Portrait Lighting

Video Tutorials

Sun Behind Your Subject: A Field Guide to Natural Light and Fill Flash for Outdoor Portraits

Most of my working life is spent chasing light for landscapes. I’m the person standing in a freezing river at dawn, waiting on a mountain that genuinely does not care about my schedule. Portraits are a different discipline, but the underlying logic is the same: light placement is everything, and getting it wrong means you walked away with nothing worth keeping. I was watching a tutorial recently from Tony and Chelsea Northrup, filmed at Harkness Park in Waterford, Connecticut, and even after two decades behind a camera, it crystallized something I’d been doing half-right for years.

August 20, 2026

Video Tutorials

What Landscape Photographers Can Steal From Outdoor Portrait Technique

Most of my work involves waiting. Waiting for light, waiting for clouds to shift, waiting for the river to settle after a gust. I’ve stood in freezing water at dawn more times than I can count, and my kids think I’ve lost my mind for it. But a few months back I found myself watching portrait tutorials at midnight, not because I photograph people, but because portrait photographers work with natural light in real time, under pressure, with a subject who can’t be asked to hold still for two hours while the sun moves.

August 1, 2026