So Pretty Jewelry

When something you love becomes something you do for a living, it can be hard to continue to love it.

I remember when I first got a digital SLR, all I wanted to do was take photos. I was planning photo shoots with friends and fellow photographers as something to do in the evenings after work. I had all these crazy ideas and couldn't wait to make them happen; not for fame or money, just for creativity's sake. Since I've started working full time as a photographer and designer, I find that the piles of photos waiting for edits in Lightroom, the houses I have to shoot and the realtors I have to meet, the weekly ads I have to produce, and the stresses of deadlines, book keeping and invoicing have sapped the creativity I used to have an abundance of.

To solve this problem, I've decided that I need to plan and execute at least one "just-for-me" creative shoot per month. I need to get inspired. I need to continue to take photos for the same reason I started taking photos.

My latest inspiration came from the Flickr Blog. Someone had done a bunch of scary looking self portraits caked in flour, and I thought to myself, "I can do better than that. I can do something elegant and beautiful and... way less scary." The flour could be functional, used to highlight something shiny or colourful; I immediately thought of jewelry! My friend Rosslyn and I had talked several times about doing a photo shoot, and I really wanted to use her for this idea. Cara Cotter of So Pretty Jewelry came on board and graciously allowed us to use some of her beautiful turquoise, gold and silver.

Below is a lovely diptych from the shoot, probably my favourite of the series. You can click on the phto and see a few more from the set on Flickr.

Cara's jewelry is available at Coup Boutique in downtown Edmonton or from her Etsy store.

Bolivia Solidarity Tour 2012

One month from today I will be embarking on a life changing trip to South America along with my mother and 13 others from across Canada. We will be traveling with Chalice, an internationally recognized aid and development agency whose work around the world supports over 45,000 children and aging in 15 countries.

The Bolivia Solidarity Tour 2012 will take us to Lima (Peru) and then on to Yapacani, La Paz, Lake Titicaca and Isla del Sol (Bolivia) over the course of 2 weeks (February 17 - March 1, 2012). I will be traveling as the group’s official photographer, but will also be participating in a community building project which will provide new housing, repairs to existing buildings and plumbing for families in Yapacani, Bolivia.

I can’t tell you how excited I am to experience South America for the first time, document it with my camera and also make the lives of people living in impoverished Bolivia just a little bit better. Our group has set some fundraising goals, which brings me to the purpose of this blog post. We want to find sponsors for at least 50 new children and raise at least $15,000 for the building project and others like it. Any little bit helps us to get closer to our goal.

For more information about the trip, building projects and the people we will be helping, please visit this page. From there, you can view a slide show about the families who have asked for assistance, donate money to the cause, and find out more about sponsoring a child through Chalice. I’ll also mention here that although Chalice operates with a strong Catholic focus, the purpose of this trip (for me) is humanitarian, not religious.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. Anything you can do to help the cause, no matter how small, is greatly appreciated by myself and our sponsor families in Bolivia.

December

Well here it is. The end of the year. Seriously, where did 2011 go?

This has been such a great year for me. I've shot more weddings than I've ever done in a summer (and booked several more for next year), established myself on Twitter and LinkedIn, transitioned into a full-time role as the Black Dog Freehouse's poster & ad designer, picked up several other exciting new clients, and tried my hand at interior & real estate photography as a contractor with MyVisualListings.com. When I quit my job in September of 2010 and decided to embark on the scary path of entrepreneurship, I never knew my first full year would go this well. Thank you to my clients, friends, family and everyone who's supported this small business in 2011, and I look forward to your continued support in 2012!

Here's a quick recap of some of the things I got up to in these last weeks of 2011:

• At the end of November I got to shoot the 4th annual Italia with Gusto wine & food festival at the Italian Cultural Centre. You can view the gallery here.
• For the second year in a row I also got to shoot the Astral Media Christmas Party (and saw Paul Brown's rear end a few more times than I wanted to). It was at the River Cree Casino, which may be my new favourite event venue!
• I've continued to design eye-catching materials for the Alberta Liberal Party, and there is a rumour that I may be picking up another candidate as a client early next year...
• Just over a week ago I had the opportunity to photograph my first "giant cheque" presentation, a heart-warming display of goodwill by the ABCRC, Merlin Plastics and students of St. Brendan Elementary to the Rainbow Society of Alberta.
• Using my new 50mm f/1.4 lens for the first time, I photographed local band Thea vs. Loki at the Black Dog Freehouse's annual Ho Ho Ho Down on December 14. It was a head-swirling combination of low light and colored light, but the new lens performed admirably. Here's a small sampling of the photos I shot that night:

Alberta Liberal Party

Earlier this year I was approached by Arif Khan, the Alberta Liberal Party candidate in Edmonton Riverview. Once nominated, Arif wanted to attempt something different with respect to political campaigning, and he wanted to start by building a modern brand for himself, incorporating the recently rebranded Alberta Liberal Party visual identity.

After creating a clean wordmark for him, Arif had me design a door-knocking postcard which started getting a lot of attention from other Liberal candidates in Edmonton. Before I knew it, I was branding and creating postcards, letterheads and business cards for 3 other candidates: Ed Ammar, Rick Miller and Bruce Miller.

This has been such a great opportunity for me, and I'm excited to add the Alberta Liberal Party to my client list. Below is a sampling of the wordmarks I did for each of the candidates, and check out this update to my design portfolio to include more of this work.

Karolina

I'm a pretty lucky gal. I have this gorgeous neighbour who has a ton of modeling experience, lives right across the street and works from home just like me, so sometimes we get up to things. We discussed the idea of doing some "accessory" photographs, something creative to highlight a pair of earrings, or a ring. Just to experiment and have fun really.

I also wanted to play around with gels for some colored light, something I don't normally use in my photography. I really like trying new things, and it's great to have a willing subject!

Here's a few shots of the lovely Karolina. Click the photos to see the whole set on Flickr!