Sometimes I find myself torn between trying just document a person as close to natural as I can, in their setting so that they are where they would be if anyone came to visit or trying to find some other way to make a portrait using light and design in order to try make the person stand out. My training to document often makes me want to keep a person in their office at their desk as if they were simply taking a break and looking up from their work...but they are not doing that. All of our portraits in the newspaper are arranged meetings. So ethically if I make a portrait that looks this way I am sort of leading the reader in a wrong direction. A portrait should look like a portrait. Recently I was sent to make a portrait of this gentleman who was named the new head of local service agency. His office looked like an office of a person who does work, it didn't have particularly good light and it was difficult to find something to wrapped my little photographic mind around. I suggested maybe going outside and perhaps find the agencies sign. I wasn't thrilled about this, but it seemed I'd get a better picture than in his office. Then I saw this little corner with this light coming and thought--thats it. I'm not hugely excited about what I ended up with--I tried to pop a little fill flash in to soften some of the shadows, but I struggled to get that right and ultimately didn't. I don't carry a reflector, but am considering doing so from now on because that certainly would've improved this shot, but I was happy with myself for trying to think differently about portraits at the newspaper and hope I remember to try this hard next time I'm assigned a portrait to take. I learned a few things and hope to start making better and better environmental portraits. Meadville Tribune photograph by R