So most of you who follow this blog know how much I love my job. Today made it extra especially lovable. My best guy friend and his wife had a baby last night! I wasn’t at the birth, but I was invited to come in today while they were still in the hospital and make images. I was excited, happy beyond words, actually, for my friends. And getting to get in there and hold her early on… well, that’s just a bonus of my job! She had just finished eating when I arrived, which usually means one sleepy baby. Not Brooklyn! She was alert and active the entire hour I was there photographing. She is sweet and calm and just plain beautiful. Congratulations, Jordan and Julie!!! We truly could not be happier for the THREE of you! I’m looking forward to summers at the pool together!

She’s already a Mizzou fan. There’s some punk Jayhawk baby down the hall, so we had to put her MU gear on!

I just received word that this image from a previous post was awarded honorable mention in the Lensbaby “get published” competition! There were nearly 2000 entries; 13 will be published in a book and 144 were given honorable mention. See the honorable mention gallery here. My image is on page 4. Woot!

Last night was the opening reception for Columbia Art League’s new show, ‘A sense of Self’. From the postcard about the show, “Sense of Self invites artists to explore their own sense of identity. Who are they as artists, and how do they portray that sense of identity and self through their chosen medium?” I thought it was a perfect fit for me to enter one of my pieces of Lucy, my 101 year old model. The experiences that led me to be able to work with Lucy and the experience of the session itself and editing the work afterward have all become defining moments in my personal journey as a photographer.

This fall I set the intention that I would be more connected with my subjects during our time together. I think that at times, photographers can let the camera come between or keep me separated from my subjects. I realized this when I worked with a woman preparing to go through a double mastectomy. As I photographed her body in a way it was soon to change forever-I commanded myself to be present. To not let my discomfort interfere with the session. I began to see that I have the ability to alter how people are seen by how I use my lens. If I’m uncomfortable, I think it shows. I do think there are times when that discomfort can be useful in an image but the challenge is to find those times and use it accordingly.

So, the internal struggle began with how can I continue to earn a living as a portrait photographer and also pursue my fine art dreams? I think this blog has shown some of that struggle. I debate whether to use this space to show great family photo sessions or expose some of the projects I’m working on.

Okay, back to the CAL exhibit. I entered one of my pieces of Lucy and I’m extremely proud to announce I was awarded third place. I’m sure by now you are chanting, ‘let’s see the piece already! Enough talk!’ Without further adieu, ‘What Time Creates’ followed by two more in the series. Please feel free to leave comments by clicking on the talk bubble on the right side of the page

As a visual artist, I am constantly looking at other artists’ work for inspiration. Another portrait photography I like to check in on often is Zack Arias. He shares lots of technical tips on his site, he travels the world giving workshops and he seems to be an all around great guy. One of these days, I hope to attend one of his workshops. Recently, he posted his recent family photos. This one on his blog cracked me up and intrigued me and I think I’ve gone back to look at it every day or two since it showed up on the blog. I didn’t notice at first that the child at the head top left of the photo is actually throwing green beans into the air. Lovely! It’s perfect! To see the rest of the images, go to David E. Jackson’s blog

Last weekend I went over to my good friend’s house to document their new family status. We had a very relaxed, fun time with images from the bedroom but when we moved to the kitchen, we got creative.

Afterward, we donned jackets and went outside. I wanted to do something in homage to Annie Liebovitz’s portrait of Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and new baby Suri, which some say is taken from the image of Paul McCartney with his daughter on the back cover of his first solo album. This photograph was taken by Linda Eastman in 1970. Here’s mine:

Today my boys and I spent about 3 hours on a mountain of dirt. There’s a construction site near our house where a new subdivision has been built over the past year and a half. At the entrance to the subdivision, there is the big mountain of dirt that seems to come with all new subdivisions. Behind the mountain of dirt, is the place where they wash off all of the cement mixers. It’s an amazing place. The cement mixer washing area is sort of like walking on the moon– or at least that’s what we pretend. There are small hills of concrete surrounded by smooth surfaces that look like wet flows of concrete. Once when we walked there, it was actually wet and Isaac and I wrote our names in the surface to claim the space as our own. The past two trips to the site, we have focused our attentions on the big mountain of dirt. Climbing it, attacking it, throwing dirt clods at it or down it. There is a big puddle close to the base and it’s fun to see if you can get throw a clod far enough to land in it.

Today when we arrived, the boys went to the top of one section and I sat off at a distance on another part. It felt like the kind of place where I should be invisible and they should get to do anything they want, imagine anything they want without me being there to interfere. I was bummed because I had forgotten my camera on this excursion. So instead of taking pictures, I watched and listened. I absorbed the experience and tried to understand it at its core… so that when I did have a camera with me next time, I might be able to tell the story in one frame.

