This morning I looked outside my studio window and I saw this guy cleaning the windows at the bank across the street. It seemed a pretty scary situation, but I guess these guys are fearless. This reminds me I have a plan to start making images daily of what happens on my corner-9th and Broadway. There’s always something going on down there! Check back and see what I capture next!
This morning I had the pleasure of photographing my friends, Ardith and Ryan’s, little (BIG) boy, Simon. He is the spitting image of his daddy. It’s really uncanny.
Poor guy, he is on vacation, missing his daddy, in a different time zone and TEATHING…
Still, we managed to get a handful of great shots. He has an amazing ability to hold his toys with his feet as you’ll see below:
Thanks for bringing Simon by, Ardith! It was fantastic to see you and to finally meet this guy! What a cutie, what a sweetie, what a complete and total flirt! He DOES love the ladies!
I swear, I did NOT force my children to come to the studio with me yesterday! It was their idea. They really WANTED me to take their picture. For everyone who keeps asking why my OWN children are not featured on the website….here they are! Joseph is 8.5 and Isaac just turned 4. (He’s wearing his home-made party hat)
As always, I hope you enjoy!
Delia Mae (my new neice–surrounded by 4 boy cousins) was born 4 minutes before midnight last night, July 11, 2008. She was 6 lbs, 10 oz and 20 inches long. Linda and I had the pleasure of having big brothers Emmett and Liam over for a sleep-over last night! This morning I brought them home to meet their new little sister and, of course, to have her first photo session! The following are our favorite 16 images from this first batch.
This is the sign Emmett had us write and put on the front door this morning.
Congratulations Hardy and Debbie! I don’t think we could be any happier or more proud this morning.
So every year I have a blast entering a variety of photography competitions. One of my favorites is the Black and White (b&w) magazine’s ‘Single Image’ contest. This is a great magazine marketed to collectors of fine black and white photography. It has definitely served as an inspiration for me and my work over the years. They have two contests each year–the single image contest and the portfolio contest.
Some interesting information about the contest: Last year 830 photographers from around the world entered. There were roughly 5,500 images submitted and these were narrowed down to 200 winning images.
Both years I have entered, I have been honored to receive a merit award for one of my images submitted.
This year I thought I’d give you a preview of the images I’ve submitted for consideration. It’s a long process on this contest–The entries are due the beginning of June and the awards are announced in mid October. I love the process of going through images and deciding on what I’ll enter. For this particular contest, there is no limit to the number of entries, but there is an entry fee per image. I try to keep my entry to under 10 images. Enjoy! ,br>
This first image is titled: ”Dakota” and is from the first session in my new studio
These next two are quite special to me–they are entitled “Flakey’s Funeral 1″ and “Flakey’s Funeral 2″ This past fall we lost our good old cat Flakey to a variety of diseases. It was an emotional time for all of us and I was grateful my family understood my need to process this through my lens.
“New Beginnings” — For Christmas this year, I bought myself a toy camera–a replica of the cult classic ‘Diana‘ What fun! This is from my first roll of film and is a shot of the new retaining wall built behind the new Jimmy Johns on West Broadway.
”Respect for H.S.” is an image I have tried to emulate for a number of years. I think I finally got it with this one. The first copy of B&W magazine I received was a Christmas gift and it had an image similar to this on the cover. Howard Schatz is the amazingly talented photographer I’m trying to copy here. In fact, the first year I entered the single image contest, Howard Schatz won the gold award for the category I placed in as well and I was just so honored to be considered among the same pages as him.
’Separation Anxiety’ One of my favorite birth pictures
‘Two Hours’ is another birth picture that just had something about it I fell in love with. I love the light, the huge yawn, the little fist in the corner…
And finally, ‘Three Goats’. I took this while doing a family portrait session at Goatsbeard Farm (BTW, if you’ve never had their cheese…you have GOT to go to farmers market, Hy-Vee or the Root Cellar and try some! It is a little piece of heaven produced right here in mid-mo!) I knew as soon as I snapped it I would be entering this image into the contest.
This question has come up a few times lately in family sessions with children who are over the age of two. It seems everyone has already been trained by this age to “say cheese” when a camera shows up. I playfully mention they must not have read my blog yet!
I guess looking into the camera and saying cheese or anything else, really….it just doesn’t capture who we really are.
I always try to talk to parents ahead of time and let them know not to worry about trying to get everyone looking at the camera at the same time.
I let them know I don’t really care if the children look at me at all. Eventually, they do end up looking at me…I’m pretty funny sometimes.
Mostly I like to spend some time getting to know the kids I’m working with until they trust me enough to look at me or to play around a bit with me.
Ultimately, I want the experience to be a good one for everyone–especially the children.
I recently heard of a dad who chose not to come to the session with me because of his childhood memories of his family’s portrait sessions. wow.
This is my goal–to create a generation of children who grow up loving the memories of their family portrait sessions.
