National Train Day is observed every year on the Saturday that’s closest to May 10, and this year it falls on May 9. National Train Day marks the completion of the transcontinental railroad across the United States.

It doesn’t matter what person, place, or thing you’re photographing, the ultimate subject of any photograph is light and it’s the quality of the light that ultimately determines the effectiveness of your portrait. Here are a few aspects that I like about shooting portraits with available light:

It’s been my experience that photographers get inspiration for the body of their work from many places. One of my friends finds it in old master’s paintings; I get a lot of the inspiration for many of my images from the movies.

One of the advantages that digital capture has over using film is that when working under unusual lighting conditions you can able shoot color correct images without the use of on-camera filters. You can set the camera on Auto White Balance and most times that’s better than saying, “I’ll fix it later in Photoshop.”

Inspired by Gary Bernstein’s book Burning Gold decided to see how I could publish a different portrait of the same model, in this case Pamela Simpson, over the next who-knows-how-many Sundays. During this time I’ll be showcasing a different image of her made over the five years that I have photographed Pam, showing all of her many, many different looks in many different styles.