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Friday, May 16, 2008 | Albums
Graham & Stephanie's Album Design
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We just finished Graham & Stephanie's album design! These two are such a beautiful and lovable couple. It was fun to relieve their day. Click here to see the full design. Keep in mind that the finished album is much larger--14x10 inches in size.
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| And if you're a photographer who would be interested in finding out how to purchase my album design templates, click here for all the info. |
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Thursday, May 15, 2008 | Personal
room for rent
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| My sweet roommate just moved out a couple weeks ago and Dixie and I are looking for a new one. So I thought I'd put this out there for all my blog readers to see if anyone you know is in need of a room in a cute townhouse in Gilbert, Arizona. Requirements: non-crazy, considerate, no shedding animals or children, keeps the mess limited to their bedroom and preferably female. If you think of anyone who may fit, feel free to give them my email address. Thanks! |
101. Take a training class with Dixie
I haven't blogged about this sweet love-of-my-life in awhile. I figured you all need a cute-pick-me-up today so here's a few recent shots of Dixie-dog: |
Don't you just want to snuggle her?
Dixie came into my life a year ago when she was just 2 months old and looked like this: |
Now I don't know how I ever lived without her. She's such a sweetie.
But she hasn't been the easiest to train. She took about 9 months to potty train. And somewhere in the middle of that lovely experience, I decided we definitely needed to take a doggie-training class together. I finally got around to signing up for a class at my local Petsmart a couple months ago. We've been attending faithfully every week for 8 weeks now and tonight my baby graduated!! I'm so proud. Here's a shot of Dixie with our teacher getting her little graduation cap on: |
Now, just because she graduated (from a beginners class, I might add) doesn't mean she knows a whole lot. Unfortunately she will only obey when treats are a part of the equation and even then it's not always the first time she's asked. Also, she either doesn't completely get some of the voice commands ("Down" is a tough one) or she just likes to wait until I put the treat in her face and do the hand gesture to comply. But the point is--we HAVE made progress. I was told to think of this like kindergarten. We need to sign up for the intermediate class and practice a whole lot more to continue our education :).
If you'd like to see a little video of a few of Dixie's new talents, here ya go! |
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Tuesday, May 13, 2008 | Engagements
Brett & Kristen's Engagement Shoot
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| Kristen & Brett met in high school, dated all the way through college and now, 6 years later, are engaged to be married next Spring. Tonight I shot their engagement photos at ASU, their alma mater. We started off the shoot at Palm Walk--Kristen looking sassy in her bright yellow dress: |
| Next we headed to Sun Devils' stadium. Brett played defensive line for ASU during college and was able to sneak us in. We had the stadium all to ourselves and I had a blast shooting there. I also got a serious workout getting up to this spot: |
| I thought this shot would be perfect for a save the date card--their wedding date is March 14th! |
| Finally, we made our way over to A-Mountain during the yummy light time. |
| Who knew ASU could be this pretty? |
| I had a "first" during this shoot. Unfortunately it was the first time I injured a client. Urgh. I asked Kristen to off-road it in her flip-flops and she got a cactus in her foot. Shoot! I performed surgery and was able to get it all out while also sticking myself in the process. But I think we'll heal. She was a huge sport and smiling a few moments later: |
| Such a great looking couple. Yes, to answer your question, I do require all of my clients to be good-looking :). |
| Thanks for a great shoot you two! |
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Monday, May 12, 2008 | Engagements
Michael & Kindra's Engagement Shoot
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Tonight I shot Michael & Kindra's engagement shoot in Old Town Scottsdale. These two oozed cuteness and laughed the entire time. They have a goofy side that was fun to capture. I had so much fun hanging out with them and can't wait for their wedding next April on Coronado Island!
If I had to pick one shot to sum this couple up it would be this one: |
Michael totally has a Jim Carrey quality--don't you think?
Kindra is going to be a drop-dead gorgeous bride: |
| Check out the stylin' shoes she wore: |
| And I love her engagement ring: |
| Walking around Old Town Scottsdale, we passed by this gallery window and I asked them to give me their best Norman Rockwell scene. I love what they came up with: |
| And here's a few more of my favorites from the shoot: |
Yum.
Thanks guys! Can't wait to see you again! |
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Sunday, May 11, 2008 | Personal
happy mother's week
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My poor mom. Her birthday is on Wednesday--the same week as Mother's Day every year. So we have to make it a super-special week for her. Thankfully this weekend I didn't work except for the portrait shoot yesterday, so I got to spend a ton of time with my family. Friday we went out for lunch and I took her shopping and she picked out some accessories to make her look super-cute. Then yesterday my mom, sis and I had a girls' day that consisted of taking mom out to lunch, getting pedicures and shopping some more. And today we went to my sister's house, BBQed for dinner and then watched the Survivor Finale. My whole family is addicted to the show and we were placing bets on who would win :).
Here's my beautiful mom and sis at lunch yesterday: |
| And the resulting toe-cuteness: |
My mom is such an amazing support to me and a great friend. Even though I'm 31, she continues to spoil me by cooking me food, giving me back rubs, taking care of my dog when I travel and helping me with odd jobs that I call on her for. She's one of my biggest fans and one of the first people I turn to when I need anything. I'm so thankful for the relationship I have with her.
