Looking back at these images makes me SO happy! I just got a bunch of film back from my awesome-kick ass-coolest-lab-ever, Richard Photo Lab and it's like Christmas for me! The next few blog posts will be all from my film cameras, but this first post is especially lovely to me. I took a bit of a trip-o-inspiration a few weeks ago to Seattle and I only brought my film cameras. I needed some time along to reflect and re-energize for this coming season and it was exactly what the Dr. ordered!

My friend, Jeffrey, has been in town visiting Minneapolis this week from California and we've had some really awesome conversations about just how important it is to take time for yourself and to recharge, as an artist. It's not only valuable to us, but a service to our clients as well!

Be fresh and Refreshed!





Happy Monday Everyone!


LOVEe

Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmyGOD!

Last night, while hosting a BBQ for some awesome photographers, I received a call from the OH-so-fabulous Faatemah. I knew when I saw her calling that this was going to be good news, but I had NO idea how good!

Big Risk = ENORMOUS Awards!!

This past year, I really, REALLY, wanted to do a high-fashion shoot for Minneapolis and finally convinced the crew at Metro Magazine that I could pull this off. They believed in my and my mad skillz, which was awesome, but I also felt like I had a lot to prove with this opportunity. When I sat down with the editors and art directors, we made it clear that we only wanted to work with the best of the best. Faatemah was our first and only option for hair, but this girl was BLOWING UP, so we didn't quite know if she had time for our shoot. I was prepared to make it worth her time and she came to us and said she would love to collaborate on this shoot, but it must be good enough to enter and win the North American Hair Styling Awards (NAHA).

What is NAHA?

The North American Hairstyling Awards (NAHA) is the most prestigious photographic beauty competition in North America, celebrating the artistry and skill of the professional salon industry. Each year, individuals are recognized in 13 categories of excellence during a star-studded awards ceremony. NAHA is part of PBA Beauty Week, North America's largest, most inclusive beauty event, offering unlimited networking, education, and professional growth opportunities to all sectors of the beauty industry. PBA Beauty Week is produced by the Professional Beauty Association and is held in cooperation with Cosmoprof North America.

The judges take into consideration the following:

Concept or overall creative approach

Art direction and composition

Demonstration of skill in the execution of style, make-up and appropriate wardrobe

Harmony between photographer's execution and stylist's creativity

Appropriateness of image for concept

Technical ability corresponding to category entered

Continuity of all images within the entry

Appropriate use of lighting highlighting details

It's the Grammy's of Hair.


AND WE JUST GOT NOMINATED...THE TOP 5 IN THE WORLD!!!!

This is SO cool, for so many reasons, but I think the coolest of them all is that it is a true testament to the level of professionalism and talent from both the hair stylist and photographer. The hair has to be rockin', and the photography has to rock even more to effectively show the full potential of the hair. It's a unique marriage between artists that has to be dead on to win...and we did it!!

I can't even tell you guys how HUGH and AWESOME this is! Out of HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of entry's, we are at the TOP and that is one, amazing, feeling!!!

You can check out all of the Nominees in 13 different categories here and NAHA will announce an official winner of each category in July!

Special Thank-You to Faatemah - for being so awesome and pushing us to enter this! and the Staff at Metro for letting me live out this crazy dream that has CLEARLY been a great success on so many levels!

You can see Behind The Scene images from The Fine Lines shoot HERE!

The Final Layout: Fine Lines



In the words of Faatemah, "Get ready girl, your world is about to change..."


LOVEe

There has been SO much happening lately! Team Photogen Inc has been on the road a lot and all along the way, we've shot TONS of film! I'll share more of that with you when the film rolls come in, but for now, here are a bunch of fun images from our Instax camera!

The instax camera is like crack for me! It's been a really awesome tool for me to document my life this past year.....I have a bit of a personal project going on with it, which will simply need some time to shape.

In this post, some awesome people make appearances:

Tara LaTour's amazing dresses
The OH-SO-AWESOME Sara Montour
Mr. Daniel Chin
 Insta-Friend Dan Miles, who inspires me now on a daily basis
B-Funk
Melissa O!
The Cornjadi's and their epic wedding - congratulations you two!
The Traveling Photo Booth's awesome booth




Yeah for living the dream!

LOVEe

Not sure if you heard or not, but the Minnesota Twins got a new stadium!

No, I'm not into baseball, but I felt like I should go and experience this place and see what all of the hype is about.

After all, it's kind of a big deal around here! Outdoor baseball? In Minnesnowta?

My great friend, Daniel Chin, was in town this week...more on him to come...and let me tell you, this dude is downright serious about baseball! We had a ton of fun, and I must say, the vibe in this place is quite awesome! Of course... I took a few photos...



Happy Monday!

LOVEe

I am soooooo excited to share these images with you! Like, little kid-jumping-up-and-down excited!

A few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from a girl named Tara. In that letter, she asked me to photograph her final Collection for her graduate program at Parsons (yes, like project runway Parsons...only real students are even more bad-ass!) The hitch was that she was in NYC, I was in MPLS and her deadline was in a week and a half. She sent me a link with some cell-phone-shots of her dresses and my jaw dropped. I knew that I needed to do absolutely everything I could to photograph this amazing pieces of art! The universe came together for us and it just so happened I was going to be in NYC that coming weekend, so we started planning our last-minute shoot!

The best part about my job is this sense of collaboration I get from working with other artists. It's amazing to just create with other amazing people who also have a vision. Tara really gave me free reign at the shoot and everything just simply fell into place! Before the day was done, I knew I wanted these images to be shared with the world and be published . 1) I wanted people to find/know/experience Tara and her beautiful collection. 2) I think these images are fucking amazing and I am way too excited about the whole project to NOT share this with you!

Through our conversations, I really began to respect Tara even more. She is on a mission to 'Revolutionize' the wedding industry and I absolutely believe she will do this!

A special THANK YOU to the Wedding Chicks for publishing this spread on their blog and sharing this with the world! Check out their review + Post HERE! (And we would love to hear your comments on the spread + designs overall!)


Here's a look at all of our original spreads! Please head over to the Wedding Chicks blog to see more photos + behind-the-scenes sketches from Ms. LaTour!
 


Here's to being remarkable!

LOVEe