Biaka & Lora

 

Biaka has been a friend of mine for a good long while. And for a long while of that good long while, he was, well, my bachelor friend…

but NO MORE! Biaka found Lora, his perfect counterpart, a very lovely lady I am SO excited he is engaged to.

Biaka is a designer for Rapha House, while Lora is the Coordinator of International Admissions at Missouri Southern. Together, they’ve got some big plans to change the world… all while cuddling with their cats and watching lots of star wars.

Love these two.

Now, because Biaka is a good friend, that means I get to have some fun with him. Hence, lots of awkward pictures that I’d usually delete… 😉

We started the shoot at 6:30am. One of these two handled it a little better than the other. Take your guesses.

 

But then he woke up. Still, he wasn’t sure what to do with his hands at that point…

 

Ok, ok. Here’s the REAL pictures…

 

*ahem*. For serious. Seriously.
 

 

Lora really knows how to get Biaka laughing. Love it.

 

 

band shot. You know. Every couple should have one, just in case they decide to form a band later.

 

 

Around back of Biaka’s workplace AND current apartment is the table at Rocco’s pizza where Biaka & Lora exchanged their first fateful romantic encounter. They’d already been friends for a long time, but, you know, not the I-could-marry-you kinda friends. Biaka had been thinking on things for awhile and nearly lost his chance.

On the tip of a mutual friend who urged expediency, Biaka swooped in like a love-falcon while Lora was on a date with [some other dude], and bought everyone’s pizza– in a no-messing-around, bold LETS DO THIS sort of move. The rest was history…

 

 

Ended things off at Biaka’s apartment, where the main goal was to get his cat in the picture. Yep, he’s a cat picture kinda guy.

Had to play some video games while we were waiting on the cat to stop being terrified of me…

 

 

You could see it sneaking into frame on that last shot…

 

 

Girl. cat. floral print couch. posters. JOY.

Congrats, guys. Can’t wait to shoot your wedding in just a couple of short months. 🙂

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Back to school:: MINI SESSIONS!

 

Hey all! This post is just going to be a quick one, and is specifically for all you JoMo parents. If you live in Joplin and want some quick-but-awesome shots of your little ones in their back-to-school duds, we will be doing mini sessions this August 15th & 16th. $30 for the first child, $10 to add on additional kiddos.

If you want more info, click through to our facebook ‘event’… specifics are there, and you can click ‘attending’ and either e-mail (markn@9artphoto.com) or FB msg us to reserve your 15 minute slot.

We hope this to be a great alternative to stuffy school pictures, as well as a nice affordable option for folks who aren’t quite ready for a full-out family session just yet.

Here’s a few samples from mini sessions I’ve done in the past… day 1 at the park, day 2 at the studio, which is how I plan to run things this year too.

Kevin & Amy :: engaged!

 

Meet Kevin & Amy. We got to have some great conversations- I share an affinity for great movie scores with Amy, and a love of creepy/awkward humor with Kevin (you’ll see later…). The two discovered that TOGETHER, they share a great affinity for parmesan cheese.

Together, they are also adorable, hilarious, and all around pretty swell people. Even at 6am when we started this shoot, to beat the sun…

 

 

 

This one is just for Kevin… a little selective color throwback/artistic flower focus [this is NOT a serious photo, for those getting nervous about my new ‘style’]

 

 

 

Kevin really wanted some shots of each of them individually…so here’s me doing that…. (thanks for snapping a behind the scenes, Kevin!)

….and here’s kevin doing the world’s creepiest photobomb. As Amy said on facebook later, ‘my smile mostly just looks terrified because I can FEEL him back there.’

 

 

Boys will be boys… especially this one. 🙂 Titus loves dirt, baseball, and moving non-stop. Yes, that last part made the shoot a challenge, but the best kind. I enjoy capturing the energy that goes with that age- I’m pretty familiar with it, since I have a couple of little ones myself.

As time goes on, you realize what you REALLY want to remember- the running, climbing, dirt throwing, laughing, crying, jumping, splashing that IS being a real kid.

It’s also super fun to see mr. Titus growing up. I did pictures for his parents, Tony & Angel, a few years back when it was just them- now they’re in the next phase of life and enjoying the heck out of it.

