I'm used to the way my camera feels. I don't think about the buttons or dials. It sits more as an extension of my hands and my eye, and it feels natural. But sometimes I think about how un-natural it must feel to my clients. Me (a stranger) pointing a big microscope at them, hoping they'll trust me enough to show me something real. It's asking a lot, and I try to remember that. Even though, it's far from being a formula for success. There are so many variables that go into that delicate dance of getting to know someone on a shoot: newborns peeing on laps, fathers who want to be somewhere else, exhausted pregnant mommies, weather that doesn't cooperate. You never know what you're going to get. But no matter how different each photo session looks or feels, there's only one thing I'm ever looking for. Honesty. Saying cheese is easy. Expected. And sometimes it's necessary to go through the motions to get to the good stuff. But the cheese is never interesting. Not in a conversation, and not in a photograph. It's always a form of honesty that inspires me. We find ourselves in each other, and that makes us feel connected. I think the most important tool that a photographer has, is his or her ability to be vulnerable first. We must be willing to show our selves, before we can expect others to reveal their true moments to us.