A haiku to hair

Today I wrote a haiku to hair:

Hair, you are so strange
one day you look so lovely
the next, oh so lame.

When preparing for a headshot portrait session a lot of us make a laundry list of all the things we hope look okay. We hope our shirt isn't wrinkled or that we brushed all of our dog's hairs off it. We hope our eyeshadow isn't creasing or our mascara isn't mysteriously flaking off and leaving little black snowflakes on our cheeks. We hope we remembered to trim that one little nose hair that always sticks out of that left nostril...

On top of that list is almost always our hair. Oh, hair. That pile of filamentous biomaterial emanating from the dermis of our scalp which causes us so much heartache. We wash it, dry it, spray it, curl it, flatten it, tease it, dye it, and otherwise attempt to torture it into the shape we want it to take. And it usually resists.

So what do you do when your hair isn't doing what you want it to do for the one hour you want it to look perfect (during a photo session)? You get a photographer who understands your pain and looks out for your hair- making sure it's not covering your face, sticking up like Alfalfa's hair, or being otherwise totally disobedient.

And then you chill out! Smile through your crazy hair because when someone looks at your headshot they shouldn't even be looking at your hair anyway- they should be looking at your friendly, approachable personality radiating from your smile and drawing attention from everything else in the photo to your smiling eyes.. Unless you have hair like the B-52's. Then people will notice your hair before your face.

Can't decide what you look like?

Most people are not like my dad, who has had the same haircut since the late 1950's*. We like to change our look here and there and even on a daily basis... one day we've got a beard, the next day it's a mustache. The day after that it has vanished to mustache heaven.

Although I wear contacts 95% of the time, I walk my dog every morning before I put my contacts in, and I always see the same early morning commuters and dog walkers around the neighborhood who only see me in my big, black librarian glasses and red and white knitted hat. They must think I always dress like I'm in a "Where's Waldo" book.

So how should your headshot look if you've got so many different looks? I always vote for the majority. (we're not talking about political stances, by the way, just portraiture trends.) If you usually wear your glasses when meeting your clients for the first time, then wear your glasses in your headshot. If you're usually clean shaven and only sport a mustache to go with your Tom Selleck Halloween costume, then leave the mustache at home for your headshot.

Or in some cases- if you're an actor and want to have multiple looks for different types of auditions, then take photos with all those looks so you'll have a big pool to choose from. Auditioning for a lumberjack role? Send them that bearded headshot! Trying for the part of a young librarian? Send them the naked cheeks and spectacles look!
*true story.

Pinup photos! With food.

Organic Headshots is the official photography studio for FOODGASM- an online cooking show with a vintage pinup theme. Michelle takes all the fun promo photos for the show, and even films it with them as one of the camera operators or the director of photography for some episodes. Congrats, Foodgasm, for all your recent success. Here's to many more yummy episodes!

Print!

As if being a full-time photographer didn't keep me busy enough, I'm also heavily involved in the world of handmade goods and markets with my side project, Cussing Cozies. (If you haven't checked it out yet, you should... they're reusable handmade coffee cup sleeves with swears on them. Yes, you read that right.)

When Cussing Cozies has a booth at handmade markets, I usually share that booth with talented letterpress printer, Shayna Norwood, and her business Steel Petal Press.

Today I visited Shayna in her studio and took some headshots and action photos for her to use in the massive amounts of press she's been getting lately. You might be seeing these photos in a publication or two sometime soon on local letterpress awesomeness!

Wedding outtakes

It's summer, which is "wedding season," as we photographers call it. So I figured I would share some of my favorite photos that usually never end up in the wedding albums... Prepare yourself for some minor ridiculousness...

151 headshots in 8 hours!

Last week, Organic Headshots set up shop at McCormick place to take photos of 151 members of PepsiCo who were in town for a couple days of meetings, banquets, and other general annual convention duties. Hair and makeup artists touched everyone up, and Organic Headshots set up 3 studio settings, taking photos of multiple people at once. Since it was mostly walk-in based, we were rushed with occasional crowds of smiling, photo-ready attendees, but no one had to wait for longer than 90 seconds for their turn. This is thanks to the Organic Headshots team of Michelle and her fellow shooters Vanessa and Alex- who all did a great job keeping everyone moving quickly and making sure everyone got some great photos they could be proud of!

