No makeup. No hair. No lights. Just natural beauty. #leica

Her name is Zulay Henao and she came to my studio to assist her brother Steven Escobar, a boxer who had booked me for a shoot. While I couldn’t help but notice that she was beautiful, what really struck me about her was how sweet her personality was. She thanked me several times for really putting 100% into the shoot and she was very complimentary about the actual images.

Although I’ve been shooting for decades, great photography isn’t something I can just guarantee to everyone. Photography is an art and by nature that makes it unpredictable. I can guarantee a technically great shot every time, but an artistically great shot? For that I need some magic to happen.

With that in mind, always nice when someone takes the time to acknowledge that magic is happening. Because Zulay had the type of personality where she didn’t feel it somehow lowers her to show appreciation to someone else, I really wanted to shoot her. And despite her having no makeup or hair on set, she allowed me to.

Thank you, Zulay.