Portrait Client Experience | Senior & Family Photographer Denver

Confession: I'm a total design / branding / packaging nerd. I love me some strong, compelling lines of graphic design and seeing how people integrate design into their branding (I have a super fun Pinterest board to check out for inspiration if you, too, geek out on the subject).

So it's really no surprise that I've loved every minute of designing, researching and preparing these new materials and products. This is going to be a game changer for the kind of experience I can provide for my clients.

Here's a peek:

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Clockwise starting at the top:
1) Customized crystal USB drives for electronic file delivery, custom designed wax seal, fresh branded stamp, beautiful gift certificates and new streamlined product menu.
2) The Folio Box!!! The beauty, weight and craftsmanship of this box is STUNNING in person!!
3) New re-usable delivery bags for frame and folio box orders - love them!
4) New Proofing System for High School Senior & Family Clients (Modern Women's Portrait clients' presentation will be revealed in another few weeks!)... that's right: we're taking it back to REAL LIVE PROOFS! I've suspected for a while that holding something in your hands would be easier to sort, admire and actually SEE than digital proofs. First session was all I needed to see to convince me how preferable the experience is.

I'm so SO excited!!

Regarding the origin of this new logo, I thought about this for about half a year before putting pen to paper, wanting an image to accompany my branding that I could separate out from text. When I finally felt inspired to sketch one day, I sat down and sketched this in about 90 seconds, drawing my architectural roots into the iconography of a photo-taking device, not quite realizing how powerful an exercise that would turn out to be. Something about putting pen to paper... quite satisfying, indeed!

Union Station Photo Shoot | Senior Pictures, Denver

I'm so excited to share this!

My assistant (who happens to also be my 14 year old son) shot a bit of behind the scenes video footage on one of our recent high school senior photo shoots. And THIS is what he edited together in just a few minutes this morning. I hope he does more of this because I'm really impressed with what he got in his FIRST attempt!!

Thank you, Gabe!

Behind the Scenes | Senior Pictures Denver

It's busy season for high school seniors! So many ridiculously fun photo shoots coming back to back these days I can hardly keep up with sharing, but another senior session at Union Station was worth a few new kinds of behind the scenes shots (this place is SO great!!!) I can't WAIT to share Anna's session -- we had a wonderful time exploring, and her photos are going to be absolutely stunning.

Enjoy the teasers!

When the back of the camera looks THIS good ... when photographed by an iPhone ... let's just say I get pretty darn excited! This edit is going to be fun...

Cover Girl Magazines! | Senior Photographer, Denver

I just LOVE designing things like this to offer to my clients! Here's a peek at a new product in my lineup for high school seniors this year... I loved so many from this session it was impossible to pick just one!

Eileen is one of my senior models this year and I just love her beautiful soul. Her session was magical -- one of those that makes me feel indescribable joy for the honor of celebrating high school seniors at this exciting time of their lives. Yep, I am a lucky girl to get to do this!!

Portrait Session in Denver's Newest Treasure! { Senior Pictures Denver }

The former architect in me has been beside myself with excitement watching the renovation of Union Station in Denver this year. I photographed it from above while it was under construction; my son and I did walking tours with urban infill groups; we visited when it first opened to the public and then again for the official Grand Opening.

Upon seeing the AMAZING new space, furnishings and light, the photographer in me took over and became beside myself with excitement at the prospect of portrait sessions in the great interior! It has absolutely incredible light -- even, lovely, flattering -- beautiful. The furnishings and textures are incredible. I am in love.

And for my very first session: the amazing Madison!! I can't wait to edit her photos (I mean truly, I am CRAZY excited for these). In the meantime, here are a few teasers from behind the scenes.
Enjoy!

Yes... we had A LOT of fun!! (and that back of camera shot. I mean, seriously: how absolutely adorable is this girl??)

Also worth mentioning: Everyone from bar tenders to shop owners to security guards seemed excited that we were in there photographing their space. I'll keep saying this: Denver is SO LUCKY to have this unique, beautiful and welcoming urban space.

And one more notable perk to photographing in Union Station: SO many options for wonderful treats after the shoot!

Holiday Portraits!

It's not too late!!

A few sessions remain (including a few weekend spots) for a joyful holiday portrait photo shoot (in the Denver area).

