I have been featuring the work of Santa Cruz photographer Mike Tossy since 2009. Although I have featured Mike's work many times on it's own, Mike has also been apart of many pieces which weave and contrast his images with the work of another. I did a series a posts several years ago comparing Mike's work with Mark from StudioMGPhotography and most recently featuring his work along side Gordon Nebeker, and on last year's Utah adventure with Tom Clark.
'Shots of a single model are most frequently done one-on-one with a single photographer. One of the great things about shooting in the Utah canyon lands is how quickly the backgrounds change. Thirty feet away is a whole new background you might spend 20 minutes photographically exploring.'
'Bright sun light is frequently too harsh for flattering pictures, and Utah has lots of bright sun! Of course, the golden hours around sunrise and sunset are a great time for good images. But Utah’s canyons and rock out cropping cast huge pools of shade, which make flattering photos possible even at noon. Plus, the cool shade is welcome during the heat of the day!'
Despite his work often being involved with pieces that compare and contrast, I can always tell, or maybe more specifically, feel, which images come from Mike Tossy. In the post just above this one, Mike talked about when a model or pose is shot by three different photographers, it is rare to have images that come out looking alike. Mike attributes some of this to the tightness of the zoom, depth of field, and different post processing styles. While all of this is of course true, there is also something more.
I think one of the reasons I can usually feel which images are from Mike, has more to do with what he see's, than he how he shoots. Whereas some photographers shoot a moment in it's entirety, Mike always seems to beautifully focus in on smaller, intimate moments within the larger image. Mike gets and captures the body positions, the incredible blue sky and rocks and mountains, but he also gets and captures those tiny seconds with the moment. The slight brushes of skin on skin and those finishing physical touches that you don't just see, but feel when spending time with one of his images.