We did the shoot out by one of the little league ballfields, which was the perfect setting for this baseball loving family. The grandparents came out too, which made it even more fun to show love of the sport through 3 generations. And it was an absolutely beautiful evening to boot.

BATTER UP!

 

 

I love Tony’s more realistic expressions of what it FEELS like to have a 2 year old pulling your hair out while he cutely sits on your shoulders…

 

July (third thursday) joplin Photobooth:: GATSBY

 

Well, we got through another round of third thursday chaos… and, as we generally do, walked away with some super fun pictures. This month’s photobooth theme was ‘Gatsby’… in other words, 1920s. I thought the reference to Gatsby would help folks visualize it, since the newest film is still fresh in many of our minds.

 

As a side note, I HAD to use the still above  from the film- the outrageously dramatic scene in which ‘Gatsby’ (played by DeCaprio of course) introduces himself. It’s the best introduction into a movie I’ve ever seen for DeCaprio, and honestly, maybe my favorite intro for any character. Whether the film itself is your cup of tea or not, you should at least watch the scene…

 

 

So yes. that’s the sort of ridiculous playfulness I was hoping for…

Finding props to fit the themes is always a challenge, but thanks to folks like our friend Kolourz- who ALWAYS has a giant bag full of perfectly themed items- we had some great items to piece together for that roaring twenties look.

Now a completely different note. One I hope doesn’t seem to out-of-nowhere with it’s more sober nature. I’d like to say that if a Photo Booth is something you can dedicate, I’d like to do just that to the memory of Trevor James Poulton.

Trever was a young photobooth regular who unexpectedly passed away in his sleep this past month. I have been talking back and forth with his mother Stephanie, who let me know that he is the reason she started coming to third thursday to take pictures.  She plans to continue to come each month as a a tribute to him.

here she and her family are from last night, in a very sweet picture of her holding up a 5 x 7 of Trevor from LAST month’s photobooth that I’d printed for her.

 

 

[this is Trevor & his family last month]

 

Life is short, and we so easily forget. Stephanie is an inspiration for her attitude of one who remembers, but does it while smiling and honoring that memory with a new tradition.

I love all my regulars. I love how I can connect to this community through something so simple. And I love how much a silly picture can end up meaning.

Here’s the rest of the batch, ol’ sport.

 

National Guard GX magazine feature

 

Been excited to share this one for awhile. The fun thing about commercial photography is, sometimes you gotta wait until it’s in print before you can share it. 🙂

a few weeks ago, I was asked to do a shoot for the National Guard’s GX magazine- yes, THE National Guard, and yes, they have their own magazine!

The shoot only required one final image, of staff sergeant Michael Byers, a local national guard officer who was one of the first on the scene when the 2011 Joplin Tornado hit. His story was this month’s selection for GX mag’s regular feature, ‘I was there’, which showcases military personnel who were present during major disasters.

If you’d like to read more about Michael & his story, you can check it out on page 22 of this virtual issue of the magazine. Michael is an incredibly humble individual- someone who certainly never asked for the spotlight,  which makes him deserve the recognition all the more.  I enjoyed chatting with him about the Guards and life in general, and sharing experiences from that day in May 3 years ago.

For the image itself, I scouted for a bit to find the perfect spot. I needed a location that conveyed a hint of the destruction that took place, but also featured an element of hope and moving on.  I found that spot across the street from the new high school that’s being built- the rebuilding is in the background, while a pile of leftover rubble still sits in the foreground. Spots like these are still a reality that certainly exists in more than one spot in our city.

Here’s the official selection from the article, as well as a few outtakes.

Brianna & Jared

 

Bri & Jared had a beautiful, calm wedding day- tucked into a cool space on a hot day. First community church, at 15th & murphy right in the middle of town, is one of Joplin’s most elegant structures. It’s also been through a lot… the stained glass you saw in the first picture of this post is relatively new, since it had to be replaced completely after the Joplin 2011 tornado swept through and pulled the back of the building out [this photo from almost exactly 3 years ago].

