Dailies - February 20, 2011

My shoot with the children’s band Recess Monkey this morning was awesome.  The guys came ready to mug for the camera, the set & lights looked great, just a fun time.  And, I think we got a great image to boot!  This is one of my favorites so far!  Haven’t even finished editing all the images!

 Special thanks to Zoe for the gigantic Raggedy Ann doll, Diane for added special “stuffies,” Recess Monkey (of course!), and the lady in Louisiana who sold me her perfect E.T. doll for the shoot which my kids are now loving (it burps if you push its hand so that’s hilarious – well, if you’re three years old or Sam and myself!).

Dailies - February 17, 2011

Today was a fun day as I went to photograph Ms. Cakespy, Jessie Oleson, at her retail shop up on Capital Hill as part of my “Creatives” series.  I had randomly walked in there last week on a hunt for an ideal Valentine’s gift and met the lovely Ms. Oleson and found her so easy to talk to and as sweet as the goods surrounding her (nothing was really edible, though there were some cupcakes upstairs for a gallery opening).  I walked around the gallery upstairs and, of course, noticed the giant ice cream cones up there.  And, as I was paying for my purchases (a sweet tie for Sam and some lollipops from This Charming Candy for the kiddos), I asked about possibly showing some of my work up there, knowing my stuff might be a bit of a long shot in her space.  We exchanged emails and I sent her some work the next day.  I didn’t end up with a show but couldn’t get the shop and the giant ice cream cones upstairs off my mind and, here’s the end result!  Thanks Jessie for working with me on this image!

Random Things I Like This Week

I haven't kept up with this part of my blog in a long time, probably about a year, but here it is once again -- new and improved!  >> I have loved Anna Waronker forever and am so excited for her new record, California Fade, next month.  I’m sure it will be on constant rotation for me.  Here's the first video from the album:

 >> I think everyone and their brother has already blogged about her, but I still think Vivian Maier’s story and work are pretty incredible!

>> Gabriela Herman’s Portraits of Bloggers series is fascinating to look at.

>> Love Frank Chimero and I love this series!  Three of them are hanging in my son's room. 

Dailies - January 19, 2011

This is my contribution to the project I’m working on with Allison Kline: The Conversation.  My jumping off point was Allison’s owl painting (you can see that here) – I had originally envisioned something a bit different than this.  I was going to have these mounted animal masks hanging on the wall like some kind of crazy animal hunting lodge … I wanted a model in some kind of avant-garde, Bjork-like outfit off to the side of the mounted heads with a pile of feathers blowing – a pile of feathers so big that they would be almost obscuring her face.  I put a call out there in the universe looking for the perfect model/dress combination and my friend Melinda suggested “boy-lesque” performer Waxie Moon (click here for an article about Waxie in The Stranger).  I immediately remembered Waxie from the burlesque story I worked on for MSN’s City Guides two years ago (unfortunately, the burlesque story is no longer online but you can see some of the images on my web site here) – she was a standout performer that I had seen in several of the shows.  There was suddenly no one else who could be in this photo but Waxie!  I did have the animal masks and was working on the set but it didn’t feel quite right – this is the end result of a great collaboration between myself, Allison, and Waxie!  I am so excited for the rest of the project … stay tuned as we hopefully launch it at ArtsCrush 2011!

Dailies - January 16, 2011

This all started with a Christmas shopping trip.  I had spotted the coffee cup while out and about and it made me smile, I had to pick it up.  I knew it might come in handy as a prop someday.  And, in my head, this coffee cup always belonged in this particular kitchen -- they seemed to go hand in hand.  So, when I found out this kitchen would no longer be available to me to use pretty soon as a location, I moved fast and arranged a shoot to be done.  Voila!