Big hair, vintage dress, fake birds and flower headpieces

I've mentioned before that I want to take a little dive in to the conceptual world of photography, as well as modeling and fashion. It's outside my box but a way in which I can use more of my artsy/creative side. I want to throw out a lot of the rules for posing and perfect lighting and correct skin tones. Isn't that what art is about, breaking rules and creating something that is beautiful to you? If it is beautiful to others, than that is just a bonus.

I've met many people over the last few months who I've wanted to use for one of my concepts (because of course I have several running around in my head!). Unfortunately, between my regular schedule of clients and having three children these shoots just kept getting pushed aside. One evening a friend texted me and mentioned that her daughter was interested in modeling and I said "Oh I have all these ideas in my head, I'd love to use her for one! Set a date with me and then I have to execute it!" So we did just that.

For well over two years I've had a concept in my head that I've wanted to do.  This is what was in my head: A black dress, big hair, a birdcage and railroad tracks.  At first I wanted someone with long dark hair and and a dark and dreary day for this shoot. Hailey has short blonde hair, but I decided to go with it. I couldn't really control what the weather would do that day.  A few days before our shoot I  was inspired by one of my favorite photographers, Sue Bryce to create some headpieces. So off to Michaels I went and my girls and I sat at the kitchen table with a hot glue gun and created!

The day of the shoot came and it was a sunny, blue sky day. I was a little bummed but I thought "I can always overlay a dark sky in post". I also decided to abandon the railroad part. Railroads are used, a lot. I had recently taken a run on a road that I loved and thought...that's it!

Here a few of my favorite shots! And after writing this and posting I think I might just play with some dark cloud overlays in a few, just to see! For my portraits I want to be as natural as possible, just fix a few things here and there and done. So it's a little hard telling myself that in my concept photos, it's ok to use to photoshop as a tool and "paintbrush"!

This was actually the second part of our shoot. The first part I wanted to do a softer, flowery, hippie feel. You won't ever hear me say no to a hippie feel for a shoot :) I was on a bike ride one evening and took a dirt road I'd never been on and stumbled upon a small groove of trees that were amazing! So we went there first! Here's a few from that portion! 

I had such a blast with this shoot and I really cannot wait to do more. It's something I need to take the time to do. It's good for the soul. 

Mom & Me Sessions

Whoa, how is it the end of May already? School is over today and I will have a 5th grader, 2nd grader and only 3 more years til a Kindergartner!
This Spring was very busy!  The older two were both in Softball and that proved to be 5 weeks of craziness!  So my Social Media has really gone by the wayside! I have a to do list a mile long, but I really wanted to take some time to share what I have been up to over the last month!
I had decided at the beginning of the year that I wasn't going to offer mini sessions as much this year. The reasons for this are probably for another blog! But something I've really been mulling over is Quality vs. Quantity. I like Quality...and the rest I will save for another day.

But there was one mini session I couldn't give up, the Mom and Me sessions! I had so much fun with these last year, so I had to do them again. I think it's really common for mom to be behind the camera and not in pictures. There are so many reasons for this. Capturing the moments for our children, but forgetting to include ourselves in those moments. We shouldn't do that, we should hand the cameras over to others more often!
I also know way too many moms (and women for that matter) that don't want pictures of themselves because their hair isn't right, they're make up isn't done, they're too "fat". I'm guilty of this myself. Guess what?! Your kids don't care...and when they're looking at old pictures with their children someday they aren't going to say "oh I wish mom hadn't been in that picture because she didn't put on her mascara that day!" What they are going to say is "wow, I wish I had more pictures of my mom and I". Go back and read my blog entitled "Why you shouldn't wait"

So here's just a glimpse of the results of my mom and me sessions! Make sure to look for them next spring! Or if I happened to inspire you enough to want to do a session soon, we could make that work!
Enjoy.

In another life I'll be a musician!

If I wasn't a photographer, I'd be a musician.

Actually that's a lie, I have no musical abilities whatsoever.  But I love music and secretly wish I had more musical talent!

