Lyz’s senior shoot was a little different from my others, in that I took on a more structured fashion feel to the shots. She came in wanting a defined fashion-oriented look to her photographs. We had a blast shooting at some new locations, working with a few new ideas. Expect to see more of these type of senior shoots in the coming year!

~dave

I’ve again found myself in the hustle of nonstop shooting, pre-production, location scouting, edit-downs, meetings and life coordination. This week is crazy for us! Here are two recent senior shoots.

Gabby.

Kayla.

~dave

Photographers getting married? Yup. I’ve booked at least five weddings now for fellow photographers, the most of which are spread out all across the United States. Yeah, I have some travel in store for the coming year. Erin and and Brian are among those, but their wedding will be in Milwaukee on November 7th of this year. Although one would think the conversation during their engagement shoot would be all business, lighting techniques and gear talk, Erin and Brian were just after making great photos together. And that’s what we did.

You can check out Erin’s work HERE.

~dave

Today is Tobin’s very first day of Kindergarten. It was a good morning. I was early to rise before the girls to cook waffles, wake them up, change a few diapers and get ‘em all dressed. Surprisingly, Tobin was easy to wake up. Although a tad slow to motion, I could see the excitement in her eyes for the big day. She even got herself dressed without any coercion. A rare occurrence around our house. After a large, syrup-ridden breakfast I snapped the typical first-day-of-school photos and off we went.

The whole morning was kind of an emotional affair for me. It’s amazing to see her grow into her own unique self, yet scary to know we must let go of the reigns. Albeit she is shy, often scared to death to get further than an arms reach from mommy and daddy, she knows there is a bright shining life ahead of her. Melanie and I will lead her safely to the water, but eventually she must swim on her own.

This morning seemed different though. She had no hesitation walking into a new school and into an unfamiliar classroom. In fact, she even said “hi” to Mrs. Nault. I was astounded. This is unlike her. Melanie and I had our reservations if she would like Kindegarten, but as of 8:00am things look promising.

Getting out of bed is sometimes hard to do.

We all must do it. Everyday. To take the first step to get out of bed. We must look to each new day as a new beginning in our own lives. New challenges, new struggles, new knowledge. Much like Tobin, we all fear to leave that comfort zone. The safety of the warm covers, pillows and our blankey. But we step out of our shells to live our lives. To make the best of every little thing that get’s thrown our way and to do something positive with the gifts God has given us.

Tobin inspires me. Although she can be timid as a mouse, she isn’t afraid to learn, to be herself and to live her life with endlessly huge dreams and lots of love. It’s something that I need to remind myself of everyday.

The past two weeks have been chaotic in our house, filled with plenty of change. Melanie going back to work full-time, me becoming a full-time stay-at-home daddy while handling and growing the business, getting Tobin ready for school, errands to run, schedules to keep, etc. The list goes on and on. Aside from all the chaos, emotions and frequent tension, what really matters is keeping the big picture in focus. Living life as a family, following dreams and pursuing love.

For a 5 year-old, that first day of school is a big deal. And it goes without saying, it’s an even bigger deal to Melanie and I! But the real excitement comes from watching Tobin grow like grass and letting her remind us that the future is bright.

I love you kiddo! I’m proud to be your dad.

~dave

We did it. We made the first move to begin work on our concept shoot for Matter. And it all begins with the photo above. We’ve batted around ideas for more than a week between ourselves and as random scribbling on pieces of scrap paper. We’ve had a plethora of ideas, but nothing seemed to make sense. Of course we could shoot a simple photo of the light and call it a day, but what does that convey? What message are we trying to get out? What does the final photo say about the product? And can it be artistic enough to stand up to Matter’s fundamentals of giving back to the art community?

After whittling about ten ideas down to two final photos, we have developed a concept and set a plan in motion. I ran over to Trevor’s house last night to shoot photos of the light and ended up sitting in the grass staring at it for half an hour figuring out how the final image will come together. We are at the point of having a conceptual storyboard scratched on a 4×6 piece of paper. Now we have to get the ball rolling, errrr.. swimming.

Again, we are doing this whole shoot at ZERO cost to us and the client. We’ll see if that floats. Now is the time we need to find the resources and people to help make it happen. We can’t do it by ourselves and yet make it unique.

The casting calls and emails have been sent. Now we are waiting to hear back from a half dozen people. They too, must be willing to do it for free. Free? Yes. How am I going to do that? By giving back to them. Pretty much everyone involved is a creative person. Models, designers, stylists, make-up artists, venues, friends, etc. They all need photos of their work for ads, portfolios and reference material. My plan is to give them free photos from the shoot in exchange for their services. It’s simple really. It’s all part of that whole networking and sharing ideology. And in turn, these connections can grow into blooming relationships down the road.

So, we have four or five static shots of the lights. They will come in handy in the next few weeks. As we move ahead with the project, I will keep the blog updated with our progress on all aspects, both logistically and creatively.

More soon…
~dave