When to Keep Going...

I have found myself many times wanting to walk away from everything and do something else. Just put the camera down and return to a daily grind of a 9-5 job where I don't have to worry about managing a business, marketing, and keeping my art fresh and new within a technology driven base. This economic recession is a storm that will take its toll on many of us. It certainly has on me. Hell , I can't even afford a Christmas Tree this year... Recently, several promoters, studio owners, and other agencies have made successful attempts to take advantage of my talent while trying to smite my creativity in the process and ruin me financially.
2010 has been a difficult year. The holiday season has been even more trying due to personal loss and risen emotions of loneliness and destitute.

The storm is upon us. The question we have to ask ourselves is if we are going weather through it and come out from underneath the rumble and despair as not only survivors, but ones who have learned a lesson. I know I will.

And as melancholy and negative as this post may sound, the key point is a lesson to be taught. Oscar winning actor Kevin Spacey says is best in 90 seconds. Chase Jarvis posted it to his blog and I am now posting here.

"To want. To be ambitious. To want to be successful is not enough. That’s just desire…"

Recapping Help Portrait 2010

This was my second year volunteering for Help Portrait. I must say that it keeps getting better and better every year. This go around, the weather decided to cooperate and caravans were organized to shuttle our subjects to and from the the Road Home Shelter. The turn out was great and the day has been the highlight of my holiday season. An amazing group of photographers, hair and makeup stylists, and support staff spent the day turning a downtown night club and dance studio in to a full fledged photography studio where families and those in need could come get a hot meal, a warm coat, and a personal photo session with some of northern Utah's talented photographers.

A special thanks goes out to all those who made this happen, especially to Dave Brewer for stepping up to be the local organizer for the second time. It was great to see some familiar faces and meet the new ones too.

See the highlight video of this year's event.
Video 1
Video 2

Run with the Wild Fashion

Animals have been involved in Fashion Photography as long as I can remember. I've seen everything from polar bears to snakes and even lions implemented into ad campaigns for clothing lines and fragrances.

Robin came up with this concept when she met the owner and driver of a sled dog team. Arrangements were made and the concept of this shoot was born to where we could create a fashion motif with the dogs. Winter had already started and most the canyons/ mountains had already received several inches or feet of snow. This would work perfect for our theme since we associate Huskies with snow and winter.

We set out to Little Cottonwood Canyon and found a nice area which had some large standing rock formations, dead weeds, and enough forested area to block out whatever sky might creep in to my shots. It was vastly overcast. For you photographers out there, this is great for lighting since nature has provided its own natural "Soft Box" or diffusion from the sun's hard and harsh light. With that said, lighting was simple and straight forward, with only a single flash and umbrella needed to light the subjects appropriately.

I forgot my sandbags and needed help balancing my boom arm containing the flash and umbrella. Luckily, I brought my assistant Trevor in as a V.A.L. (voice activated ligthstand) to hold everything. Without him, we would have been in some real trouble.

The shoot went off without any deaths or accidents and I was pleased with the final images.