I love listening to New Hampshire Public Radio (I know, I know, I'm getting so old!), and there are a few shows that I really love listening to, and one of them is the show Word Of Mouth, hosted by Virginia Prescott.

I love her voice and how she interacts with her guests - she always sounds sunny and I love hearing her voice during the day.

As luck would have it, my wife Sara created and organized a Storytelling Festival at the New Hampshire Institute of Art in April of 2017, and she got Virginia to host the event.

I immediately knew I wanted to find a way to get a quick portrait of Virginia, so I asked Sara if she'd communicate with Virginia and ask if I could grab a few portraits of her after the event ended.

Absolutely.

I didn't want to take up much of Virginia's time, so I kept gear to a minimum; photographing her with my Fuji X100s and I slapped a speedlight in a Saberstrip. Easy to carry and very minimal.

my pal Marissa holds the Saberstrip up and over the subjects as they sit on the stairwell at NHIA

I setup quickly on the stairwell and did a quick pre-light with a stand-in and found my exposure. I knew I wanted these shots to be in black & white. Virginia came down and I got a few portraits of her alone, and then took a few shots of her with Sara and some other NHIA employees and students.

She was awesome and extremely charming. I gotta admit that I've had a little crush on her for a while, and meeting her in person just made that crush even bigger. She has a great personality and humor and she can instantly establish a rapport with anyone - it isn't hard to see why so many people like her.

I would love to be able to photograph her again with more time allocated to it. I'm hoping she'll be up to it, and whenever she is ready, so am I.

Thanks, Virginia. You kick ass. Thanks for being awesome.