As luck would have it, it was a warm day today and we were getting hot and the boys wished they had brought along their shovel. We agreed to walk back home, get camera, water, shovel and change into short sleeves and drive back. What followed was 2 full hours of dirt digging, throwing, attacking, imagination fun. They worked hard. I did my best to capture it.

I love it when I get to work with a family year after year.  We build a relationship over time that makes the sessions more and more meaningful. I’ve shared a lot of special moments and experiences with this particular family including the birth of their third child and the baptisms of all three children.  This year we accomplished quite a lot within one short hour!  One cool thing about Orr Street Studios is there is so much space.  I was able to set out a tub of legos and giant coloring paper with a box of crayons and stickers to keep everyone occupied while we did individual images of everyone.  Every year we do our headstands to get everyone to smile, but invariably, it’s the serious images that I come back to over and over.

So, I recently just stopped blogging (again). I know exactly what happened, and so today I’m hoping that by just putting this little ditty together for you, I will get over that hump and get back into blogging regularly (again). Recently I had the opportunity to do a session in my studio with a woman who is 101 years old. She was willing to sit nude for me for an hour and tell me stories while I photographed her. The experience had such an impact on me, I haven’t been able to really talk about it here or show any of the work here on my blog… yet.

Soon. I hope.

I think for me, blogging is such a practice of self expression and the willingness to put everything out there for the world to read just hasn’t been there for me since my session with the 101 year old. I know some of the pieces are strong, and I plan to exhibit more of them. (You can see one of them on display in the members’ show up right now at Orr Street Studios)

On Monday I met again with my mentor, Gloria Baker Feinstein) in Kansas City. This time I wasn’t nearly as scared and we got straight to work looking at images. I learned a lot and I’d like to just share three of the best pieces from the day.

It’s not every day I get to hold an actual-honest-to-goodness EMMY Award. In fact, I’ve never held one before today. Every Wednesday, my friend, Kim Wade, (1/2 of the fabulous Silverbox Photographers duo. If you or someone you like even a little bit is getting married, you really must have them photograph your wedding. I insist) and I process and edit images together at Sven’s Kafe. (Oh dear, Sven’s doesn’t have a website??!! If you’re downtown and looking for simply the yummiest food - breakfast, lunch, treat - you must come over to Orr St. and give Sven’s a try) Okay, I’m obviously very distractible this evening! Anyway, every Wednesday morning and often into the afternoon, you can find Kim and I huddled together at a table with our computers going, sharing power cords and photoshop techniques. We even call it - get this, we’re so clever - ‘Sven’sday’.

Today, Kim was meeting her friend and my aquaintence, Beth Pike, for lunch. Before Beth arrived, Kim told me that she had recently won an EMMY Award (yes, a real EMMY) for her documentary about the 200 year history of newspapers in Missouri. Immediately I asked her to have Beth bring it along. Kim called, Beth obliged and within a few hours there I was holding an EMMY. It was shiny and heavy and just oozed cool. Beth was amazingly patient with my multiple announcements of — ‘hey, she just won an EMMY’ and happily came up to my studio after having lunch with Kim so I could photograph her with the statuette. I could not be happier for Beth. Congratulations! You and EMMY look fabulous together! (Read a little bit more about Beth here.)

Every fall I look forward to chasing the O’brien family around someplace lovely. It’s fun to see how the girls grow and change every year. This year, Archer is sporting a jack-o-lantern smile just in time for Halloween.

The weather has been so up and down this early fall, it’s hard to know what you might get from one weekend to the next. As you will see, these guys were ready for cool fall…. what we got was hot summer! It was nearly 90 degrees outside as I drove to Stephen’s Lake Park last Sunday evening. The best part about that? We got to play in the fountain after the shoot! I just love girls in dresses splashing through the sprayground!

And in the course of our adventure, we got some great family photos and even a few of mom and dad.

And then there are the days that maybe don’t go so great. (If you’re confused by this sentence, you’ll need to read my last post) Sometimes babies (and young children) can be unpredictable.  We do our best to schedule sessions at the child’s very best time of day… and then they go and change their schedule on us!  I have found that 3 months might be the hardest age to predict.  One very cool thing about being a fairly small operation is, if something goes awry I am always happy to try again until we get it right!  I think it’s only happened a handful of times that I have been unsatisfied enough with a session that we schedule a do-over.

It just happens that Forrest’s 3 month shoot was one of those times. Truly my only directive (I just finished watching WALL.E with my kids) was to get a shot of him smiling. “He’s such a smiley guy” mom kept telling me over the phone.

Well mom, I think we got it! I hope you’ll agree it was worth the wait!

Can’t get enough of those rolls.

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