Some of my more creative ideas & thoughts happen while I am running.  I have often said it would be great to have a way to write them down while I run and not trip over my feet!  The other day I got a call from a bride in Florida and in the course of our conversation she asked me to describe my style in 2 or 3 words.  So I answered “Elegant & timeless with a lot of emotion and a touch of editorial fashion.”  Wait…that was not 2 or 3 words.  So if I had to use only 3 they would be elegant, timeless and fashionable.  But while that is the style of my images I have a shooting style too.  Some of you might think that is one in the same but for me they work together yet separately.  I use a shooting style to get you to the image style which is my final product.  My short Twitter ‘about’ section says “Lack of passion is fatal” and while that sounds a wee bit dramatic, it’s true.  One of my passions is making you feel really great during our shooting time and after when you view the final product.  When I see you feeling beautiful & elegant or handsome & confident while we are shooting, I leave with a huge smile!   I would imagine that most photographers can say they feel the same.  But I really believe I started my photography business nearly 9 years ago based on this very feeling.

Our world is based around numbers.  The size of our jeans, our wallets, the temperature, our age, the number of things to check off our todo or bucket lists.  It goes on and on.  Digital photographs are essentially made up of numbers as well.  Since we are usually critical of the daily life numbers, I want nothing more than to have your ‘photographic numbers’ to be a positively awesome experience.

For those of you that have visited my business or personal Facebook pages might beg to differ my next statement.  I typically shy away from my photo being taken.  Yes, there are a lot of me on there but I can say that is not how I have always been.  I would see a photo of myself and critique every single number that image was made up of and after nearly 9 years of being a professional photographer, many of you are somewhat similar.  I often hear “I am not that comfortable having my picture taken” or “My fiance’ really is dreading having his picture taken”.  These statements make me even more passionate about making that time in front of the lens something positive and fun for each and every one of you.   When my boys were babies I took them to a local portrait studio for family photos.  When I picked up the photos I left in tears.  Maybe that was hormones and fatigue but I was so sad that I didn’t feel like it captured ‘us’ and who we were and most importantly…I could see that I was not comfortable while the photographer was shooting.  The next month, I enrolled in photography classes, signed up for workshops, read books and had a mentor.  Why?  Because I really wanted to learn every single thing I could about how to create beautiful photographs.  My passion for wanting others to feel good about themselves would drive how I would interact with my clients.  While we still lived in Colorado I fell in love with the work of Carey Schumacher of Barefoot Memories in San Diego.  Since I did not have any photos that captured us as a family, I made it a point to go all the way to California to have a session with her.  They are still some of my most favorite pictures of all of us.

 

So if I end up using 3 paragraphs to describe my style it is only out of passion.  Out of a strong passion to make you feel really great and look back at those photos with a huge smile on your face or even a few tears of happiness.

Thank you to all my clients for the last 8 3/4 years!!  Thank you for sticking with me after a few moves and even through some business growing pains.  It has been really pretty awesome so far and I look forward to meeting many more of you 🙂

~lisa

 

The first batch of the Women & Bikes (TM) calendars have arrived and are ready to ship to those that pre-ordered and to sell at Gran Fondo this weekend in South Carolina.  I cannot thank all of those that participated enough!  This project was meant to be fun AND raise money for cancer research.  This was my second year participating in the Challenge to Conquer Cancer Ride to Austin and it makes me even more passionate about doing all I can to raise money to fight this disease with big boxing gloves on!!  This year we met so many people on the way to Austin that are currently battling cancer or just lost a loved one to it.  We listened to their stories and added the In Memory or In Honor of magnets to let them know we are doing our part in the fight.  The photography community just lost an amazing woman and mother to ovarian cancer.  Jen Burgess Thompson was very open about all she went through and managed to fight it beautifully.   Her fight only lasted one short year.  To many, it seemed like a lifetime.  Our thoughts are with her family and young boys.  Here is the link to the blog she created during that time.  Also, here is THE most beautiful tribute to Jen…she touched SO many!  HERE.

 

Shortly after the calendar preview was shared on Twitter, Sarah Plasky, the owner and creator of Aquavation contacted me and was interested in doing her part in raising money.  Sarah loved the calendars and wanted to put the photos on her water bottles and a portion of the sales would go to The Challenge to Conquer Cancer.  She also created a storefront just for the Challenge to Conquer Cancer logo and various designs around that.  Sarah’s husband will be riding in Gran Fondo this weekend and she will be here with big bags of bottles to sell!

There are so many ideas brewing in my head about where to take this and how it can help continue to raise money.  But in the meantime, I just wanted to thank EVERYONE!!

Thank you to Pedal Chic for providing some of the gorgeous bikes and clothing.

Thank you to Katie Cotton of Cotton Rouge Makeup & Hair for making each and every one of these girls look even more amazing.

Thank you to Todd Williams for bringing out the big lights, reflectors and fans!!

Nate Grahek of Sticky Albums for creating the most AH-mazing app for photographers so we can share photos via smart phones and iPads with ease and they look great.  Nate thought that Sticky Albums could be used as a fundraising tool and he was right.  So everyone that purchases a printed copy gets a full digital set of images as well!!  He also did a blog post about this very thing.  Thank you Nate!

And another thank you to Copy Craft printers!!  I have to extend a huge thank you for keeping the cost down to help us be able to provide even more money to The Challenge to Conquer Cancer and for getting them here fast AND making them look great too!

So come on out to Gran Fondo this weekend….we would love to see you!  If you would like to purchase your 18-month calendar you may do so HERE.  The donation is $25.

To purchase a Challenge to Conquer Cancer water bottle click HERE.

To purchase a Women & Bikes (TM) water bottle click HERE.  They can be designed with just the photo or with the art & photo.

They arrived —-

 

Have a great day everyone!!