Six Senses Resort staff unloading a speed boat on an empty sand bar, prior to resort guests arriving for an evening of cocktails, near Six Senses Soneva Fushi Resort, Kunfunadhoo Island, South Maalhosmadulu (Baa) Atoll, Maldives, on the 26 January 2010.

As a photographer I produce tens of thousands of images a year.

Most will never be seen by anyone other than me.

You might think that is odd, but truth be told, working photographers’ produce an enormous number of images as part of their daily lives (Damon Winter of the NY Times produced 90,000 images alone while covering the Obama Campaign a couple of years ago).

While producing imagery for clients’ is what I do, even if I stopped working as a photographer tomorrow, I’d still take photos.

It is quite simply, what I love to do.

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King Penguin, South Georgia.

When I came back from my second trip to Antarctica in March of 2004, I had some 75 rolls of Fuji Velvia. At 36-exposures a roll, that meant 2700 slides to deal with. At the time, it felt like a lot of photos.

Fast forward a couple of years and it isn’t unusual for me to produce 100′s of photos in just one morning. The last three days I was out shooting, I produced an average of 300 photos over a four hour period.

While there is no doubt my shooting has improved over the last 5-years, I have also been shooting a lot more things. The end result is a LOT of photos to import, edit and catalog each year.

Recently I have been spending some time going through my catalog and I inevitably come across random photos that are strong, but are not necessarily part of any one body of work.

I remember seeing a great series on photo pairing by Damon Winter over at the NY Times site. Influenced by that, I started looking again at these random photos and ways in which they could be paired. The photos above and below are just two examples of what I am talking about.

Ice and snow, Antarctica.

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Portraits can be difficult. Often surroundings can be drab and uninspiring so if you’re not bringing ideas to the table then you’re setting yourself up for failure.

Damon Winter via Too Much Chocolate

This is a great interview with NY Times photographer Damon Winter (not to be confused with Dan Winters). Two things about this interview really stand out for me:

1. Damon Winter’s isn’t formally trained in photography

2. Damon Winter’s discussion about the difficulties in producing a photograph that connects with his subjects.

The quote above seemed to dovetail perfectly with my last post – 39 Second Portrait Session

If you haven’t seen his Pulitzer winning body of work from the Obama campaign, then you have missed some amazing photography. Hit this link to see it.

Thanks to APE for the Damon Winter’s interview link.

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