Bryan O'Neil Hughes and I obsess about the same thing – photography.

When I was seven years old, my mother put a camera in my hands and asked me to take some pictures of an office party. After an interminable wait for the film to be processed, I saw what a little bit of vision, a little bit of luck and a whole lot of patience could produce; I was hooked.

The colors in his portfolio are punchy and pure. In one of the images of a dilapidated car – ”a vintage junker,” he called it – I can literally smell the rust. His black & white images are so incredibly tactile. In a recent email he writes: “I'm a big believer in waiting for the warm light, which as you know, is really only available at the nose and tail of the day…in fleeting 30 minute glimpses.”

How he arrives at his images is a mystery, but it is one that I hope to solve on a forthcoming trip to the West coast. Bryan lives in the Bay Area and works at Adobe, on the Photoshop team.

I get my share of junk email and so was glad the filters I have set up hadn't squashed Tina Dehal‘s recent note.

Short and sweet introductions are so hard to pass up. Here is what she said: “I am a photographer based in bombay, India……i just happen to come across your site and was very impressed with the amount of information you had on it…”

I suggest you check out her web site. I was very impressed with the way she approaches fashion – it's vastly different from what I have seen coming out of India and what makes it special may just be the way she chooses to light her subjects.