the Yokleys:: twins + 1!

Some of you may remember the Yokley twins… I’ve been taking pictures of them since month 1, and now, they have a new little sister… miss Emma.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once you get to 3 kids, life is beautiful- and also anything but ‘picture perfect’. This session reflected that, but in a fun way that mirrors the Yokleys’ wonderfully laid back attitude.

We shot the whole thing in their living room, and enjoyed many laughs between, and during pictures.

The first couple are just of the newest little lady herself… and of her startlingly adult expressions that really question my presence a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little reality between takes…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then, thanks to my riveting (and also probably super creepy) grover impression, a full-family shot…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Maggie & Harry: in the backyard

 

Every now and then, I remember to get the camera out in my OWN backyard, and snap a few shots of  my kiddos. This was one evening last week….me running around with a plastic pistol in one hand, camera in the other.  🙂

 

Sometimes I give Harry the camera for a moment. He always surprises me with how well he holds the huge device, frames the scene, waits for the right moment, and focuses the shot.

He generally demands silly faces of his subjects. The two below are his (I won’t pose like this for just anyone, by the way):

 

These blue eyes kill me.

 

 

 

CIY [arches their collective eyebrow at you]

Once again, I get the privilege of working with CIY [Christ in Youth], an organization that has nearly singlehandedly changed my perception of the dreaded word, ‘headshot’.

I used to dread doing these terrible things, these HEADSHOTS- something boring you associate with, you know, lots of hair lights & soft focus or something. But then I learned that they could be, well, fun. And they could look modern, and crisp, and awesome.

And the outtakes when I work with CIY… oh man. Shooting a large group of people whose job is to organize and create large stage events for thousands of highschoolers across the nation- well, they’ve got a goofy bone or two amongst the group.

We started with, of course, the shots that I was there to get- some really sharp, simple images of each employee, like this:

Usually I’d opt to either go for white seamless (pure white) background, or a solid color; but in this case, we (‘we’ being Austin & I, the graphic designer on board with CIY, pictured above left) decided to leave the setup with one light on the background only, so that there would be a fun fade-into-white and then back-out-again at the bottom. I really dig it.

some group shots, the first of which features the president of the company, Andy Hansen:

Always some great faces between takes.

And some fun profile shots for them to use in a unique way in one of the books they put out.

And, as usual, some folks brought their own ‘props’.

But now, my favorite part. It’s always fun to have a ‘theme’ on these kind of shoots to loosen everyone up. This time, I told each person to arch their eyebrow in one of the pictures.

Some people couldn’t do it, some people did it almost too well, but regardless, the collection of faces from the shoot is priceless when you put them all together. So enjoy…

 

 

 

 

baby Emma, session #2

Don’t often do kids’ shoots in the studio, but it was perfect for miss Emma’s 2nd ‘baby’s first year’ shoot.  She was a SUPER good baby, so it went by really fast. Love those big blue eyes!

Chad tends to get a little goofy toward the end of the shoot…

…and he firmly established a picture ‘tradition’ started in their last session…. while Amanda maintains HER tradition of the ‘why do we have this tradition’ face.

And we’ll end on those aforementioned blue eyes. Til next time!

#Paintwhatmatters:: Benjamin Moore on main street Joplin

Benjamin Moore recently had a competition, in which cities around the nation would enter to have THEIR main street re-painted by the well known company. 20 cities won… and Joplin was one of them.

I was called in by the folks at MomentumWW & Blue State Digital, the marketing agencies that represent Benajmin Moore, to shoot the whole thing; the celebration, the mayor’s walk through, the businesses & their freshly painted storefronts, and the owners themselves.

It’s been such a fun project to take on. During the phone meeting with Blue State Digital (who called in from New York) I was asked if I lived near Joplin and was very familiar with it at all… it was pretty great to be able to say I actually work downtown every day.

I’ve been so excited these last couple of years to see the new developments happening downtown and up and down main street in my city… so getting the opportunity to capture some of the business owners in their environments, and highlight the newest improvements to the district, is just the kind of thing I want to be shooting right now.

Here’s some highlights… so many more photos, but these are favorites so far…

Below are shots from the ‘walk through’ with Jeff Neal, the local contractor on the project (and the generous building owner who has let me use the ‘columbia traders’ space for third thursday photobooth events the last year or two)…

Mayor Melodee Colbert-Kean with business owner Tanya Scott and representatives from Spectrum Paints & MomentumWW.

the mayor taking a long look at the new paint on one of the storefronts.

Small Cakes made a KILLER cake that was actually modeled after main street. Beautiful and extremely tasty. I might or might not have left with 6 slices…

A few of the business owners I had the pleasure of photographing…

Dan is incredibly  nice and owns the coolest guitar shop. I kinda started wishing I played one after wandering around in it for a moment or two.

This is Bunny Newton. He owns ‘Newton’s jewelry: a store his father started in 1938. I had fun directing the shots above, but liked the expression in the candid below.

A couple of quick snaps of downtownians I encountered during my back-and-forth travels up and down main…

Jane is the sweetest lady, owner of ‘upstairs boutique’, which actually neighbors my own studio here in Joplin.

Jef, his wife, & his son at ‘M & M bistro’, a very cozy diner specializing in international cuisine.

The closing shot might be my favorite. It’s the subtle little details that make it summarize main street so well.

Thanks for following along, everyone!

-Mark