Ask about our special holiday package!

One Architects | Ad Campaign in Luxe magazine

Excited to share this beautiful ad campaign I have been designing for One Architects to run in Luxe magazine:

Winter (l) and Spring (r) full page ads in Luxe

The conceptual goal was to use the full page in an eye-catching way that would drive curiosity to visit their website.  We strived to achieve this by highlighting an unusual crop of an architectural detail in the keyhole of their logo, with a different seasonal background for each corresponding issue in Luxe magazine.

Winter and Spring (running in the current issue) are shown above, and we just finished up summer, which will be a double page spread:

Summer double page spread in Luxe

Telluride AIDS Benefit | Behind the Models... The Series

I'm still not exactly sure why I ever believed the local fashion show models of Telluride would actually agree to pose for these photos, but somehow they went for it, and here we are, four years strong!

There's something so powerful and pure about the grouped forms of bodies in graphic shapes like this, and the set altogether is quite fun.

Together 8 prints of these four photos have raised over $4K in the Telluride AIDS Benefit silent art auctions.

Top to bottom:
Array | 2009
Force + Grace | 2011
Hands of Hope | 2008
Outside the Box | 2010

Favorite Photos from 2010 | Part VI: Architecture

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Favorite Photos from 2010 | Part 1: Scenic + Macro

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Fun with Holiday Lights

Just a little holiday fun around the house... Happy Holidays, everyone!

Denver | Black + White

A few black and white captures from recent photographic wanderings through my beloved Denver...

Macro Food Photography

Denver architect Gosia Kung of Kung Architecture, recently commissioned me after seeing some of my macro floral work, for a super fun (and educational) assignment, to create artwork for the walls of a Vietnamese restaurant she is designing.
Every part of this project was fun for me, from shopping the Asian market, to composing and shooting, to getting creative in the kitchen with the "leftovers" (food which did not wilt under the heat of the lights).  These ingredients are so luscious and sensual... I had no idea there was a natural edible color such as the hot pink of a gorgeous Dragon Fruit, nor did I realize you could cook with fresh turmeric (quite tasty).  My cutting boards will never be the same!
Pho-natic is scheduled to open early August at Colfax and Grant, across from the Capitol Building in Denver.  I can't wait to check it out!

Fireworks... Denver Style!

Denver threw their first official fireworks party this past weekend - sponsored by the Civic Park Conservancy - and it was a HUGE success!  The Colorado Symphony Orchestra performed a classic July 4th concert, the skies cooperated beautifully (nice rainbow over the Capitol appeared right behind us) and an estimated 25,000 people came out for the show.

For some reason, I think it is positively adorable how much Denver loves their City + County Building; the colored lights on the facade are part of their annual winter Holiday Show.  They made for a creative and original complement to the spectacular fireworks!

Already can't wait to see what they do next year!  

Denver Rocks!!

Urban Spring (with tunes!)

I've lived in the mountains for long enough that I forgot that spring was more than just mud and melting snow at a lower altitude.  Colors, trees, bees - couldn't get enough of it!
Here is a sampling of what I've tried to capture of urban spring set to "Dueling Guitars" from the August Rush soundtrack.  Enjoy in HD (full screen) for best experience!

Bokeh Fun

I decided to go freeze my fingers for one more visit to the Denver Botanic Gardens on New Year's Eve. I wandered around shooting lights and people for over an hour, and had just put my camera back in the safety and warmth of the big 'ol bag when one last tightly wrapped tree caught my eye. It is amazing how often I put away the equipment, only to pull it out "one last time" for what ends up being the best shot of the day.

Honestly, when I saw this last tree, my fingers were sufficiently frozen to the point that I could no longer get them to set the tripod back up, so decided to shoot handheld, with my aperture wide open and play with depth of field. Deliberately focusing on different planes of the branches would force others out of focus, and I was immediately having a great time framing and refocusing.

I always enjoy a good "painting with light" shot, too, so some long exposure motion experimentation was in order as well.

Enjoy!

Architectural Photography | Capture Philosophy: On NATURAL LIGHT

I came to professional photography through the back door, after receiving my Master of Architecture degree and spending many years early in my career practicing architecture, planning and design.