Impromptu band photos

The great thing about having a studio in an artist collaborative building is that it's filled with artists. And sometimes a great Latin sounds band will be hanging around after a practice, ready for an impromptu photo shoot.

Show that product!

Last night I took event photos at a ChickChat event at Mars Gallery. And I ate a lot of cupcakes. ChickChat puts together different types of networking events and soirees mostly for women to meet each other and build their professional skills and connections.

The theme for last night's event was "girls giving back," and featured non-profit organizations who connect young girls with powerful women role models. And cupcakes.

To make these events happen, the ChickChat organizers need the support and contributions of sponsors- who also get to have booths at the events where they can meet the patrons and promote their products or services. And naturally, to help the organizers attract more sponsors in the future, they're going to need photos of them and their booths at an event so future sponsors can get an idea of what kind of exposure they would be getting.

So that's what I did- I took lots of photos of the booths and the happy young women enjoying cupcakes, cookies, chocolate, and other snacks. I love my job, by the way.

Instead of a blog post, how about a little jig?

How do you take photos of an Irish folk band? With a camera.
Well done, One of the Girls- you put on a great show, and thanks for letting me take your photo.

Michelle does not do weddings... except for when she does.

I get asked now and then if I photograph weddings, since everyone's looking for a good wedding photographer to have in their rolodex. And I usually don't book myself for weddings... Because I eat way too much cake at weddings and end up with a sugar hangover.
This weekend, however, I found myself at a lovely wedding for two Neo-Futurists: cast members from a local Chicago theatre company with a 21-year run of the production of "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind," a collection of 30 rotating short plays done in 60 minutes. (A great show if you haven't seen it yet. Go see it.) The highlight of the ceremony was a short comedic play on love performed by two other cast members, just before the rings and vows were exchanged.

I was the second camera operator for my good friend and fellow photographer, Johnny Knight, who does more weddings than I and ate more pecan pie at this wedding than I ate. I am, naturally, including an embarrassing photo of him that I snagged as he walked across the dance floor balancing a couple cameras and a piece of pie. Now that's talent.

Oh, how precious

Today I spent the day at the creative headquarters for Precious Moments, taking product photos for their upcoming Summer catalog collection. It's been a little while since I've taken product shots- I'm so used to taking portraits and headshots and there's a big difference between live models and porcelain ones. I only said "tilt your chin down for me" out loud once. I got no response from the porcelain figurine. No one heard me, so everything's okay.

It was a lot of fun, though, and I'm looking forward to going back there for some pick-up shots in the next couple weeks. I especially enjoyed the large clusters of Precious Moments figurines, plush dolls and ornaments on nearly every cubicle endcap, filing cabinet and spare table space in the office. Every time you turned a corner, there was a grouping of large-eyed porcelain dolls to greet you with a smile. I found it adorable, but I'm sure some employees might start to get creeped out after a while.

A very special thanks goes to Amy for putting the shoot together and for showing me her basket filled with broken doll heads. I learned that when a prototype of a new figurine is rejected, it needs to be destroyed... so the office holds figurine smashing parties. Amy quite enjoys those.

8 naked guys in a bathroom is funny, right?

This weekend I took some quick group shots for a local group of comedians called Comedians You Should Know. They have a block of shows scheduled at the Lakeshore Theatre, a Chicago haven for stand-up comedy with other upcoming shows including Sandra Bernhard, Brian Posehn, Jim Jeffries and more.

If I remember right, the last show I saw at the Lakeshore Theatre was a burlesque show. However, it was not that random factoid floating in my head during the photo shoot that inspired the photo of the Comedians You Should Know half-naked in the bathroom. The pervert with that idea was Michael Sanchez, a member of the group and featured in the photo with the red towel on his head giving another member a shoulder massage. (And he's not actually a pervert- sorry, Michael.)

