I meet this handsome couple on my first visit to the Vox Media event on Friday, about two weeks ago. Aj and Ariel are engaged to be married and they look like they’ll make a wonderful couple. From the lack of badging, they were probably visitors like me, just enjoying the benefits of Austin during this hyped and crowded March event known as SXSW.

As I wind down my SXSW Portrait series, you might be under the impression that I’m naturally extroverted and it’s easy for me to make these portraits. Not true. Shooting and talking to strangers, on the street, is definitely a learned behavior. One that, before photography, I would never imagine doing.

I’ve used my interest in photography to better myself. Be less shy. Talk to people. Visit places. I’ve already mentioned that I originally hated writing too. But after eight years of blogging, its gotten a lot easier. Since I started blogging to showcase my photography, I suppose my interest in image making was also, indirectly, responsible for getting me to write.

Now, photography, writing, exploring, and talking to people are a soup of right brain activities that have really balanced me out. After all, the world is more than analysis, logic and numbers. Balance is good.