When I applied to AFI, Nestor Almendros, Dean Cundey and Storaro were my favorites. As I grew and learned, I began to define myself through developing my own shooting styles. As I developed, I found that my natural narrative style began to be more in line with master cinematographers like Tak Fujimoto and Tom Stern. With experience I learned to understand their technique instinctively; to build the scene through “feeling” the light and matching it to the emotional moment being captured as I gathered confidence and competence. I no longer carried my production plan with me at shoots. I had just the shot sheet and, tweaking it as I went along. It’s called “discovering the film” in-field as during production. Be organized, but also be flexible.