||Leah||

||Leah||Beautiful||Leah||

This morning I had the chance to photograph Leah, or Rebekah, as she is known in China.
The brother of an acquaintance contacted me at the beginning of the week wondering if I could help out. Considering my recent move and need to know the locations that surround me, I accepted. Leah is from a city named Xi'An. I've never been to China, but the name sounded familiar for some reason. When I looked up the city I figured out why... My friend Matt visited her city to see the Terracotta warriors. Very cool! It is a small world after all. Leah brought her love for modeling and excitement for competition with her to the shoot. She has been an aspiring model for about ten years now and showed up with a bag of clothes and make up in hand. She would've modeled all day if had the time! She was so excited to try all the poses she's been studying up on. I love how many different looks she has. I wish her the best of luck in her continuing competition. She was just awarded: the " 2009全国平面模特新秀奖“ which she translated to be: "Fourth 2009 China Model Match" ( for Magazine , website or Model for a production ), the " Rookie of the China Model " and The " Champion Award" within her city .

Olivia

One of my good friends, Brian, brought his little girl over to my place on a Sunday afternoon to talk cameras and photoshop. Olivia was so adorable I just couldn't resist snapping a few shots of her. Brian was so worried about her making a mess--I guess I just figure-- that is what kids do..is make messes.

WPPI 2008 LAS VEGAS

Where to start???
Life, or Photography...it's all about getting better and finding inspiration! This is the second year I've ventured to Vegas with my photographer friend Stacy Young with Three Winks Studio for WPPI: Wedding and Portrait Photographers International. She's amazing by the way.
Stacy went down early for the business workshop and so I traveled down with some other photographer friends I met through Pictage, Kellee Smith (Moments by Kellee), her second shooter Megan, and Shellee Draper (Photography by Shellee). We made it down early enough on Sunday afternoon and were able to take in a platform class as well as attend a program called "young guns". It was awesome. So inspiring. There were about ten photographers in their twenties that shared a piece of their success with us. It's amazing to me how humble they seem to be and how willing they are to share their secrets. Each day just got better and better with the amount of information I was able to take in.

On Tuesday, our last full day in Vegas, Stacy and I wandered down Las Vegas Boulevard to miracle mile, the m&m factory, and the coca cola store. These are some of the fun images I captured with my fuji S5 and 50mm 1.8. It's not about the equipment, right? It's about what I see through my lens and how I give back to those around me.
Hope you enjoy!


















Stacy was nice enough to model for me for a bit. I loved this sofa, and mirror!





Snapshots featuring: Anna Rasmussen, Stacy Young, Captain Kubota (a hired model) Bally's fountain by the hamburger place... and my inspiration for my color combo I hope to be implementing in my upcoming branding and logo.

Gracie-Goo

Photography is about capturing moments. My older sister Heather has been here with her kids visiting for a few months. Usually I'm frantically running around the house in the morning getting ready for work, after sleeping in from a late night. The day I captured these images of Gracie was no different. I couldn't pass up the chance to pull out my camera---she was sitting on my mom's bed and the master bedroom was full of natural light from the open blinds. She was sitting there with the "funnies" as if she was reading them. Gracie is only 16 months old and it's been fun to see her little personality show up more and more the older she gets! She's quite the momma's girl and shortly after the shots on the bed she wanted to be held by none other than her mommy....whoooo happened to be sitting at her favorite spot in front of the computer---next to one of Gracie's favorite toys: the phone. I'm so glad I took the time to capture this little moment. Isn't she a beautiful little girl!