So when Michael Myers, a local musician, called looking to set up a shoot to get some promo shots for himself and his daughter, I was stoked! I love doing new things and musicians are creative which means I can get a little more creative!

We headed out to Willow Creek where they had lived for many years. It was a gorgeous day and Michael and Cierra were naturals. I love how the same shot can look so different by smiling or not or turning it to black and white.

I listened to their CD while I edited this session, Cierra has an amazing voice and Michael compliments her very well. And that's all I have to say because my knowledge of music is pathetic other than I know what I like and I liked their sound!

Liberating

If ten years ago, you told me “you will be a portrait photographer” I would have laughed and said, “no way!” I loved (and still do) landscape, wildlife, and fine art photography. (In fact, I’ve been craving some of those shoots so I will have to plan some road trips this spring !) Since I started this journey of becoming a professional photographer it’s been interesting to me to see how I have evolved and continue grow. In the last few years I have been focusing on families, children, and high school Seniors and I didn’t really expect to start venturing into the world of fashion, glamour and Boudoir photography; yet, here I sit and that is exactly what I am doing!

This post is about my experience venturing into Boudoir photography! It’s something that I’ve been interested in for about a year, but due to my commitments for families, kids and seniors it just wasn’t something I was ready to pursue. However, in September I had the honor of photographing a friend and fellow photographer’s maternity portraits. A boudoir photographer herself, we spent some time at her house playing with lighting and doing some light boudoir maternity shots. I loved how they turned out and decided then that I would make the time to pursue this niche.

Venturing into something new is always exciting as well as nerve wracking. In preparation I did lots of research, studied countless boudoir images, and attended an online workshop. I knew what I wanted my Boudoir shoots to be like. I wanted the images to be classy, tasteful and timeless. Most importantly, I want my clients to feel comfortable and walk away having had a good experience. I expected my clients to be nervous, who wouldn’t be, letting themselves be completely vulnerable, often times in front of a complete stranger?  I expected clients’ confidence in themselves and their trust in me to grow as each session went on. What I didn’t expect was how liberating the shoots would be for not only the client but for me as well.

To watch someone, who absolutely doesn’t want an area of their body to be photographed, by the end of the shoot posing for full body shots and wearing less clothing than they originally intended, is inspiring and rewarding. To watch someone begin to embrace their body, flaws and all, and to see them walk out as a more confident person is why I am doing this. It may not be why I started doing it, but it is why I will continue to do it. I want women to feel comfortable with themselves and to embrace their bodies the way they are and to feel beautiful! We all deserve that.

I’ve had several women say to me, “I’d love to do one of your boudoir sessions, but I need to lose 10lbs.” I can relate. After my first shoot, I texted Sam (my above photographer friend) and said “I want you to do my Boudoir portraits, but I want to lose 5lbs”.  Now, after doing several shots, I say screw the 5lbs, screw the extra skin around the belly, screw the stretch marks. There’s so much my body can do, and has done, and let’s embrace that.

Part of my job as a professional photographer is to understand the human body and the angles and poses that most flatter a person; how the bend of the knee or a slight change in angle makes the legs look longer or the waist narrower. I believe on the power of posing and lighting instead of adjustments in Photoshop. I do, of course, edit my images, but I do not believe in altering a person completely

A few of my beautiful and courageous clients have approved images that I can share.  Enjoy!

Contact me to schedule your own liberating experience of a Boudoir Shoot.