He said, "I don't know, I really like the idea of a photo of us all half-naked and like getting ready for a show in a bathroom- 8 half-naked guys with chest hair in one small bathroom is funny, right?" I think it is. I was laughing, Michael.

The second shot of the members' heads stacked onto a table was my brainchild. Mostly because we didn't have much space for a group shot and I wanted to keep it small and easy to take... I think it turned out well and was worth the scrunched shoulders and aching backs after scrunching in that tightly for a few minutes.

If this group didn't know each other well before this photo shoot, they sure are well-acquainted with each other now.

Fashion in the fall

Last night an old friend and I met up for photo shoot in an alley, using some cool clothing from local Chicago designers.

We had a lot of fun, and were interrupted only once by a passing car. Not only is Tonee an excellent model, but he can grab a light on a stand and carry it to safety lickety split too!

Actually, we were interrupted a couple other times when we would hear some scurrying in bushes or behind trash cans. There were a lot of rats in the alley and if you don't move or make much noise for a while, they come out to explore.

I think some of them got used to us after about an hour, as they started to poke their heads out to say "hello" here and there.

But they were camera shy, so thankfully Tonee is the only one in the shots.

It was nice to get outside shooting on one of the last warm evenings of the season, before it gets too consistently nippy at night to wander around with cameras blazing. We laid out the outfits for the evening with lots of jackets and coats, and didn't really need them.

A very special thanks to Tonee Dang for being an excellent model for the evening, and for the designers for providing the shirts: Fussya Co. by Chris Ho, and Black Market Caviar by Marco Lopez.

"The Swooning Shadow" and other tales

If I could change my middle name, I think I'd change it to "rim light," because I like rim lighting so much. (Or I'd probably change it to "superhuman destroyer of evil," but that's a post for another day.)

Maybe it's because of my background in cinematography and filmmaking that gives me an affinity for rim lighting, aka edge lighting- films use it a lot to add dynamics to a scene. A light placed behind the subject to light the edge of his or her hair, shoulders, etc., really makes the subject stand out from their background and gives them a solid look. It splashes light all over their edgy parts, but also creates new shadows and gives their features depth. Hand me a shovel, because I dig it.

I took this photo last night as a comp photo project. I snapped the subject's photo with a simple lighting setup, then another of myself for the shadow, and replaced his shadow with mine in Photoshop. (Sounds simple enough, but my mouse-using wrist is still sore and my eyes are watering from staring at the screen for so long...) Special thanks to Dave Hamner for modeling for the photo, and for being so awesome!

From the land before iPods

I was looking for something in my computer and came across this photo I took a few months ago. I was walking through an outdoor lumberyard and spotted this amazingly bright red "boom box" thing that has obviously been the still-working radio of choice for lumberyard staff for at least 15 years.

I think it's so pretty. I want to throw on a pair of matching Reeboks and jam to some George Michael or something. Who's with me? Boom box. Max boom for your system.

The giant lumber shelves it was sitting on went back at least 20 feet. Even though it was a beautifully bright sunny day, the light was directly overhead and couldn't reach into the depths of the shelves, so the camera really caught exactly what the scene looked like: bright light on the front of the shelf with a fast drop to pitch black toward the back. It was really pretty- the kind of sight that looks like a still-life photo even if you don't happen to have a Canon 5D in your pocket. And it makes you want to jam to George Michael or something. Anyone? Hello?

You're famous, Mr. and Mrs Breen!

A wonderful couple I took photos for in the past just contacted me- they are going to be featured on an episode of TLC's "A Baby Story," airing later this fall. Congrats, Jen and Jim Breen! The television show recently filmed and followed the couple during the birth of their second child, which they decided to undertake as a home birth, after being inspired by the Ricki Lake documentary The Business of Being Born.

Here's where I finally come in... several years ago I took engagement photos for them, and the TV show will be using some of them as footage during the episode. Woo! I can't wait to see the episode, Jen!

To the Batcave.

Here it is... the first photo to be printed in the new darkroom. Drumroll, please... ta da! When I moved into my new apartment nearly a year ago I asked the landlady if I could put together a darkroom in the basement somewhere and she agreed. But I haven't gotten around to doing it until recently. I finally unpacked the 'ol enlarger, pans, cans, and other goodies and set it all up. There are still some light leaks in the walls, but I'm feeling lazy so I'll probably just slap some duct tape on the holes.

