Saturday, September 19, 2009

Behind the Scenes

I don't want to fall back into the "posting once a month" habit... so here are my efforts at denying that possibility. Today, I'm posting a few fun images that will give you a little "behind-the-scenes" taste of what it is Kristi and I do.

Whenever we go on shoots, there are 2 of us. We love the teamwork and the mixture of different perspectives, angles, and creativity. However, often one of us is testing lighting or experimenting while the other sets up a shot. This results in pictures that we have of each other. We look through our "photographer gallery" every once in awhile and laugh at some of them...

And one thing we have always noticed is that we end up in entirely strange positions! When we are shooting photography, often the last thing on our mind is what we are doing to get the shot... we just do whatever we can to get it. More than once, I have found myself lying on the ground in the strangest ways possible, or crouched down in a way I didn't even know I could pull off.

Take a look at the following gallery and enjoy some of the many images we have had over the course of the past year on some of our shoots!

Love you all!

T











Saturday, September 05, 2009

Where did August go?

August has come and gone... and my blog has remained the same.

This is what happens when you get busy. And not only busy, but when you return to your blog every few days and see the same post still siting on the shelf, and you allow yourself to think, "Oh well. It's been this way for awhile... why sweat it? Plus, too busy today." Then I got used to that thought, and here I am a month later. However, just recently started hearing from some of my readers. Then I knew it had been awhile. So for the sake of my readers and also for the sake of "August," in which none of it was shared with the blogging world, here I go.

Work. The thing about August is that Imagine Artists did not shoot one wedding. So it's not like we were tied up every other weekend staring at a girl dressed in white and her circle of colorful brides maids. Kristi and I had a summer that was thick with that scene, and although we had the month off, August was a HUGE game of "catch-up." I can't tell you how many images we had to edit a few weeks ago... no doubt thousands... and it seemed like every couple of days, we just added another small photo session on top of it. So a lot of August consisted of making priority lists to see what we needed to edit next, running to a senior session, or visiting rent-able spaces downtown as we are in the process of finding the perfect place for an office.

It's been really fun. I am reminded-- and so thankful to God-- each and everyday that I'm in a job where I love every minute of it. I feel like I get to express myself creatively every day, and the nice thing about being an artist is that ultimately, I get to call the shots. Well, in a sense. There is a lot of wriggle room there, while still keeping into consideration that our business is a partnership. And since my business partner and I have very little in common (that's no lie!), it's been a really cool challenge working together and figuring out how to run a business with two very different minds. Yet I think this concept enhances us. It gives us dynamics. If we both had the same strengths and weaknesses, I think that would be a disaster. We'd both either always be late, or always be early. We'd both either want to take control, or both want to hang back. We'd both either edit in crazy textures and bright tones, or we'd both be articulate and classy. So we have learned along the way to take our differences and make them a strength instead of a liability.

Enough on business! One other thing I will add... we've been blessed to stay consistently busy and just recently sent out our Christmas Card Special mailer, so will expect to pick up in that area quite soon!

I've really been encouraged lately by God and His faithfulness. He has proven Himself over and over. Now, it's nothing new that my memory is terrible, so one activity that I am glad I do enjoy is to write. I often journal my thoughts and prayers, and in going back, it's amazing to see how God works. I would actually encourage anyone to do this. Sometimes we forget about even the small things that God carries us through. Or we go through something big, and in looking back, if we have a record of everything along the way, we see how God's hand worked in a certain situation.

I recently started a book called "Crazy Love" and while I have not gotten too far yet, I love the theme. It's opening pages really puts me in my place... which is to illustrate how magnificent and Almighty God is. Sometimes I believe that we take the world around us for granted. Do I stop and think about the complexity of the way my body works so that I can take my next breath, or how I'm standing on a globe that is rotating around a giant ball of fire that supplies light and life on Earth, or that if I zoomed out several light years away into outer space, Earth is merely a speck in the Milky Way Galaxy in which we reside, which is really just one of other galaxies out there? Not thoughts that I generally think about on a daily basis... but then, why not? Why am I not daily awed by God? Ultimately, I know that any genuine believer in Christ gets to this spot, but I guess my point is that I wish in my own life, it could be more of a daily attitude.

So there's a snap shot... I could talk about so much more, but have a grocery list of "work items" to accomplish this afternoon and I had an unexpected morning (of sleeping.) So, I will move on for now, and will return sooner than 1 month from now this time!!!

Thanks for reading... love you all!

T