What a week! On assignment for Canvas L.I. magazine, I've been making portraits of tattoo artists for a piece that focuses on the artisanship of tattooing. I went to two parlors for the shots, and to one of the artist's home.

I think that one of the best things about being a photographer, especially one who finds themselves making a lot of portraits, is that you get to meet so many people, and learn so much about them in the often brief time you're together. I don't have any tattoos, and therefore asked a gazillion questions, and learned just how much training, sanitary precautions, and TALENT goes into making them. Above is Miss D'Jo, a brilliant and charming artist whose color tattoo work brings in her large and diverse client base at Lark Tattoo, on 1610 Old Country Rd., in Westbury (516-794-5844). Miss D'Jo is a very photogenic (and fun and cooperative - thanks for that!) subject, and she's also off to Miami on an audition for television's Miami Ink reality show. I certainly wish her the best of luck on the audition, and think she'll do great.

Next up, note the very...pink...book cover to the left? That's Teri's pomeranian, from a shoot we did specifically for the book publisher - and had a lot of fun in the process! Teri posed five dogs altogether; created a make-shift studio in her garage, using white-on-white. Our biggest challenge was getting the bag handles up for the pup to peek through, and in the end used fishing line, tied and run up through the garage rafters. With the high-key lighting, the line became invisible. It's a fun book, and the author, Nikki Moustaki, is a great writer, having had over a dozen books on pets published to date. She's also a regular columnist for Dog Fancy magazine. If you're curious, you can pre-order the book from Amazon by clicking HERE.

Last up, the bright image at left illustrates a lighting scheme made possible by one of my latest additions to the lighting bag arsenal: a ring flash.

A ring flash is shaped just as you'd expect, with two half-circle flashbulbs arranged to make a complete circle. The really cool and fun part is that you poke the camera lens THROUGH the circle, which does a few things...for one, you achieve near shadlowless features on your subject, as the illumination surrounds the lens. Take a look at my subject's image here - no shadow at all under her nose, or her eyes. If you look around her, though, you can see the soft shadow of her as a whole against the wall - a tell-tale sign it's a ringflash. Another sign, if you could see closer, is the shape of the "catchlight" in her iris - it's in the shape of a ring!

Really looking forward to taking this flash on some editorial assignments, it will definitely add some diversity.