Blue Hour Portraits

I’m currently on a shoot with a fair amount of travel, and the first country we worked in was the Dominican Republic.

After wrapping with our main contributor, I noticed her brother walking along the beach in the last light of the day. Nothing had been planned. The blue hour felt calm and slightly unreal, and something about the moment asked to be noticed. I picked up the camera and made a few frames.

Moments like this are easy to miss, not because they’re rare, but because we’re often moving too quickly to notice them. When attention stays open, even after the main task feels complete, small and fleeting situations can reveal themselves. Not as “shots” to be taken, but as moments worth responding to.

Allowing space for the unexpected is an active choice. It means leaving room in your way of working for observation, curiosity, and instinct. It means staying receptive rather than switching off once the plan has been executed. Often, it’s in these in-between moments that something more honest appears.

These photographs have become some of my favourites not because they were planned or polished, but because they happened when everything came together naturally.

Attentive, open, and unforced, this way of working sits at the heart of craft, story, and staying human.

Boca Chica, Dominican Republic