When most of us pick up a camera, we shoot without really knowing what the outcome will be. When you are behind the lens, what's the first thing you see or look for?

Light. I look at the way the light impacts the frame, how the light makes something glimmer, the shiny moistness in someone’s eye, the way a certain quality of light changes the color temperature of an object…Light.

Do you get some kind of a gut feeling when you know you got the “one” great shot?

Yes. I have that feeling often. Gosh, that sounds pretentious, but it's true!

AJ mentioned you have some of your work in the Ritz Carlton in DC among other places. I'm wondering if you can tell me more about where you have your work displayed.

I have five large scale abstract images that were commissioned for the Ritz Carlton in Pentagon City, and also another collection of abstract images [that] are living at the Carmel Valley Ranch Resort in California. These were commissions by the architects and designers working on the properties. This is probably the most fun work I get to do. Pure pleasure!

I love backstage stories and am wondering if you can tell me about a favorite assignment and why it was your favorite. Or, whether you ever had an assignment that came with an unusual or interesting set of circumstances?

I once had the pleasure of shooting an amazing woman named Ivy Nicolson. I was in my 30’s and she was in her late 50’s at the time and had been living on the streets of San Francisco. She came to my mentor’s door, and stood there, all craggy, ratty long hair, missing teeth, a real mess. She said that she was a Vogue model, used to be married to Jack Nicolson and that she wanted to be photographed. OK.

The amazing thing was, she had a box of magazines in her possession in this portable life she was living and it was true… there was the proof, cover after cover of Vogue, with her, beautiful and young. Once you knew you could look right at her and see the bones, the structure of her face was right there. I did photograph her, she got all cleaned up and my mentor and friend Martin contacted Andy Warhol, who had been involved in her early career, and we were off creating her resurrection! I was there with her, on a rooftop at golden hour, model and photographer, and she taught me how to shoot her. She said “you wait ‘til I am ready.” Ivy would arrange her body into a pose (no help needed from me) and then angle her head just so, feeling the light hit her face, then lifting a small compact mirror up to see herself, without moving her head at all, she would make minor adjustments to optimize the light, lower the mirror, and say “OK.” She taught me so much.