Our work....in print. Always cool.

Tearsheets are pretty darn fabulous and we had some odd ones last year - ranging from priests, to hangover cures, professional football (soccer for you American folk) and the architects and union workers who build the stadiums and even a clock maker who restores historic clocks - the really big ones. I love the variety of the projects we get to cover, and while I do have my favorites it's phenomenal fun to be working with so many wonderful subjects.







Credits:
Room 39
Sporting KC
Populous
Architect Magazine
Historic Preservation Magazine
Columbia Magazine
Assistant - Adam Caselman

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Here's the rub...Part 3

This was the last part of our recent mailer campaign and while the salmon shot is a really simple image, it's definitely one of my favorites. We tried a variety of different hanging techniques to support the salmon. We tried using the whole fish and variations on it, but ultimately we found Adam (my wonderful assistant) was a great prop to get over the scale of the fish and show off a fun way of supporting it. Trina did a fantastic job of peeling back the skin, one of the outtakes was so perfect where we trimmed the skin it just looked like we did it in post, so we finally worked with this solution, where we pinned the skin back and kept the rub strictly on the exposed portion of the fish.

Meanwhile we worked with Sarah to get the "Bake" image just right - here we tried a couple of different models and wound up finding the blonde skin and long hair of Haley Middleton was a perfect match.

Definitely a fun shoot, a wonderful mailer and thank you to everyone for all the kind comments we've received.

PS. The rub does NOT work as a sunscreen.






Credits:
Food Stylist - Trina Kahl
Stylist - Sarah Thompson Lift
Assistant - Adam Caselman

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Why do I do it...

So I typically use the blog to show off the new images, so I wanted to try and post some stuff that's a little less shoot based and a little more me based. I occasionally get asked "how did I end up here", pretty much all the time - it's the accent I think - and while it generally relates to me being in America and talking in a strange way, I think it could equally relate to my photography. So yeah, how did I end up here. I started off in a very different direction; I was going to be an architect, like my father, and wound up doing an exchange program to the University of Kansas - there's a long story there - and then wound up designing retail interiors and exhibits all over the country - several long stories there. I loved it, it was a really cool job with some really exciting projects...and then I started photographing them.

That was that.

I just bought a camera from Best Buy, and twelve months later I was done, I chatted to some wonderful full-time professionals, who critiqued and advised and helped me adopt the best practices. I went to the library and read, I picked up the camera and practiced, I looked and looked, at my work and other people's work and then just walked out.

So why?

I love the camera, I love the physical nature of capturing that fragment of time, that moment, I love the technique, the multiplicity of options to solve almost any visual option. I love the incredible range of styles.

That's why I do it.

So I take a lot of photos, a lot of photos, and sometimes I get asked what my favorite image was. Last year I finally had time to go home at Christmas and see my family for the first time in four years...yep, it sounds soppy but my favorite image was this outtake that really took things full-circle for me. There are some images I want to frame, some I want to frame and have in the house, but I don't have many images that make me this happy.



Credits:

Mum and Dad

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Here's the rub....Part 2

Part two of our mailer campaign recently went out and again, thanks for the ongoing feedback. On this one we opted for a postcard mailer so we could show off the artwork a little larger. This time we opted to use the rub as a hair tonic with my good friend (and fellow photographer) Phil Peterson stepping in to model for us. Also, that's Kate's hands are doing the rubbing. On the food - Trina prepped a beautiful tied pork roast and this was one of those occasions where we got to eat the props - we finished shooting this one just before lunch and without any obscure adulteration to the food Trina finished it off and we just sat down to reflect on a great shoot. Thanks to Sarah Thompson Lift who styled the head rub shot and made sure Phil left with his eyesight in tact - safety first.

Part three is coming up next. I hope you are enjoying the images.






Credits:
Food Stylist - Trina Kahl
Stylist - Sarah Thompson Lift
Assistant - Adam Caselman

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I Make Beautiful Kids...

And it's true...not of me of course, but of my wonderful friend Stephanie Malcy. It's my luck to try and capture a bit of that beauty and I got a chance to do that this year when I went to visit Minneapolis and visit some of it's wonderful agencies. Stephanie relocated with her husband Jay and her expanding family a few years ago and has always been a fantastic supporter of mine - particularly in designing my incredibly wonderful branding (both round one and two). So when I was on my trip I went by with a camera and forced her to let me take a couple of photos, ironically Merik (her eldest boy) has always been a staple in my portfolio (thanks Amanda Sosa Stone). This time it's Ryah I'm in love with.

So what's better - colour or black and white?



Oh, and here's Merik, being a little goofy.

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Tech N9ne Salue: Our First Time with Tech.

The first time we got to meet Tech and all the folk at Strange Music was with the Salue video for Big Scoob. In this one we didn't do anything but open the doors of the studio for them to shoot the video. It was really good fun to hang out with everyone and watch the video unfold.



Credits:
Tech N9ne
Strange Music
Location - Vox Theatre

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