For as long as I can remember, I have been a passionate darkroom and landscape photography enthusiast on the side, and wonder now if perhaps years of chasing ever changing Colorado light -- watching the power of natural and ambient light to dramatically change our perception of a landscape depending on its angle, intensity and color -- came to inform my taste for an architectural photography which celebrated that same quality of light.

My vision for how to photograph ARCHITECTURE specifically was sparked after receiving photographs over the years of my firm’s design work, realizing that I had a deep frustration with the way artificial light was being used in photographing architecture and design.

Natural and designed light are critical to our experience of architecture and design intension. Too much artificial light and you end up with staged, “movie still” looking photographs. Granted, traditional photographers were largely bound by limits of the camera in its ability to capture contrast, but the advent of digital has opened new doors to capture in different ways.

NATURAL LIGHT defines our PERCEPTION OF SPACE

Critical to showcasing contrasting elements and the layering of spaces, is the manner in which a lighting scheme is designed to illuminate, reflect and bounce around such materials and spaces.

The manner in which light - both natural and designed - plays within an architectural space is both the greatest potential satisfaction and most painstaking challenge of my work as an architectural photographer. Few photographic subjects test a camera’s limits as interior architectural photography does with its inherent drastic contrast from a subtle interior scene to the bright sunlight pouring in through windows.*

This presents the greatest challenge to a photographer IF and when the intention is to capture a scene the way our eye sees it.

In the days of film capture, a photographer overcame this technical challenge of balancing inside available light with the overpowering intensity of daylight by bringing in often very large amounts of supplemental lighting. If a view out the windows was important to the scene, artificial lighting was an absolute requirement to allow a camera to expose for both internal and external lighting conditions.

TRADITIONALLY, the consequence of obtaining a bright, balanced shot with supplemental lighting was the death of the intended architectural lighting design scheme, all too often distracting shadows of furniture strewn across the floor, and an overall loss of the subtlety of the interaction of contrasting elements, textures and shadow patterns.

With the advent of the digital capture and processing, it is now possible to push the limits of photography in new directions, coming closer than ever to a photograph being able to convey the subtleties of a space AS OUR EYE SEES IT, with all its depth as well as its intended contrasts. This can now be more closely achieved through a technique of shooting and layering multiple exposures of the same scene under natural and designed architectural lighting conditions.

Different styles are emerging for maximizing and celebrating natural light, from bright sunny interiors with intentionally over-exposed windows, to overt High Dynamic Range photography, where edges are punched and often exaggerated for dramatic artistic effect (a method which can be incredibly compelling, but in most cases, not necessarily the most appropriate method, if the goal is to represent the architecture on its own merit).

In my work, the desired end effect is a natural looking, sophisticated and welcoming final photograph that invites the viewer into the space to appreciate its design elements. This requires painstaking attention to detail and plenty of self restraint when working with up to 7 or 8 different exposures.

I have tried various methods and software programs to achieve results, but I find that I obtain the look I want in the end, only by approaching these layers by hand, selectively using different elements of each exposure with great attention to detail. Patterns have emerged in my process, but I find that a slightly different thought process takes place almost every time I sit down to edit a shoot, depending on what I see in each vignette.

The process of working with natural light can save an abundance of time in the field, as the setup of supplemental lighting equipment is essentially eliminated, but it requires a tremendous amount of patience, skill, creativity and passion for the subject matter after the shoot in the digital darkroom.

Ideally, the finished photograph becomes a sensitive reflection of the architecture, and in the best cases, even a work of art in itself.

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* The human eye is capable of assimilating information from contrasting bright (sun pouring in from a window) and low light (interior) conditions almost instantaneously in a way that a camera is, as of yet anyway, simply not capable.

Just for Fun: Painting with Light + Color

I have experimented for years with the technique of slowing down the shutter speed and panning my camera while exposing a shot, but to get an image that goes beyond just a blur to something soulful and beautiful is not easy! This year I finally achieved a few images that I really love.

Using a camera to "paint" with color can be hugely satisfying... It is incredibly fun to take an exposure beyond straight capture, into a whole new realm of creativity.

Some images are more abstract than others, and really start to feel like paintings, complete with brush strokes of natural color and light.

I look forward to experimenting next with printing these on fine art papers!