On Saturday I spent a magical three hours taking photos for my Mirror Me project at Detroit's Belle Isle Conservatory. The holiday weekend had brought out many families so I had lots of interesting subjects. Have I told you how much I love working on this new project? Yes, I guess I have. But my love of it grows each time I go out on a photo shoot, for what I find is that it gives EVERYONE joy, not just me. Now, how many photo projects just plain make people happy? And using the mirror as a prop seems to cut right through people's self consciousness in front of a camera. They're so busy trying to see me reflected in the camera that they forget to put on their "camera smiles."

Now this kind of shooting does take a lot of energy. It's relational as well as photographic as I am always engaged with my subjects. But that's what I love about it: I'm meeting so many wonderful people. Oh yes, I can already see that this will be a long-term project!

To see a tight edit of the mirror photos I took all over Manhattan last week, simply go to my website at www.patricialaydorsey.com and click on "Mirror Me" in the dropdown menu under Portfolios.