That is so 70's or 80's. The giant wicker chair! This was a staple in photography studios for years. Great prop/chair to put little kids, dogs and high school seniors in. It became cliche. So when I was getting back into portraiture and commercial photography, of course, I didn't want anything to do with the giant wicker chair. But then, I was thinking about getting one by asking a friend who had one for years in his studio if I could borrow his....that is if he still had it. Then a good friend asked me if I wanted one...I didn't even think about it...YES! I'm not sure why...I didn't really have any direct plans for one, but just thought it was too good to pass up. Tonight I got a chance to photograph another friend and during the shoot we discovered something with that chair and the new set of lights I recently obtained!!!! What started out as a simple--'hey look at that shadow..do you know what I'm thinking?' turned into really playing with shining this light through the chair to see what we could find. It was a small shadow really...it was in the corner of the room really close to the chair. I pulled the chair away from the wall to create a bigger shadow and started to plan a shot. We shot probably 150 pictures of this alone really exploring the possibilities and I see so many more things I can do with this light. This is exciting! I was emailing with one of my students tonight about how great it is to be a young photographer and having each experience be something new and exciting. I mentioned to him that I miss that in my work---even though I'm sure I'm a better photographer now than I've ever been in the past--that feeling of making something new is sometimes lost in my experience---but I do still feel it a bit when I see something and decide to explore the possibilities of it---light is still pretty intriguing if you;re willing to experiment and go with a gut feeling when you see something small that can be made into something so much bigger! SayerMotter Photograph by Richard Sayer