The last time I saw Kabecka she was called “Becky” and she was the shy young girl next door who I knew close to nothing about. This visit home to Maui I was asked to do a photo shoot with her to build up a modeling portfolio, and I was pleasantly surprised by the charming young lady I encountered on the the other side of my lens. Without much modeling experience to speak of, I’d say she was a natural, and I’m excited to see where her pursuits take her.
I recently did a freelance job that I enjoyed immensely. The project was about diverse visions of beauty, so I went to the streets in Seattle, mainly downtown and Capitol Hill, and took portraits of passers by and asked them the question, “What makes you feel beautiful?”
Here are a few of my favorites.
Jesse Duvall – Whatever is going on in my head makes me feel beautiful. 
Kenneth Loiseau – Acceptance of weirdness makes me feel beautiful. Annabelle Petry – Brushing my teeth makes me feel beautiful.
Lady Krishna – Externally accessories make me feel beautiful, like this hat and my glasses. Really, my internal self makes me feel beautiful, my inner life.
James Smith – What makes me feel beautiful is my personality. Calen Osara – What makes me feel beautiful is when I’m complemented.
Elsa Bloedon – Being in the sun makes me feel beautiful.
Stella Constellation – The thing that makes me feel beautiful is my contour. And my heels, a girl always feels pretty with a contour and some heels.
Amanda Sloan – My outfits make me feel beautiful. I design my own stuff, so I like to design things to fit my body, and it makes me feel comfortable.
Dennis Saxman – The absence of a mirror makes me feel beautiful.
Julius Haywood- What makes me feel beautiful is my nice teeth and my hair.
Antoinette O’neill -What makes me feel beautiful is my accomplishments, big and small.
Dean Stepanek – My wife makes me feel beautiful. My beautiful wife, every day.
Kasey Atabniki – Feeling strong and comfortable makes me feel beautiful.
Vanitti Fair – My friends make me feel beautiful. I think the attitude of the people you surround yourself with can either make or break a person.
Yuya Izumi – I am a Buddhist, I think feeling empty makes me actually feel beautiful.
Rebecca – My shoes. Somaya – My surroundings make me feel beautiful. I try to find something beautiful wherever I am. Shelby – My shiny earrings make me feel beautiful.
Breckenridge Lanning – A theme to an outfit makes me feel beautiful, like dressing to go to school and wearing glasses, superfluous glasses, but wonderful none the less.
Reiko – I feel beautiful when I’ve had a few beers with my friends. Mio Sei – Music, I feel beautiful at concerts
Tracy Healy – My red hair makes me feel beautiful.
James (Jimbo) Gratton – Being acknowledged makes me feel beautiful.
Chase Roselli – What makes me feel beautiful? Her. Sam Buchanan – Clean teeth make me feel beautiful. I have a thing about teeth. (Chase, “Oh yeah, that’s her to a T.”)
Nate B. – Button up shirts make me feel beautiful because I feel clean and ready for the day, like I can get things done.
Poem: Snapped Today I glimpsed the beauty of a fracture within a perfect line. It perplexed me, then it was like Angelic gauze protecting the fragile parts of my mind. The naturalness in imperfection that dawned on me was the definition of beauty undressed, undone, and straight from the birth of it’s self. This crack in the immaculate plane, a geometric tragedy that that put my brain back together and allowed it to compete evenly with my heart in the decision making of where this body will be tomorrow and what this voice will say. This break is my remedy. I will remember the way it appeared. With no notice. Small yet vexing. Insignificant, then prodigious in my perception. Perfection in the defaults. Hope.
Last month my best friend got married. I was one of her bridesmaids so I barely took any photographs, but here are a few from our getting ready. She was a perfect bride. 
What she is saying here is “Everyone, really, do I look okay?” And clearly, the answer was, “You look beautiful” and we meant it.
In Whitefish, MT I decided to separate from D. and let him do his backcountry adventuring with Trent sans me – the basically unexperienced snow adventurer of the group. I rode the train west through the night and just around sunrise it railed into Spokane then made it’s way down the Columbia River Gorge, which was a beautiful view to wake up to. Not to mention the entertaining talk I heard from 70-something year-old woman about her 40 year Salt Flats racing career. That was inspiring. By afternoon I was in Portland, OR. A very pleasant rideshare experience brought me South to Ashland where I met up with Olivia, the lovely lady below, who I have seen far too sparsely these past few years. We had a romantic Valentines Day dinner, went on a night hike above the city, and dashed up to the snow for a day to prance around and build silly snowmen. T’was a lovely visit to say the least.
A few weeks ago I did a shoot with this lovely girl, and I’ve been quite behind on my editing. Here are a dozen or so pictures I took a liking to. The theme was supposed to be black and white.. Apparently I like color too much to do that in Fashion. I believe it was her first time modeling. Thanks Cathy VB!
Viola Jean Photography 