Happy New Year

It's been a great winter, got all of my winter tasks completed, cleaned the studio, archived portraits from my computer and I've got all of my event scenes designed for the whole year. I have had plenty of portraits but just not enough time to get them posted to the web so here is my most recent portrait of the Winkle children. They did pretty well,you certainly cannot argue with the results. Things should be slow for at least another month or two so if you have a portrait need give me a call and we can get you into the studio whenever you like.

Senior Portrait Tips

Here are some tips for ensuring your high school graduation portraits turn out amazing!

1. Bring examples of things you'd like to try in your portraits. Magazine clippings, year books, catalogs or anything else with examples of poses, styles, or effects. We can combine these ideas with our own and create a truly unique portrait that captures your personal style.

2. Give your hair time to grown in after a cut. Don't get a fresh cut the day before your portrait session, a minimum of 5 days is needed for the cut to look natural. The same goes for tanning, don't get a fresh tan the week before your session, and definitely don't get a sun burn.

3. Makeup should be applied normally. Use a mirror as a guide, if it looks good in the mirror it will look fine for your portraits.

4. Simple, solid outfits work best, especially in the studio. More formal attire is also very common in the studio. Outdoor poses work well with jeans or khakis and simple solid shirts, especially muted colors. Blue, green, tan, and many more work better than glaringly bright colors such as white, yellow or red or anything neon.

Follow these tips and make sure to get a good night's rest and your graduation portraits will be something you'll be proud of for years to come.

Austin Foreman - Lewis Cass Class of 2012

Had an epic marathon senior session with Austin this week. Took over 450 shots over the course of just a couple of hours. We started out with some casual poses in the studio followed by some sports shots on a black background for some montages. Then we headed out to Lewis Cass to get some shots on the ball diamond and football field. Got tons of great shots, the lighting really worked with us and we finished up just as the sun went behind a big cluster of trees. Not to admit defeat, we went inside the locker room and took another dozen or so shots at his locker. Very productive day and tons of great shots to choose from, check out FB or my gallery for more samples.

Pet Food UK

Got a message from a buddy asking if I could plug his new pet food store in the UK. Pet Supermarket has everything for your pets, they've got all the top brands including Royal Canin, Burns Dog Food, James Wellbeloved, Iams Dog Food, and Hills Science Plan. If you're a pet lover in the UK check them out and send him some business!

Scott and Sarah Shepler

Did a double portrait session for Scott and Sarah Shepler this week. Turned out really nice, for some reason Scott didn't like that the lights were out in the studio and he was just generally not into the whole process, so we sort of took it slow and worked with him, then after probably 20 minutes of playing with toys and talking about pictures, he jumped up on the chair we had and started posing like a little pro. I've never seen anything quite like that, it must be fascinating to hear what's going on inside little one's heads.

Kokomo Shopper!

Ok, this is cool! Just found this site, hasn't even launched yet, called Kokomo Shopper that is planning on having over 500 coupons from local merchants. They launch August 15th and I for one cannot wait to use it. In today's economy saving money is almost as good as earning it, so coupons can go a long long way. Check it out, it's going to be an amazing resource.

Down Week!

Got a bit of a slow week this week to recover from the fair last week. I have a lot of tasks to get caught up on including some phone calls I need to return and some orders that need to be placed. Then I'll be using the rest of the week to work on some designs that are in the queue. Next week I'll be fully rested and ready to tackle the sessions that I booked at the fair.

2011 4H Fair

I had an absolute blast last week at the 4H fair. I got to talk shop with all of the my other photographer friends and I got to answer questions about my work with several hundred customers. Over 300 people entered my drawing to win $25 gift certificates. I selected 10 winners and they are as follows:

Meghan Schroder
Tina Spencer
Della Livesay
Jessica Spradling
Jeff Fording
Kevin Vasquez
Amanda Birkenstaff
Amber Maggart
Vicki Miller
Jaime Zaragoza

Thanks a million Cass County, I will see a lot of you in the coming months for portraits, everyone else I'll see you next year.