I can finally show you...

...the work I did for the 2008 Christmas card of fellow photographer, and incredible friend, Julie Lowry. If you recall, last year we did a GAP Ad theme for her Christmas Card, and this year we went whole hog: Breakfast at Tiffany's.

The concept and costume was all Julie, I just decorated the set, set up the lights and shot the images. I can't wait to see what we come up with next year.

The Many Faces of Katie

My daughter, Katlynn gleefully agreed to be my model for this fun session of pop-art style photographs. These turned into some great presents for the grandparents.

The Night the Reindeer Rocked

Yep - that was the name of the elementary school musical my daughter was in last night. They were too darn cute... and the best line of the play was delivered when the reindeer were booked for their first gig and it just happened to fall on Christmas Eve - "365 available nights in the entire year, and we get booked on the ONLY night we actually already have to work!"

Yep, my little reindeer totally rocked.

Post Processing Fun

Sometimes it's fun to composite a whole bunch of you into one image.

Joy appears eleven times in the pano image above. That's right - ELEVEN times. Creative composite images can be a lot of fun, especially for seniors and children.

Classic Beauty/Modern Flavor

Sometimes I like to try to mix and match classic lighting, posing, and sets with a modern style of presentation. This photograph of model, Amelia Steele is an example of that.

The soft faux window light, the reclined pose, and the chaise lounge smack of classic feminine portraiture. However, the modern textured post-processing and presentation created with designhouse give the overall image a very unique feel and flavor.

Make a book for Christmas

Did you know that you can make a beautiful hardback book of your images as Christmas gifts? I did. And that's just what I did last year. The image below is a "spread" from the picture book I delivered to my parents for Christmas last year.

The book was 10x10 and 20 pages long. When you open a spread like the one below, you have a gorgeous 20x10 photograph to share with your friends and family.

Ask me about creating a book of our images for you. You won't regret it.

Take the time to look around...

A few years ago, I was driving home when I spotted a rainbow on the horizon. It caught my attention, because it has literally been years since I'd seen a rainbow. As I stared at the natural prism of colors that sat in the sky, I wondered why I hadn't seen a rainbow in a long time.

Were there less rainbows these days? I remember seeing them all the time when I was a kid. Why weren't there the same amount of rainbows in the sky as an adult as there was when I was a child?

Rainbows hadn't changed. I changed. There weren't less rainbows. I had just begun to trudge through my life with my head down, dealing with my daily duties, and worrying about this and that - I had stopped looking for rainbows. I had changed, and it wasn't for the better.

From that afternoon on, I made a promise to myself to take the time necessary to see the rainbows - to remember that life is more than a daily struggle. Try it. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at the "rainbows" that become visible to your life.

Going on the Road!

Well, it's official. We announced two workshop dates this morning. I'll be doing "The GRIND3: DETROIT" and "No Limits: Portland" in March of 2009.

The GRIND3 will be a solo workshop in Detroit, and "No Limits" will be a joint workshop with Mike Long of Portland Pin-Ups and TimesTwo Studios.