I'd include a photo of the new darkroom, but it's ugly and small and not very noteworthy. It's a small space, but I don't need much room since I'm a small person, so I'll just refer to it as "cozy." It's actually a half-finished or half-torn down (however you look at it) bathroom in an unfinished basement. It has a low ceiling, crumbling drywall, and someone put a random water heater in it. It doesn't sound too appealing, but it's nice. It also has a sink to wash prints in, which is great, and a working toilet which is kind of useful actually, since I lose a lot of time in the darkroom and it will be nice to not have to go upstairs to the bathroom after every bottle of water. And maybe when I make more prints in there and give them to people I can chuckle a little to myself... "I peed in the same room I made that photo in. Tee hee."

I forgot how relaxing, yet exhilarating making prints in a darkroom can be. While printing this photo I felt strangely calm and focused, yet every so often found myself breaking loose and busting a move, dancing to my iPod. Well... busting a small move since I don't have too much room and don't want to knock anything over. I'm going to name the new darkroom "The Batcave." Just because I want to be able to say, "if anyone needs me, I'll be in the batcave."

Pow! An explosion of ties.

I got this idea for a fashion photoshoot a while ago, and thanks to stylist Sheyssa Rosado and model David Latimer, I was finally able to make it happen. I saw a photo once of a bunch of ties flying through the air- like they had been tossed into the wind or something- and I thought it would have looked even better if someone was wearing one of those ties.

The concept was to have ties tossed around a model, almost like just the ties were caught in a wind machine but the model wasn't. Here's my favorite photo from the shoot... to me, it looks like he's so cool that he's immune to wind or something. Or maybe the ties are just so awesome that they keep exploding and jumping all over the place.

Obviously, to get that effect I couldn't use actual wind. It would be a little annoying to throw ties at David and try to have them catch the wind, then pick them all back up again for each shot. I won't totally give away the mechanics of the setup, but I will give a hint. A lot of fishing line, wire, and a patient model.

Thanks again, Sheyssa and David!

Rainy day project

Yesterday was a gorgeous day for Chicago in March: 65 degrees outside! It was so refreshing after months of snow and below freezing temperatures that I saw people just standing around outside and finding every excuse they could just to stand outside for a few minutes to enjoy the warmth. Some people looked confused. They were like pre-springtime zombies.

My boyfriend and I took the opportunity to walk around outside a bit and do some thrifting at a resale shop. We came across bags and bags of sewing thread and bobbins. I think he said something like, "jackpot." Of course, he's a fashion design student so all that thread for $5 was an amazing find and totally useful.

I have an antique sewing machine in my apartment collecting dust as a "conversation piece." The conversations usually go like this:

"Wow, is that an old sewing machine?"
"Yep."
"Groovy."

Today has been slimy and rainy outside, so I decided to make it a true rainy Saturday and do some crafty little things. I dragged out my lights and the heavy sewing machine (with a heavy wrought iron base, mind you) and played with the spools of thread and bobbins and made myself a photo. I'll include the setup of the shot, so you can see that I used fishing line to get the bobbins to float in midair like that. I'm only half magician.

I'm going to finish the rainy Saturday by making some banana muffins now.

Watery dreams

I was looking through some old photos of mine the other night and then I had weird dreams. I dreamt I had to take photos under water but couldn't keep my eyes open under the water and couldn't find the shutter button for the camera so I had to open my eyes to see it... so I opened my eyes under water and my contacts floated away. When I finally found them, I tried to put them back in my eyes, but they were the size of teacups and too big to put back in.

A friend of mine told me once that if you eat different kinds of cheeses before going to sleep, you'll have strange or intense dreams based on the kind of cheese. Maybe the photos you look at have that same effect. I looked through a file of folders a friend and I took at a hotel swimming pool while we were on a trip, and the contacts-the-size-of-teacups is the dream I ended up with.

Maybe tonight I'll stare at a big chocolate cake and brochures from day spas before heading off to bed...