Revisiting Kaitlyn

Five years ago, back in June 2020, when I was still getting my start with photography, I came across Kaitlyn at Werner Park behind the Merriam Marketplace. Barefoot for some reason.

So why this revisit? Hannah, actually. Running into her again after 4 years led me to looking through all my previous photos. Seeing where I was at that point compared to where I am now. Not just in terms of quality, but also confidence. The latter reflected heavily in the number of women I've photographed across 2025, along with the variety. The fact that approaching a woman to ask to photograph her is about as natural as driving through a familiar part of Kansas City.

Then there was also remembering what Kaitlyn's photos initially looked like and seeing whether they were all workable.

Kaitlyn had a pretty bad acne breakout that afternoon. Personally I'm still surprised she was willing to let me photograph her, but the fact she was barefoot and readily engaged me that day told me she just had a carefree spirit about her. So I felt I should take my 5+ years of experience with photo editing, along with a few recent additions to my workflow, and see what I could do.

Original here.