Transposure

I have had the pleasure of working with Lehigh Valley Style Magazine for the past two years now.  In that time, I have photographed a variety of covers, feature articles, and such.  Well, recently, I was asked to provide photography and graphic design services for their 10th Anniversary cover, the January 2010 issue.  I was flattered!  Lisa’s (editor) idea was to shoot a birthday cake and use it as the centerpiece of the cover.  We set up the shoot and collected the images.

Since the first conversation, my creativity engine was in high gear trying to develop a way of pumping up the cover for this special anniversary issue.  I decided to call on a long time friend of mine, Britt, who is in the graphic arts business.  I can handle graphic artistry up to a certain point, but I wanted a seasoned pro to provide oversight for this job.  Britt stepped up to the plate and, using technology to our advantage, he received the image files in his Florida office soon after they were shot in Style’s office in Pennsylvania.  Gotta love the internet!  I came up with a concept in advance of the shoot which involved a collage of the covers from the past 10 years.

Within 15 minutes of shooting, we had several finished proofs for the anniversary cover in hand and in front of the editor!!  Wow!  She was delighted!  We developed two versions of the cover.  The cake idea and the “10″ idea.  The “10″ idea was simply a large 10 representing the anniversary.

After some deliberation lasting several days, the final decision was made….

Style made some tweaks to the text, but overall, that was the chosen design.

Happy Anniversary Style!!

As with all of our wedding clients, we recently visited the reception site of one of our clients.  The building is the Curtis Center in Philadelphia.  OK, let me say this…..Breathtaking!!

Oh, and another comment…our clients are awesome!  They are so excited about us being their wedding photographers!!  Those are the best kind of clients.  Not as cheerleaders, but as people who appreciate fine photography and the efforts it takes to achieve them.

Well, while walking through the location for the first time, I took a snap shot of the Christmas tree that resided in the reception hall.  After looking at the download, it quickly became apparent that it had to be our official Transposure 2009 Holiday card!

A&J, we are looking forward to being there for you in March!

Oh, and here’s the card!

One of my favorite things to do is create environmental portraiture.  What is EP you ask?  Well, quite simply, it is a portrait of an individual in an environment that helps define who they are and/or what they do.  It involves creativity and an ability to control the light to achieve the end result.  Well to this end, I had the unique opportunity to photograph a blacksmith recently.  The point of the project was to create a stellar opening shot for his website.  Now, he wasn’t the ordinary run-o-the-mill blacksmith, mind you.  In other words, you weren’t going to find any horseshoes hanging around his shop.  Instead, you would find twisted iron, hammered metal and other intriguing shapes.  Mr. Braddee of Braddee MetalWorks creates work of metallic art for high end homes.  Think barstools, bar footrails, iron entry gates, fireplace protection grates, and the list goes on.

Well, the first order of business was to discuss our respective ideas for his environmental portrait.  We did and decided on a concept.  Mike wanted to see the sparks flying, and at the same time, a portrait of himself to define his site and his work.

We set up the shoot and I allotted about 2 hours to get the job done.  By the time I set up lighting and he got his forge to working temperature, two hours proved to be just right!  We timed the strike of his hammer on the red hot iron piece on his anvil.

One….two….three…….

Overall, I was pleased with the result, and so was Mike!  And in the end, that is really what matters!

I hope you like it too.