Andrew family

Well, with kids going off to college and a few years between them and their last family portrait, the Andrews decided it was time to get some family pictures done for the wall as well as the christmas cards. We met up at the park and then skipped across town to get some nice variety in the shots. Thanks guys for your suggestions and also for being so willing to climb around for me!

As I told them, I’m not the ‘I want your fingers placed like this’ sort of photographer… more the ‘would you be willing to climb up there?’ kind of photographer…

quality time academy (school pictures!)

So now I’ve had my first experience taking school pictures. Those of you that know me and my work at all know that my photography style doesn’t exactly go hand in hand with the usual ’school portrait’ format. But one of my favorite clients- mom of little Oliver (click here for a refresher)- asked if I’d do pictures for the preschool that Oliver attends, and I decided why not?

I, of course, put my own spin on it, and after getting over my initial inhibitions about taking pictures of 20 kids within a 2 hour period, had a LOT of fun. Turned out to be a great experience- and I can’t wait to hear what the parents think of the modern take on school portraits!

Lance & Tara

Lance and Tara will be husband and wife come February. And I’ll be there with a camera. We did engagement shots yesterday, and the couple had plenty great ideas to match mine. We started things at Crabby’s on 7th street here in Joplin (thanks to the gracious staff there for letting us do a shoot in the middle of a restaurant!), then did a few shots outside and move into a gorgeous downtown building overlooking main street. Lance gave me the challenge of taking a long exposure shot of them that would capture all 3 colors of the traffic light outside the window; I happily complied, resulting in the shot at the bottom of this post.

Thanks so much to Lance and Tara for their patience (sitting motionless in the dark for long periods, etc!) and for pushing me to be as creative as possible on this one. A photographer needs subjects like these to stay sharp!

new fall products

this post title kinda sounds like an ad, doesn’t it? Sorry guys. But I really do have some new products in the line-up that might get you to thinking about pictures in other forms- prints are awesome, but there’s some other goodies too!

Including….

7 x 7 session books. 25 pages, hardcover, with custom photo cover: ($200). You can purchase one from any session (family, senior, etc)… and they make a great gift.

wedding books: a gorgeous, high quality modern alternative to the typical wedding album.
more info (here).

…and the newest addition; custom cd cases/printed dvd’s (free w/ purchase of high resolution wedding dvd or session dvd).

For more pictures, click (here)!

baby Megan

One reason I love taking pictures of little kids? They’re about 10 times more expressive than an adult. Whereas adults know ’smile for the camera’ or ‘look serious’ and have trouble with much more than that (my face freezes up in front of the lens just like anybody else), kids don’t pose for you or make any pretense at all about showing what they’re really feeling. This leads to some very authentic and often hilarious expressions.

so it’s not that I don’t enjoy shooting adults; but I will say that there’s something refreshing, as a photographer, about getting down on a baby’s level and seeing how many expressions you can catch!

And I open up this batch of photographs with baby Megan’s perfect ‘what do you think YOU’RE doing?’ face…

best of weddings: vote for your favorite shot!

I’ve posted my 50 favorite wedding shots of the year on my facebook business page. At least, the first 50 that jumped out at me. I’m sure I’d change my mind again every time I looked back through them!

What do I want from you? To know what your very favorite shot is! Click (here) to vote. Well… you do gotta become a ‘fan’ first…

Paige

Paige hails from right here in town- the first Joplin senior I’ve worked with this semester, ironically! I We caught the very last of the fall colors as well as some fun city settings.

RefrigiWear calendar shoot

As the most random job I’ve had in awhile, I was asked by a company called RefrigiWear (makers of insulated suits worn by warehouse workers) to take a shot of one of the winners from their ‘warehousemen of the year’ calendar. Brandy, pictured below, works at AmericCold in Carthage, Missouri and was the 2nd woman to win the contest in the last 10 years. I gave her the image that will make her the honored representative of a full month of insulated suit. Will she be August? January? oh, the suspense.

Pay no mind to the picture below hers. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to photograph myself sitting on a forklift…

the Meadows

My family shoot of the week… the Meadows. (sounds like a band name, doesn’t it?) Tabetha and Dana first hired me to photograph their wedding some time back; now they’re back for family pictures. They’re as awesome as clients come (Tabetha has given herself the title of my unofficial PR person) and have become friends along the way. With me, that is. They were already friends with each-other.

whiskerino 09′

Well, it’s here… whiskerino, 2009- final edition. To those of you who aren’t familiar with whiskerino, it is a 4 month, international beard growing competition that takes place every 2 years. Participants shave their facial hair on November 1st, then cannot shave or trim again until February 28th. This results in some pretty ginormous beards by the end. Mine only becomes slightly amish in appearance by March.

I know this all sounds ridiculous. And… well, it really is. But it’s not really about how big your beard is… it’s about the creativity and camaraderie amongst the members, many of whom are photographers, graphic designers, and other assorted artists who use this online competition as a creative outlet, to often impressive and/or hilarious results. See examples by looking over the daily winners from the 2007 edition, by clicking (here). To visit this year’s site, check out www.whiskerino.org/2009 and check back every now and again.

Here I am, halfway through the shaving process…