I have never, and as far as I can account for, don’t intend on ever passing up the opportunity to photograph someone at sunrise. Naturally an early bird, getting up and going around 4 or 5 in the morning isn’t much of a feat. Now I’ll be the first one to bow to the glory that is golden hour. It’s hard to beat how saturated that evening orangey glow can be especially when it hits someone’s skin, but the quality of light at sunrise is something you owe yourself to bask in at least a couple times a year. Instead of directed and saturated, the light is scattered, almost hazy from the right angle and results in an a ton of light coverage; and as opposed to being orange, the light itself is softer yellow with peachy hints I’ve seen while visiting the west coast. The only thing more fluid than the light this morning was Gillian herself. Even how this morning came about just three days after meeting her was a nice shift in pace for me, as photographing people often tends to take a bit more time but this isn’t her first rodeo and it’s evident in the images. This is the first instance I’ve employed the use of border framing and it’s meant purely to contain focus. Beaches are sprawling open places, and whilst editing I found myself looking towards the edge of the image, so to reign in the scope a bit, I added thin black frames to direct and restrain the eye. Neither of us intend for this to be the only time I’ll get to photograph her, but if for any reason it is, it’s one hell of a one and done.

— Field Notes