 

I talked with the folks from the church, and they told me how they painstakingly worked with the original makers of the glass in Europe to recreate the beautiful wall. After over 2 years of funding and building, you now can’t tell anything ever happened.

But the church is not the subject of this post…back to the stars of the day, Bri & Jared!! I’ll let the photos do the talking for them. 🙂

 

 

Took some shots of the reception decor before the ceremony began….

 

 

Love the looks of anticipation…

 

Declan:: baby’s first year, session #2

The Arnolds are one of my very favorite families. Not only are they close friends, but I’ve been taking photos since that first baby bump showed up… and now baby #2 is already 6 months old.

Declan, like his big brother Keagan, is built like a tank… the cutest tank ever. Enjoy this set of pictures from a very un-typically cool summer morning!

Lance & Tara:: Brooklyn bound

 

 

I write this post as some of my best friends in the world move to a much bigger place in the world. A world within itself. Lance & Tara fly out to Brooklyn, NY today. There, they will begin a new life working with a church plant in one of the most vibrant places you’ll find. [insert ‘pace’ commercial accent]: NEW YORK CITY!

The pictures from this post (except for the wedding image below) were taken from a session during the final week that Lance & Tara spent in Joplin, so they’d have new pics of themselves as a couple, as well as individually (Lance will need head shots to put on the book jackets after he makes it big, after all).

Those that know me well, know how much this couple mean to me & my family, and how Lance & I have been very close co-conspirators… er… collaborators… for the last couple of years. Lance is an amazing writer, and I’ve watched him go from being pretty good to being pretty fantastic. I don’t say lightly, that he has helped me grow in my personal life and my walk with God in a way that few other individuals ever have. I’m a more disciplined, more inspired, less selfish, and all around better man than before I met him.

I first met Lance when I worked at starbucks, through a mutual friend. Yes, at that time, he was just ‘colby’s weird friend Lance.’ A couple of years after that, Lance contacted me about doing wedding pictures for he and his bride-to-be… and as our friendship grew, I discovered that YES he was still weird, but certainly no weirder than I, and an exceptionally talented and big hearted individual to boot.

 

You might also know Lance as the writer and co-director on my epic project from last year, ‘Cold Brewed’, in which we attempted to create something that had never before been created. We succeeded in that, (if not financially, then artistically), learned a lot, and were fueled to continue creating, each in our medium.

Tara has been a tremendous friend as well to my wife and to me, and my whole family is going to miss these two. My 3 year old daughter only knows that they are moving to the city with the ‘vampire steak building’…

I wish them Godspeed. And in the coming years, I can’t wait to make the trip(s) up to visit, to collaborate with Lance again. Maybe this time it can be a series in which vampires are fought off with large cuts of meat on the tops of skyscrapers. Who knows…

Love you guys.

 

Bergan pet products

So I’m super well versed in how to take pictures of moving children… but then this question… how about moving ANIMALS?

You know, it’s almost the same thing. 🙂

the challenge was for Bergan pet products, a national pet product company  with an office here in Joplin. I found that I really like Bergan… a company ‘built on the bold idea that people are inspired by a clear sense of direction not a prescribed list of actions or tasks.’ A non-traditional company, wanting fresh images for their active lifestyle products…. perfect!

I quickly adapted to working with dogs- lots of dogs- and had so much fun, enjoying the challenge of scheduling models, lining up locations, and making sure we were nailing the images we were there to get (‘we’ being Dana Williams, marketing director, &  I). We had a dual focus…. the first was to capture general lifestyle images of folks and their dogs. Sort of like building a private stock photo library for the company.

The second goal, was to walk away with images that specifically showed off the leashes and carriers that Bergan is currently promoting.

As a side note- if you’re a pet owner- I saw these products in heavy use for hours during the shoot, and they’re top notch.

 

This is Ava, the beautiful daughter of 9art’s own Michelle. She knew the dog that Jon & Jordan from the previous shots brought- his name is ‘Booty’ and together, he & Ava made the world’s most adorable pair. Also had to snag a couple of shots of Ava hamming it up on her own…

Thanks so much to Dana for helping me run the shoot (oh, and for hiring me), and to all our models & dog owners for being awesome.