thank you so much for sharing yourself with my readers! you can find more of leslie's beautiful photography on flickr, her portfolio site & her blog. now i'll leave you with a few of my personal favorites. enjoy!