4. (tie) Mitch Lucker (Suicide Silence)

"Mitch was not only one of my favorite people to photograph, but also an incredible friend. He was (unlike many) someone who would constantly be in contact. Asking what was going on in my life, any cool new lenses, shoots, any new babes in my life etc. So literally every single time Suicide Silence was in town, we would do a photo shoot. This time around I had just gotten the 85mm 1.2 lens, and this was my first shoot with it. Being a friend, he understood that when I’m experimenting with new equipment, it might take me a bit to get it just right. We shot in the dressing room, which is lit, with a series of waist level light bulbs (which isn’t much). So I ended up having him sit down, turn toward the lighting on his right and patiently hold as still as possible, while i set the lens to 1.2 at a 30th!! (Which is very sketchy, easy to get blur) but luckily I’ve developed a very steady hand from doing this for years… These two photos were our favorites from the shoot. I had done two shoots with him after this one, but by far these two images are my favorites for this year. When everything happened about a month ago, it was going through the many shoots, and images we created together, and the memories of our conversations during before after and between those shoots, that really helped me say goodbye to such an incredible friend, father, and frontman."