.:headshots:.

Ah... headshots. For all of my life I can remember looking up at billboards as we passed them in car trips and noticing headshots of a myriad of folks: insurance salesmen, doctors, real estate agents, reporters, funeral home directors, you name it, these men and women all had their heads plastered eight feet high. The disparity that I continued to notice was the quality of their headshots. To put it bluntly, they were pitiful photographs. Even as someone who didn't take photos at the time I could tell you that the people looked disingenuous, stuffy, and uncomfortable. Not to mention it appeared that most photographers had no idea what they were doing with lighting when they took these shots. It broke my heart that the persons being shot probably paid someone to take such an awful photo of them. I still see these unacceptable headshots plastered EVERYWHERE and, as corny as it sounds, it makes me weep inside.

When we finally started taking photos for real one thing Brian and I promised was that we'd work to try to get a shot that was not only lit absolutely beautifully (and in a flattering manner) but one in which the subject didn't look like they were in dire pain. The latter objective is much more difficult to achieve than the former when you're doing a simple headshot, but we still try. Headshots are a portion of what we've been up to lately, with our major batches being the theatre faculty and staff at MU and the dental staff at Accent Dental these last few weeks. Because I really truly do like doing headshots, I wanted to display them. So I borrowed a simple design I did for Second Baptist's Women's Day CD Promotional Poster back in September (for kicks, I added that below the headshot photos) and just stuck them all together. Much better than those stuffy mile high billboards you see along I-70 & I-63 if I do say so myself.

For safety purposes, I took off the latter half of Reverend Myra's phone number so she doesn't have everyone and their mother calling her at 4:00 a.m. wanting a CD. But I guess if anyone actually wanted to purchase one let me know and I'll give her the info. = ) Happy week after Thanksgiving! (Oh, and for kickers, which of the following faces looks familiar...?)

So if you know of anyone who needs their company's headshots updated...

.:kaylyn senior portraits:.

One of the things we love so much about photography is the people! I often find myself a little despondent after handing off the last book or disc of images to people we've photographed. I start getting sad that we no longer have excuses to interact with these phenomenal persons with whom we just bonded on some of the biggest days of their lives! I am stoked to announce that since Misty & Jerome got married on New Year's Eve of 2008 she has contacted me not once, but twice now to do photos. When their little one turned one year old in February we took photos at Jaylin's birthday party and now Misty's little sister, Kaylyn, is graduating from high school. Woo hoo! Ah, to be a senior graduating from high school again...

Kaylyn was totally laid back as her sister and Mom carried all of her clothes and shoes in a laundry basket with us around Mizzou's campus. Brian amused us all with his continual ramblings about the type of pizza he was hoping to con me into getting after we all got done shooting. I think he got started on that after Noreen, Kaylyn, & Heather all decided to hit the famous Shakespeare's Pizza (if you've never been there, you have to go) after they were done.

The building I had in mind for the black and white photo was, apparently, locked to the outside world on the weekends. Luckily, as we were arriving, a stranger walked in right before us and we grabbed the door. We looked totally inconspicuous with a laundry basket full of clothes, a gigantic camera, and a 4 foot tall reflector in the very large and brightly lit science building lobby. Needless to say, after I got a few shots I loved, we all left very quickly...

Kaylyn does every sport known to man (well, maybe not all, but almost all) in addition to joining her two older sisters as an acro star (if you're curious what "acro" means, it's short for acrobatics, Brian had to ask as our towns are much smaller than Owensville where they drove in from). You will notice in her photos that this girl is not only absolutely *gorgeous* but definitely has some strength in her. *Sigh* Maybe someday I'll be super flexible or super fabulous or super gymnasticy. Or maybe I'll just settle with being able to do my first pullup.

Thanks, Kaylyn, for being a rockstar!

Oh, and aren't these shoes a-MAZING? Her entire class (if I understood correctly) got a pair and decorated them. Class of 2010... that makes me feel old!

.:julie & wale:.

