This image of an intimate moment between roommates was taken at my friend Chris’ birthday weekend at an vineyard estate up in Sonoma. Of the 300+ images snapped that weekend, it’s one of my favorites. It’s also one of only seven that I’ll share with the public on Flickr. In the past, being the friend of a photographer meant that your picture might be snapped often, but rarely appear in public (with a few notable exceptions). Of course, with the advent of digital photography and Flickr and Facebook, it’s almost impossible to have images of yourself not appear on the Web. With this in mind, I try to strike a balance between sharing my work and sharing the lives of me and my friends on-line.

Portrait of Ada Pinkston by David Gartner

“I’m a photographer, here’s my card, I’d like to take your portrait.” It’s a bit of a cliché for a photographer to hand someone their card and make the above statement. More so, it’s a cliche for a male photographer to do so with a woman. However, a few months back I handed my card to the artist Ada Pinkston at her “slash” job at a local restaurant (as in artist/waitress).

It took Ada about four months to get back to me. I’m glad she waited as I’m currently working on more environmental portraits in a similar vein as Arnold Newman’s work. Ada paints and creates collages in a very dark attic in her apartment in sunny Bernal Heights. Trying to make due with existing light and adding artificial light to the cramped attic was a fun challenge, but the best images came when we moved a few of her pieces to the bright kitchen.

You can view the entire set here.