I was thrilled when my friend Teresa, owner of  Camelback Flower Shop, called to have me photograph

her new beautiful baby boy.

Teresa has an amazing gift for design and decor which permeates every aspect of her life

from her bridal bouquets to her baby’s room.

I used vignettes from around her home and nearby furniture for props to make this a truly unique session.

We photographed these images at her artfully decorated home in Phoenix…enjoy.  xo

These images are all straight out of camera…meaning, nothing is Photoshopped.  All of the lighting and coloring was done by me with flashlights and glow sticks with the camera on a tripod and timer.  I chose to photograph on the edge of a negative edge pool to bring more light into the image.  Plus I wanted a visual metaphor for yoga and meditation.  The waters may be calm, but never entirely still.

Each image is about 30 seconds to a minute long, which meant Harmony had to be incredibly still for the time the shutter was open.  We also had to do about 5 to 6 takes before we got it right so she was holding the poses for up to 5-10 minutes.  I loved this session because I felt like I was painting with light and physically creating my image.  My movements were all tracked by the camera and I had to be as conscious of my body as harmony was with hers.  Wearing all black and moving quickly allowed me to be invisible in the background.  It was an amazing practice in patience and awareness which is, in essence, the heart of yoga itself.

I rarely post my personal images but a little bird told me they wanted to see more images on-line from a photo outing I took a couple years ago in Minneapolis.  So here goes…
I chose these two images for a number of reasons but mainly because they go extremely well paired with each other.  The similarities are fairly obvious.  Both are portraits of men holding canes.  They share balancing colors that compliment the clothing (a serendipitous accident I noticed while I was making the images).  And there is a theme of vertical lines mixed with the organic natural elements.   I wanted to be sure to keep the compositional elements balanced and the background simple to allow the subjects to be the real focus of the shot.

That said, I hope that little bird enjoys this post.  Thanks for putting the fire under me to revisit these images!!

Here are the results!  Apparently the DJ played the song on the radio and said it was the best cover shot he had ever seen…I’m guessing it was the half naked girl on the bed but hey, whatever works.  We were going for a stereo-typical  rockstar, morning after image…featuring (of course) a fog machine and a lot of debauchery.

There is a theme to the first image that unifies all of the objects in the shot.  If anyone can guess it I’ll send you a brand spankin new, Pubes CD!!

click here reserve your spot as space is limited!

For the tech-heads: I shot this session at night in a number of location and parking garages in Phoenix. I used only a single soft box and my 580ex flash units along with my Canon 5D.

you can check out their myspace page at this link