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| "Do you want us to climb the tree?" Mom asks. |
In the last couple months, I've been thrilled to create images for a new client, Raising Arizona Kids Magazine and have challenged myself to bring a higher level of creativity and personality to the images I'm producing, while trying as always, to grow in my art and vision.
The people I have had the pleasure of working with have been wonderful, indulging my efforts to create an energy to the shoot that has led to some fun results.
One of my favorites so far is from the Voices feature in which four families take a first-person look at the joys and challenges of living as a multi-ethnic family in our society.
For the images, we wanted something portrait-y, but with some room to play. The best way I found to make this work is to start off with activities. Get people moving, thinking, relaxing and goofing around with each other. We ended up with not only some very relaxed portraits, but some eye-catching moments that developed organically over the course of the two or three hours that we spent together.
The great images come from giving people time to relax and get used to the camera, while giving them time for their personalities to show, for unusual ideas to lead to different and engaging photograph ideas.
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| We stay fit by riding and skating together |
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My first project for raising Arizona Kids Magazine reminded me for the 500,239th time what I love about photojournalism as a career. Getting paid to have fun and make pictures that are so artistically satisfying is an unbelievable gift.
I spent hours in some cases with families who were so giving with their time and kids who were mostly incredibly patient.
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| Or dancing together, Irish style. |
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For the year-starting piece about how parents find ways to feed their fitness, I spent time on the greenbelt, Piestewa Peak, on a soccer pitch, at the Phoenix Zoo, and in an Irish Dance studio (just LOVE that cultural stuff!) with cycling, skating, hard-working, comedic, moms and kiddos making pictures that gave me rainbow brain.
Rainbow brain, by the way, is what I imagine my brain looks like when I make photographs that I really love. I have been experiencing a great deal of naturally induced colors in my grey matter lately.
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| Or hiking with son and exchange-student "daughter" |
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| C'mon, focus, she would say to her son, before tickling him. |
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| Workout at the Zoo? Yes, please. |
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| Just can't get enough of the kiddo with the telescope! |
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Fit For Mom, using the kiddos for a little extra somethin' in a workout
session that left me exhausted, just seeing how hard these moms were working. |
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