Theresa & John

Some very happy news in the family.....Theresa & John are engaged!!! He proposed on Saturday at the Botanical Garden. And surprised her with having his family come in town to be at the family birthday dinner that night too. So it was very exciting weekend. And of course I have a couple pictures to document it. They're hoping to get married next fall. Congratulations!!!!!!

the king of pop

So today's post is dedicated to the king of pop. I started rehearsing a piece for the dance concert that is a medley of his music including Billie Jean, Want to be Starting Something, Thriller, and Smooth Criminal. Gonna be an amazing dance and so much fun. MJ was an amazing dancer and got to work with some amazing choreographers, notably Michael Peters, who is featured in the video for Beat It. Which incidentally is one of my of favorite Michael songs. In a dance history/appreciate class I took last year, we talked a lot about how Michael influenced dance, pop music, and music videos. He really helped create music videos into a form of art and helped showcase dance on television. I love that people are still using moves from his videos today. Thriller was a short film in itself and While he had a very strange and sad personal life, he gave so much to dance and music. Here are the videos for Beat It and Thriller, my two personal favorites in terms of music and dance. (btw, did you know that Thriller is the most successful music video ever? It's in the Guiness Records apparently) Oh and the Fall Out Boy cover of Beat It, because I think it's pretty good. John Mayer does the guitar solo (originally done by Eddie Van Halen, though I don't see John in the video.....)

Beat It http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqxo1SKB0z8

Thriller http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtyJbIOZjS8

Fall Out Boy cover http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI-0Hgu8mUk

So in closing, come see our medley at the fall dance concert!! My roommate just made chocolate chip cookies so I must go enjoy :)

nikon versus canon

So a short post today because I have about a dozen different projects to work on between class, work and learn in the design lab, and my personal projects. I have a Nikon DSLR and am quite happy with it, but lately for school projects have been shooting with a Canon 5D and I have to admit it's pretty nice. Downside is though with the attached battery grip the thing is so dang heavy. I get equally good pictures so far with either one, just have access to more equipment through the school for Canon. Alas...why can't the camera companies just be friends and make all their products interchangeable? Guess that wouldn't really be good for business. If you shoot digital let me know what brand you like

senior portrait photography

Well since I talked about wedding photography yesterday, I thought I'd dedicate today to senior portraits. Particularly since I had a senior session this afternoon, which was really fun. I'd definitely say I enjoy doing the one on one portraits more, largely just because the atmosphere is so different. There's not nearly as much pressure on the shoot. Obviously you don't want to have to re-shoot, but if something happened it would be possible. With weddings, it's a one-shot deal. I don't mean to make it sound like I don't like doing weddings based on my one experience, portraits are just a different kind of job. Anyway though, my client was actually one of my dance students, and we were fortunate to have beautiful weather. I had several locations in mind, but we ended up doing the whole shoot in Tower Grove Park just because I kept finding different places I liked and that worked well with the outfits she chose. One thing I learned today was to check ahead for where a bathroom is for clients to change in with multiple outfits! Doesn't seem like a big deal but it took us awhile to find one at first. Something I should have known but ya I suppose we all make mistakes. The shoot went really well and we got some fun stuff. I particularly had fun shooting her in this wading pool/fountain area they had. Very fun and innocent and provided great energy and fun for her pictures. It seems that how senior portraits are done has changed a lot since I had mine done, and it's only been three and half years. From what I've seen, outdoor settings like parks or public streets have gotten way more popular than shooting in a studio with backdrops. Let me know what you had done for your senior portraits...I'm curious!! Putting up a few samples today, and more to come once I've done some editing. Enjoy!

wedding photography

So a short discussion on wedding photography.....it's become a huge business and the photojournalistic style has become really popular (lots of candid shots from throughout the whole day, not just the traditional posed stuff in a church). I have only shot one wedding myself so I don't know if I can truly say one way or the other whether it's a business I'd truly want to pursue full-time, but it's definitely a way to make a living off of photography. You have to have a lot of patience and energy to get through the whole day I discovered. I had a very low-key bride luckily, no bridezilla, who was very relaxed about everything, and a small wedding party. Much easier to manage a small group. One challenge I faced was that the wedding was in December and the indoor location they planned to go to for shooting became unavailable that day, so we ended up outside, which in St. Louis was quite chilly. Still got some great stuff though. Here are a few shots: (btw, the uploader thing for pictures on here was trying my patience so they are in reverse order chronologically. didn't have patience to fix it. my computer and blogger aren't friends today. sorry)


















So let me know what you think! And if you're getting married anytime soon and need a photographer for a reasonable price.....well you know where to find me :)

back to teaching

Sorry pictures still aren't ready for posting. I haven't actually been by my room since yesterday morning to even look at them much less do any editing because of class all day, work all night out by my parent's house, stayed there, and then work and class all day today too. Talk about crazy schedules. I promise they will be coming soon. Speaking of work last night, it was the first night of dance classes for the year. I teach ballet, tap, jazz, and hip hop to school age kids (3-18 years). It was kind of crazy getting people fitted for shoes and leotards and all that but the first day of classes always are. Very happy to be working with my kids again. Their sometimes simpler outlook on life is always refreshing and they're just a ton of fun. It's definitely hard work, especially the young kids because you're playing babysitter as much as teaching, but totally worth it. For every moment I want to quit from frustration there's an equal number of realizing how fun it is to play and get them to be creative and give them skills to use later on in life. I've met some great kids and hopefully taught them a thing or two. They keep coming back so I guess that's a positive. Enough of my endorsements for the benefits of being a teacher....but seriously if you ever have the chance to teach someone else whatever your special skill is, go for it.

getting it together

After much delay I am finally putting this blog to use. I made it over a year ago to start getting my name out there and networking but ya it has just been sitting here...but no longer! I'm hoping to use this space to talk about my work in photography and graphic design and show it to the world (or just a few dozen classmates) and just share my thoughts on art and its many expressions. I'm also a dancer and dance teacher and have a great love for music, so I relate to a lot of different things in the creative world. I've been doing some major uploading of photography work I did over the summer, so hopefully I'll have that up and ready to share soon. Until then, peace & love.