Today was wonderful. John, Brian and I met up in the black box theatre to try out lighting scenarios. I feel like I have learned so much since our last time in November! It feels surreal to think how far I've come at times and how little I knew before. One of the things that helped today is that we actually had a few volunteer models. I sometimes feel bad for the poor people who are guinea pigs for our lighting setups as, since we are still learning, there can often be a lot of tweaking and moving lights and checking settings, etc. But today before everyone got there we got a few setups done and played with.

Julie, a wonderful gal from my work showed up as a volunteer model and then a friend of mine from theatre also came, Wale Aliyu. Julie needed a headshot for an upcoming license she's going to get for our company and since she's so energetic and fun I invited her to come along so we could use her as a model. Wale has actually done some modeling prior to today and is so great to work with! It was so fun, every time I clicked, he moved and did something different. Maybe some people are meant to be models. I don't think I am!

I think my favorite shot has to be a tie between the first one posted above and then the second one of Julie below. Enjoy!

I don't know why I like this one above so much. It's a candid but something about it feels... surreal to me. You can see the umbrella on the left, unlit, the vague outline of someone in the foreground talking to someone else, and then the model, alone taking a breather but yet caught by light.

She's just so beautiful!

John looking somber, as he seems to do when the camera is on him. I gave him some special "effects". It's a very John photo. 2 lights, people!

And then, finally, me. Brian & John put together a setup to replicate one of a photo I'd fallen in love with. The girl was so serious, staring straight at the camera. She was in all black and her hair was a rim of angelic white light. Rather than edgy, I just look angry. Guess modeling isn't in my future!

What a fun day! (We missed you, Mike!)

.:more babies!:.

As I've stated before, when I started doing photography I never thought I'd be shooting portraits. Weddings were it. Plain and simple. Easy. But then I had to start paying attention to arranging people at weddings (it's a lot harder than it looks!). Then people started asking me to do portraits. Needless to say, I wasn't quite sold. But baby pictures? No way! Then along came Gaige, who stole my heart and was SO easy.

Today we did Anderson. Brian and I lugged all our gear over to Allie's house to take photos of Anderson, who will turn 1 on Wednesday. Earlier this week, she said "Are you sure you can do mobile toddlers, cause he's mobile..." I chuckled inside, thinking she didn't know about my secret weapon: Brian (who can seemingly entertain and keep the attention of any human under the age of 10 when necessary). But when she said mobile, boy did she mean mobile. We did several different settings and I was terrified none of the pictures would turn out since as soon as we put him in a spot he raced off crawling! It was a funny madhouse as Allie, Brian, & I worked together to get something usable. It wasn't until the end that Allie remembered that she has a magical DVD/CD of Baby Praise songs that mesmerizes Anderson and keeps him still. She put it in and it was PHENOMENAL. Instantly he stopped moving and was fixed to the screen watching these strange images of babies and rabbits pop across the screen while "Here I am to Worship" was sung softly in the background. All in all, though, we got some GREAT pictures. He was a doll. So fun.

And Brian decided perhaps he wants to start a business where he babysits for wee little uns all day and photographs them in the meantime. We'll see...

.:baby sitting:.

Brian and I did our first overnight babysitting last night. We had Gaige, our sweet baby friend of whom we did our last portrait session. We couldn't resist setting up a makeshift baby studio to try out our new pseudo backdrop. He is the most delightful, even-tempered baby ever (except for his 3 a.m. bout in which Brian and I struggled to find out what was making him scream and then to make him stop screaming! We found out today we did the baby no-no by picking him up, he thought it was time to play again.)

Candace and Eric dropped him off in his cute little Mizzou jersey last night which was, of course, perfect for picture taking! I keep telling them he needs to be the next Gerber baby! (The first photo is a remnant of my unsuccessful attempt to make him a faux-hawk this morning...)

.:gaige:.

So tonight Brian and I went to take our first "baby" portraits for some friends of ours. We got to use some of the new lighting equipment both outdoors and indoors and try to get creative to make it look like a studio. He is the most adorable baby. I was rather pleased with the results. This one was my favorite.