Photo by Denny Lyon

A great place for a photographer to go are summer festivals. I found this talented man making sweetgrass baskets at Stone Mountain, Georgia Park one summer. His focus was perfect for a portrait.

People: Awesome Shirley

Photo by Denny Lyon

Shirley and her awesome self! What positive attitude AND beauty!

People: Robin as Renaissance icon

Photo by Denny Lyon

My friend Robin at the beginning of the autumn afternoon shoot. The golden leaves were just perfect with her Renaissance costume and at six feet tall she was able to reach up and pull down that tree limb for a great pose. We spent about 4 hours on that shoot and about 4 rolls of 36 exposure film. Almost every one of them was a wonderful photo, what luck! Used a Nikon (pre-digital).

People: The woman and the rose

Photo by Denny Lyon

My friend Robin at the end of the fall afternoon when we were shooting. On the way back to the car she saw these perfect roses and wanted to pose with them - so she did! I like to be spontaneous and offer my people the opportunity for ideas of how they would like to be portrayed. The synergy is awesome!

People: Robin's portrait in the trees

Photo by Denny Lyon

My friend Robin was just 19 years old here. Her favorite hobby was the Renaissance Festival and created her own costumes. She was six feet tall and yet didn't feel pretty.

So, since I was in my portrait and art phase I convinced her I could show her just how pretty she really was. We spent one fall afternoon at Stone Mountain, Georgia state park and the rest is history. She looked lovely and her confidence grew. That was in the mid-80's.

At this time I never used a flash for portraits whether they were indoors or outdoors. I just worked with the natural lighting no matter what the conditions. People are more relaxed to model for portraits too if you aren't sticking bright lights in their faces making them uncomfortable and artificial. This autumn light under the canopy of trees that early afternoon was soft and wonderful!