Rissa's Senior Session - New Location

I love shooting at new locations! I'm constantly looking for new places to shoot, sometimes I see something that I look at every single day and it suddenly looks different and is a photo shoot backdrop! Sometimes I just stumble upon a place. In July my friend and I ran a 5k brew run in Bozeman, starting and ending at the Bozeman Brewery.  As we ran along I was looking at all these buildings and thinking "wow these would be great for a photo shoot!". Later that week Rissa's mom contacted me about doing her Senior Portraits and I said oh I have such a great place.
We didn't get to the shoot until just last week, so I had to revisit the neighborhood to make sure I wasn't in a delusional state while I was running!  I even arrived to the area early for the shoot and found more buildings to use.  We had to make some adjustments to my original vision because of the sun that evening and it was not giving us very many shady areas at the buildings.  The other side of the train depot had amazing colorful graffiti. The second building was proving very frustrating for me. I was doing the best I could but just wasn't happy with the light. I suddenly turned and looked across the street and the building with the tin sides and wooden steps was sitting right there just inviting us to come over!
We decided to head back to the train depot to see if we could use the green doors. The sun was so close to getting to the point that we could shoot we decided to wait it out. Just 15 minutes later it was perfect. Some of my favorite shots are from those last 15 min of shooting! It pays to be patient.

Mike Senior Session - Clouds are good!

Photographers talk about "the light" all the time and everyone loves to see those hazy, sunny images.  But what most people don't know is that working in that light isn't easy. Yes its gorgeous...when you have a reflector to bounce light back into your subjects face so its not in shadow. But it's also a challenge..finding the right place to put your subject so there's no shadows across their face, changing your angle every time the light moves a bit...just to name a few :)!
So when I have a shoot scheduled and its a cloudy day, I'm happy. Clouds are nature's soft box. It diffuses the light, it gives a more even light. It allows me as a photographer a lot more "room to move" without having to worry about where the sun is. Cloudy days also make colors pop, so I love a cloudy day in the fall for a shoot!
Mike was lucky to get one of those cloudy days. Actually we were lucky to have a dry shoot. I don't like to cancel due to weather until the last minute if at all possible (unless its windy, cold and miserable). It'd been pouring for a good hour and about 10 min before the shoot it stopped! I think it started to sprinkle as we finished up, but sometimes Mother Nature Cooperates.
Guys aren't always really into their portraits, but Mike did a great job and I really feel like I was able to get a lot expression and emotion out of our shoot!

On a side note....I usually pick out my favorites from a shoot pretty quickly as I'm culling them. But every once in awhile when I go back to get them to clients or create my blog, I see one that I can't believe I didn't LOVE the first time around! That happened today with Mike's....I'm really loving the middle B&W one below! 

Grooms Family

I do quite a bit to prepare for my photo sessions. I talk to my clients, find out their expectations, learn names, ages and interests of everyone involved so I can relate to them on a personal level. I hate to be a "stranger" putting a camera in their face and expecting them to smile and feel comfortable. So I like to take that time to make them feel comfortable. If I don't get to meet everyone before our shoot, I like to spend the first few minutes talking to everyone and getting to know a little about them.
I'm constantly looking for inspiration for new locations, poses and ideas.  I subscribe to countless blogs and newsletters with tips and tricks so that I'm constantly learning and becoming better at my craft. Before a shoot, I make notes on poses I want to do and try, I draw stick figure diagrams and I refer to it often each shoot. That's not to say I don't go off on spontaneous tangents during shoots, because believe me I do that too. I just like to have a little bit of a plan, whether any of it happens or not!
So Sunday morning before Cindy's shoot, I was prepared....and then I went to pick something up off the floor and gracefully poked myself in the eye with the piece of paper in my other hand and immediately I knew, I scraped my cornea!!! And the first thing that I said "NO!!!! I have a shoot in 2 hours!!!" I thought about trying to reschedule but I knew that one of her son's was only in town for the weekend and I also knew that it being adult children and I already had my preparations done that I could persevere and get it done!
I actually didn't feel too awful, I would just randomly have episodes where my eye would start watering profusely and I couldn't open it....so luckily I only had one during the shoot! Thank you Grooms Family for putting up with my slight disability that morning and allowing me a few moments to get myself back together!

It was a beautiful morning at the Headwaters State Park and we were able to utilize a couple different locations there to get some great shot!  Cindy is the owner of The Foxy Lady Salon in Bozeman. She believed in my vision for a shoot with her stylists and I'm so very thankful for that!