I’ve found that the families I photograph year after year are building these kinds of memories and relationships with me. Every year their images seem to get better as the children and I build on our relationship.
Okay, so I got a little off track there….
I certainly don’t walk around showing my teeth with a static smile on my face….I’m sure you don’t either.
So please, don’t say {cheese}!
Hang out, give kisses, tell secrets, tell jokes, talk about stinky underwear (Thanks for that one, Tim! evidently it’s from the Chipmunks movie), blow bubbles, eat cookies, eat ice cream, play in the fountain, hide jelly beans in funny places (images coming from that one soon!)….anything but look at me saying {cheese}.
Here’s an example of “look at Stacie and Say Cheese”
And a few examples of just hanging out:
What was it about this 5 month old that made me fall in love with him? (enough to think ever so briefly about having more children…)
Was it his instant smile?
His jowly cheeks?
His gorgeous smiling blue eyes?
Maybe it was that hint of red hair that reminds me of my own baby (who just turned 4 {aaack!} last week)?
Perhaps his ability to discreetly cover himself during his nude shoot? Or the fact that he didn’t pee or poop on the backdrop? (which, mind you, is NOT a big deal in this studio…it’s certainly more the norm to be peed on than not when you’re working with naked babies!)
Well, whatever it was….I just fell for this guy (I like his mommy, too!). The feeling seems to have been somewhat mutual….I’ll include this email testimonial I received from his mom days after receiving their cd of images.
”You are not just getting your pictures taken. You, and whoever is lucky enough to be with you, get to participate in the creation of art! Stacie creates a calmand fun atmosphere where she actually captures the very essence of your child (Ethan has about 50 faces and really she brought out every one). As students we almost let the cost scare us off but I am so glad that we begged all of our family members to pitch in, and after the session I could not help but feel that Stacie did not charge enough. There is no clock card punched when you walk into her studio - you are just there for however long it takes - and you can tell that she takes her time going through each image (cropping and transforming). She will even help you out after you get your pictures if you want to play with any of them. If you are thinking about capturing a moment in time with you and your family this is an investment you can not pass up, why pay less and be disappointed when with Stacie the only problem you will have is deciding which pictures you want to frame =)”
Thanks Karen! -stacie
This afternoon I had the distinct pleasure of playing around with a very old soul two week old baby. I invited him up to my new studio so I could play around with my lights and try out a few things. His mom was a super sport about it all since she was immediately peed on….and because she’s my friend….well….the show must go on, right? I guess I should have all my “models” be sure to bring a change of clothes along to their session! A big thanks also goes out to my new friend Annie who helped out by taking notes on the lighting set-ups we used. (yes, Jane…I’ve finally got some notes from a shoot!)
Here are a few of my favorite shots: this first one just makes me say, “how old IS this guy?” He looks like he’s been here for forever.
The other most amazing thing about this guy….at two weeks old he was pushing up on his hands and holding his head up and then…..voila! He rolled over! We all clapped and cheered…and stood closer to the ottoman!
okay, I just have to say this again….I truly have the best job in the world!
-stacie
Okay, so I don’t quite have the flow of this blogging thing yet! The new studio has kept me pretty busy and I’m trying to figure out when to get these blog posts in as well! Being busy is a good, good thing–don’t get me wrong there! A few weeks ago I had the most amazing week. It began with a great newborn/family session in the new studio:
Soon I hope to have a slideshow feature so you can see more of the images from this shoot—it’s a great example of the capabilities of the new space.
Two days later I got to photograph the amazing birth of Evan, a 10.5 pound baby! Fast and beautiful (especially since I was using my new light with the “beauty dish“) It’s always an honor and a priveledge to be so close to the beginning of life.
And to finish the week off, I was asked to photograph my good photographer buddy Jane Lavendar’s union ceremony. It took place on the top of the bluff at Capen Park at sunrise. It was a beautiful ceremony full of love, friendship, kleenex at the appropriate moments and SONG! All day long I found myself singing the ending song: “I can see clearly now, the rain has gone…”
Here’s Jane and Sharon singing along:
What a week! I think I have the best job in the world!
–Stacie
An amazingly fun, stress free photo shoot! I should also mention we were at Shelter Garden, had a picnic dinner and a bottle of bubble solution. I think there was also a promise to eat the ginger bread house if things went well….The evening was the first dry night in what seemed like weeks! It was such a perfect evening for a picnic and for taking pictures. This is a really fun family and I happen to know them all well. Both sets of grandparents live out of state but come to visit often. The family wanted to capture the overlapping visits this time and I think we did a remarkable job of capturing the love this family has for each other *and fun* they have together.
This is one of my fav’s of the boys.
You can just feel how much these guys love each other. 
The middle image is Javier holding a HUGE chunk of smoked gouda. (I told you it was a good picnic!)
Love that bubble solution! So often, at a photo shoot, the bottle of bubble solution becomes a source of a power struggle….so I don’t pull one out very often. In this case-I couldn’t be happier that I had one with me.
