A Photographer's Muse (tribute to Kobi)

Kobi Montage- Stephanie Neal Photography

It all started on the beaches of Sarasota…Kobi and I were on vacation in our sophomore year of high school, she was imitating Christy Turlington, and I was channeling Herb Ritts ☺ Twenty plus years later we’re still at it! For some inexplicable reason Kobi has managed to get more gorgeous with each passing year (perhaps a deal with the devil?) while I slowly pucker and wither (I’ll blame it on my kids). She is my almost life-long BFF, trusted confidant, inspiring muse, and ingenious collaborator, but most of all just tons of fun to hang out with.

There’s a very cool thing that happens when you work with someone you’ve known since you were 14, and have a complete trust between you. Whether literally stopping traffic on I-80 posing on the Bonneville Salt Flats, or getting sand in all the wrong places in the dunes of Death Valley, she’s up for anything, and it comes through in the photos. Our adventures have taken us from the rooftops of San Francisco, the hills of Hollywood, the Strip of Las Vegas, the beaches of the Hampton’s and many places in between. For our 2012 adventures we are doing back to back shoots in New Orleans in January (working around the PPA Imaging USA conference) and Costa Rica in February. For those of you on Pinterest I’ve been busily pinning inspiration boards for last several months if you’d like to see the ideas I’m bouncing around.  It'll be a nice contrast (very dark, goth , vintage vibe for the big Easy, and more airy, natural bleached out retro surfer look for Costa Rica).

Who knows where this will take us. There’s been talk of turning these shoots into a book one day (I really like the idea of photographing one model through every stage of life), but for now we’re just having too much fun to think that far ahead! Be sure to “Like” the Stephanie Neal Photography page to see what we come up with on these shoots!