Love you mom! |
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Sunday, May 11, 2008 | Portraits
klingaman family portraits
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So the Klingaman family definitely supports the theory posited by one of my blog commenters in a former post that you are required to be attractive to live in Arizona. As you can see they are super-cute. Last night I shot their portraits and I thought I'd post up some of my favorites today and tell Bev--Happy Mother's Day!
This is Beverly and David--the people responsible for all the cuteness: |
| Heather is their oldest and she married Dustin: |
| And then comes Braden, and Katelynn is the baby: |
| I think this is the only shot that Katelynn didn't smile in. Don't you think it could be an Abercrombie ad? Maybe a bit too fully clothed for Abercrombie but hot nonetheless. |
| Not only are the Klingamans super-cute, they are SO sweet with one another. In between shots I caught Braden trying to help Katelynn stay cool: |
I know no other older brother who would do that for his sis.
And when I was shooting another grouping, I looked over and caught this sweetness between mom and son: |
| I love the relationships between dads and their daughters. As you can tell, David couldn't be prouder: |
| While I was asking them to pose for this shot: |
| They decided to get all creative on me and gave me this: |
LOVE it! Don't you think they should get a 40x60 canvas print of this one for their house?
And a few more faves: |
| So much fun you guys! Thanks for making my job so easy! |
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Saturday, May 10, 2008 | News!
photographer? what's your DNA?
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This is kinda fun. My friend Dane Sanders came up with this thing called pDNA. It's a personality profile assessment built uniquely for photographers to both identify your unique strengths as well as to offer a custom prescription on how to best leverage your DNA as a photographer ... to build a killer business around your best resource ... you!
The assessment tool costs $20 to take and then you get a bunch of results that help you to better understand your strengths and weaknesses--specifically as they relate to your photography business.
I took the test and it was fun to read the results. My favorite was the "Grumpy Factor":
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Isn't that awesome! Now I will forever strive to keep my grumpy factor low :).
If you're a photographer and want to take the test click here and enter "phoenix" as your promotion code to get $3 off!
After you take the test, make sure to come back and let me know what your grumpy factor is :). |
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Friday, May 9, 2008 | F.A.Q.s
f.a.q.--posing
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Linda left this comment on my blog awhile back when I shot the Neese Family Portraits and I think she has a great question.
I've never been good at posing. Yuck! One of my least favorite things to do as a photographer. But sometimes you gotta do it. Here's an example of an obviously posed photo. I'm pretty proud of this one because posing isn't my strong point but it came out beautifully I thought: |
So you gotta do the posed shots for pretty much every shoot. But what I really love to do is draw the emotion out of my clients. Everyone I work with--whether it's a family for family portraits or a couple for a wedding--has a connection, and that's what I want to capture. My goal is to be able to give as little direction as possible to get the desired effect. I need to get the emotion and connection from them but I don't want to be creating something that wouldn't be natural for them, I just want to create the environment in which what is natural for them comes out.
The two best and fastest ways (posing-wise) to get people to be natural in front of the camera and let their emotions out are to have them focus on one another and get as close to each other as possible. I try to take the attention off of the crazy lady pointing a camera in their face and get them to focus on each other as best I can. Sometimes this takes most of the shoot to do. Oftentimes I find that I get the best images in the last 15 minutes of a shoot because people have loosened up and are enjoying themselves. But I digress.
Ok. So I do give my clients direction on where to stand or walk generally. We want to get great light and pleasing backgrounds for the shots.
Here's an obviously posed wedding photo where I told the clients where to stand and then just asked them to look at one another. I love the connection in their look: |
| Here's an obviously posed maternity shot of two sisters I did awhile back: |
| After we did that shot, I told the couples to interact with one another and just kept shooting. Sometimes they're uncomfortable at first, not knowing what to do, but if you let the awkwardness linger for a little, they end up laughing and you get great stuff: |
| If couples are stiff and I can tell that they need a little more direction than just "interact with one another," I oftentimes will have them put their foreheads together. What that does is forces them to get close. Closeness, like I said, is one of the key factors to drawing out that natural emotion: |
Another one of my favorite things to do is to get people walking. When they're walking they always look natural. I just make sure to tell them not to look at the camera but just at each other:
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| I'm very fortunate that many of my clients are total naturals and need very little direction other than asking them to stand, sit or walk in certain places. If you just leave them alone for a few minutes and shoot with your long lens off in the distance, you get total cuteness: |
| Hope that helps Linda! Great question! |
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Wednesday, May 7, 2008 | Engagements
Emmitt & Jocelyn's Engagement Shoot
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Tonight I got together with Jocelyn and Emmitt for their engagement shoot. These two were so fun--I just love how they look at each other and are constantly having fun together. It made my job easy!
Their wedding is next March--which seems like a long ways away--but I'm excited that I get to see them this Fall for two of their friends' weddings that I'm shooting.
We started out at Jocelyn's home to get a few photos with their dog, Baby. Weighing in at just over 4 lbs., this little Maltese is the smallest little bundle of concentrated cuteness I've ever seen. And she was so good in front of the camera showing it off! |
| What a sweet family they make: |
| Then we headed over to the Desert Ridge Resort in Phoenix where Emmitt proposed. We went to the exact spot and had a little re-enactment: |
A guy who witnessed the whole thing stopped us afterwards to ask if Emmitt proposed and to offer congrats!
Here's a few more of my faves from our shoot: |
Afterwards we went out for the yummiest Thai food. Loved it!
Thanks guys for a fun night! |
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