John Keatley spoke at the Seattle SMUG meeting this evening. Keatley is one of my favorite portrait photographers, mainly because of his distinctive style, his playfulness, and the quirky sense of humor he somehow manages to infuse in all his work.

That quirky sense of humor isn’t always obvious in the apparently straight forward commercial portrait work he does, but it’s there. Hearing John speak at the SMUG made it more obvious.

He shared the stories behind many of the portraits he is known for. Those stories were both entertaining and enlightening. Entertaining because John is a good storyteller–with the spoken word, with his writing, and with his photographs. Enlightening because the stories about the portraits revealed both the technical and creative process that went into making the images. He spoke on his unorthodox start into professional photography (you expected something different from John Keatley?), on Albert, on working with the environment and simplifying, on lighting, on celebrity portrait work, and on research, understanding your clients, and pursuing your ideas.

And Keatley’s ideas often have an underlying quirky humor to them. If not in the published commercial portrait from a session, then in the outtake from the session that makes its way into his portfolio. And hearing the stories behind the portraits made it clear that John’s amazing and refreshing ideas do make their way into his work, and they breath a vibrancy and an intriguing sense of wonder into his work. This is true without knowing the stories behind the portraits, but knowing some of those stories makes for even more enjoyable viewing of his work.

John also graciously spent a good deal of time answering questions on a range of topics including equipment, lighting methods, post processing, publishing, copyright protection, and business. This kind of information is invaluable to those interested in taking their photography to the next level, and it’s one of the main reasons for the existence of the Seattle SMUG. If you’re interested in photography, we hope you’ll join us at our next meeting.

Thank you, John. You are great. Look forward to even bigger and better things from you in the future.

Note: Video of parts of this talk are available for viewing at this post.