The Craft Begins

I cannot even communicate how beautiful I find these well-composed and lit still lifes from Kari Herer.

Something about them is so magical and transcendent.  Simply gorgeous.  You can purchase a print for yourself at her etsy shop.

OK, this is taking tilt-shift photography to the extremes of awesomeosity.  I’m not sure how you would go about accomplishing something like this, but I really enjoy the result.

My friend Laurent just came back with a new series of gorgeous photos.  I cannot get over these – the lighting, the ability to capture a bit of the person’s personality and soul in the photograph.  You have to pop over to his site and check them all out.

In case you missed them, here’s an earlier post I did about his work, as well as an interesting interview.

I aspire to take pictures like this.

I’m trying to photograph 100 people this year in my “studio”.  Usually ends up being my friends, as they are the easiest to wrangle into the house.  I’ve only got 6 so far so I think I’m really going to have to step up my game here!

I got to thinking about the greater implications of this project, and I realized that it would be an interesting way of visualizing my social network.  I’ll have to think of a creative way to display that.

What kind of projects do you have in the works right now?

I’ve always wanted to travel to the northern part of the hemisphere to see the northern lights.  It’s probably beyond cold, but I think it would be worth it.

photo by Joshua Strang

photo by Philippe Moussette at Observatoire Mont Cosmos, Quebec, Canada

photo by Jason Stevens

photo by Colin Nowra

image from eurotrash

image from Studiolit

Have you had an opportunity to see the northern lights?  Are they as beautiful in person as they are in these pictures?

Hey everyone, sorry I’ve been extremely lax in posting.  It’s been a crazy week with lots of projects going on, which I hope to share with you at a later date!  In the meantime, this was one of the more odd projects this week: taking some promo pictures for a heavy death metal band.  Other than the fact that it was extremely loud, I had quite a fun time!  Here’s a picture or two from the shoot.

So, a small sample of my week.

Hope everyone is having a great long weekend!  <3

Most of the pictures I’ve taken lately have been more headshot-type portraits as that was the easy setup that I had going on.  However, this weekend, I decided to mix it up a bit and take more of a staged shoot, with props and whatnot.  I really like the way that it turned out – I think I’m going to have to just do this from now on.

That’s my friend Charles – a willing model, thankfully.

What do you like taking pictures of?  People, landscapes, pets, food?

Sometimes I think about what the world looks like through different eyes.  Not just other people (who is to say that what they see as purple is like what you see as purple?) but insects, or dogs, or anything else.  I think that’s what I like about infrared photography – it shows you things that you are familiar with, but in an entirely different light.  It takes away the guessing game part of it and instead presents you with an alternate, dreamy, ghost-like reality populated with faintly glowing vegetation and dark, ominous skies.

from Mauro Luna

from plaskota

from Dr. H

from Bill Gracey

from Talke Photography

from Sausyn

I think it’s fairly magical.

I’m happy to say that I finally got my photography website/portfolio up!

If you’ve got a moment, please stop by for a visit – I’d love to hear what you think, good or bad.

Well I’ve finished my first month of 365 photos – I missed a day or two (oops) but I think it’s the overall goal that I’m going for.  The spirit, if not the letter, I say.

One thing that I’ve discovered – I love color.

Follow my whole 365 project here, if you’re interested.

How are your  new year’s goals turning out after a month in?

How great is this series of self portraits?

Something about this just makes me smile.  Check them all out here.

These photographs from Michael Hughes are amazing.  He takes pictures of cheap souvenirs in situ.  He’s been working on this project for over 20 years and has quite the collection to show for it.

You can buy digital files to make prints for a nominal fee at his website (as well as see more of his photography) and you can see the whole collection here.

What kind of souvenirs do you like to take home?

1.  I love the funny yet sweet vintage illustration mashups over at Jolly Good Show.  Very charming.

2.  Lisa Congdon is doing her own unique 365 project – a picture or a drawing of a vintage collection of something a day.  School supplies, feathers, you never know what will come up next.  See them all at A Collection a Day.

3.  Grey Likes Weddings, and I like Grey’s hand-curated collection of fantastic and sweet weddings and inspiration.

4.  Sweet Paul showcases amazing styling and photography, as well as tasty recipes and crafty ideas.  Making the blogosphere good looking, one post at a time.

Sometimes I get upset about the way that people misrepresent Denver.  Yeah, it’s got a bit of a reputation for being a cow town but it’s suprisingly hip and awesome.  Great restaurants, lots of arts events, all of those things.  But sometimes, Denver really is a cowtown.

Yes, you’re seeing that right.  It is longhorn cattle being driven through downtown.

The stock show is in town, which is the one time of year that Denver sheds any notions of cosmopolitanism, pulls on its cowboy boots, and says “yee-haw”.  I especially love the parade through the city streets.  Not something you see every day.

I especially loved the collection of tractors of various vintages being ridden gleefully by a certain type of middle aged man.  They looked like they were having the time of their lives.

I love the juxtaposition of high-rises and horses.  This is why I live in the West.

Many of my friends from childhood were involved in the theater or actors of some sort.  This makes them very fun and engaging to be around, especially when you’re in a bar.  Last week a bunch of us had gotten together and somehow the conversation turned to impressions, which occupied us for another hour or so.  Watching all of my friends manipulate their faces so well (hey, was that Kevin Spacey?) I was inspired to do a series of photographs that really showed off their skills.  This is a first of a series, with one of my long-time besties.