Sneak Peek: Jullianna's Senior Session

It was a grey and cloudy day when we shot these images... not that you would know from the end results! Had a great time with Jullianna and a friend out in a beautiful garden. We wandered around and stopped here and there, wherever we liked the scene.




What I love the most about Jullianna's session (aside from her gorgeous hair and wonderful natural posing) was the amazing number of looks we got -- in one hour of shooting! There are some serious, slightly edgy modern grunge feeling images, fun and playful shots with the dandelion, and some "classic" senior poses highlighting her natural beauty against the green leaves and trees. It was rather difficult to pick out just a few for this highlight reel!

Plus... the rain held off until we were done! Yay! I snapped the last shot of Jullianna playing with the silk scarf in the field, just as the first little drops began to fall.

Enjoy the video!

Sneak Peek: Fashion Shoot at Simpson House Mansion! Part 1

Had a fantastic time shooting at the Simpson House Mansion right down off the Plaza last week. Brock, the site manager, could not have been a nicer guy to set us up and turn us loose on this gorgeous property all day!

For those of you unfamiliar with the Simpson House, it is a three story, stone mansion built in 1909 and lovingly restored to all its turn-of-the-century manor glory. Gorgeous chandeliers, crown moulding on the walls and ceilings, a dramatic staircase and a really stunning garden with a fountain and a beautiful piece of sculpture. Hello, brides! :)

In fact, while we were on lunch break and relaxing on the lush grassy front lawn, I had an older gentleman and his wife approach me and ask if I knew anything about the property because their daughter had just booked it for her wedding this October.

And just to complete the romance of this place, I have to share the best story of the shoot... Our last model of the day, Brek, arrived to shoot a little earlier than expected. He seemed unusually nervous and fidgety, which as anyone who knows Brek will say, is not his usual M.O. He's normally a very laid back guy, as well as an incredibly talented model in front of the camera.

So Brek keeps pressing me, "How long did you say this was going to take? When do you think we will be finished here?" etc. So I kinda looked at him funny and asked in a friendly way, "What's up? Do you need to be somewhere important?" And then he responds (very very quietly) "Well, they just called and said that they have the ring ready, and so I was hoping to go and pick it up before they closed today..." Turns out my man Brek was planning to propose to his sweetheart just a couple days after the shoot!!! As they are both absolutely wonderful people, I could not have been happier for them, and it added even more awesomeness to what was already a pretty kickin' shoot.

(P.S. Brek did in fact get the ring in time and she said yes! )

Win a FREE ENGAGEMENT SESSION from Striking Photography!!!

Hey Blog Readers! Are you planning to watch the Royal Wedding?

Post or email me with your best guesses as to what Kate Middelton's dress will look like, and be entered to  *** WIN A FREE ENGAGEMENT SESSION FROM STRIKING PHOTOGRAPHY! (Entries accepted until 2:55am Friday Apr 29!) ***

For an extra chance to win, head over to Facebook and like my new Page!

The Sweet Smell of Success: Lawson Lavender

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

This is the lesson learned from a recent shoot I did for a great local company called Lawson Lavender. Lawson makes and sells the best-smelling lavender products my nose has ever encountered, from candles and soaps to natural household care products like glass and countertop cleaners. Run by the ever-vivacious and awesomely spikey haired Stacey, she and her family actually grow their own lavender on a farm in rural Missouri, harvest it, dry it and then use it to create the Lawson Lavender products. So Stacey approached me and asked if I could do some product shots for them, as they were launching a brand new etsy.com site.

Dirt...



She showed me some examples of photos she liked, and given the adorable gnome that is part of the Lawson Lavender logo, I suggested we play off that and have a "magical forest" theme to the images. Ya know - red spotted mushrooms, 

plus plants...

lots of ferns, perhaps a friendly snail or two? Imagine where a gnome might live, and you'll get the idea. Based on this first concept, I built a set in my studio, beginning with stacking bricks on a table, covering them with a painter's drop cloth and dumping a bunch of potting soil on top. I began adding in greenery

...equals a gnome-y wonderland.

(my son "helped" by trying to add in some fake plastic bugs which I vetoed), sprinking moss and rocks. In the end, it looked like this:

Loved the shot. Got the whole magical fairy land thing going, the light slanting in as if shining through the forest trees. Add in a cute little mushroom and call me the Fairy Godmother. I can see the gnomes capering about as we speak...

Only one problem: it completely did NOT jive with Stacey's new etsy.com site.

When you hire Striking Photography, be it as your wedding photographer or senior pictures, or for a commerical photography shoot such as this one, my number one priority is to produce images that are an appropriate and real reflection of the subject. It may be a technically perfect shot, but if it doesn't work for my client's objectives, then my job is not complete.

So, I came up with two completely different concepts and went in a whole new direction with the shoot. Voila!

Much cleaner,

more modern take on the products. What makes the first image awesome was that the colors worked with the product labeling, whereas the second concept played off of the actual usage of the products (cleaning products shown in a kitchen or bathroom, a candle by a bedside, etc.).

In the end, Stacey was pleased with all the ideas but chose to go with the last image, showing the products in the environments where they would actually be used.

And I got to play in the dirt with my kid, which was pretty fun too. 

The BAD news about the Flashbus Tour with David Hobby and Joe McNally

Just got back around midnight last night from the Flashbus Tour in St. Louis, featuring David Hobby and Joe McNally, two photographers I greatly admire. The BAD news about the Flashbus Tour is that as I was speeding along the freeway back to Kansas City, my entire box of dark chocolate Raisinets upended themselves and spilled all over my lap and onto the floor, where they were squished into a chocolately mess by my feet as I was driving. And I had only finished less than half the box, people. *sigh* Thankfully I was driving my husband's car ;-)

 The GOOD news about the Flashbus Tour was... pretty much everything else! For those who don't know what this "Flashbus thing-y" is (was?), check it out here. Alas, it is fini, kaput, done, and St. Louis was the final stop. But I am very thankful I was lucky enough to attend and learn a whole lot from these two accomplished photographers. Between the two of them, they have quite the client list including numerous years working at the Baltimore Sun, Sports Illustrated, Life, Time, Fortune, National Geographic, photographing many national celebrities... you get the idea. This ain't their first rodeo, iykwim.



by keepon



The first half of the day was conducted by Mr. Hobby, who did an excellent presentation of how to build lighting schemes from the ground up. The second half was more of a live demonstration of Mr. McNally shooting tethered and using a slightly different technique. I enjoyed both of them and learned a lot. They also gave away a lot of swag, and I won a pretty sweet Manfrotto photo vest for being the first person to present an uneaten banana from my bag! Yessss!!!!! LOL


 However, although I definitely squirreled away many a technical nugget to incorporate into my own shooting style, what I really appreciated most was the inspiration I received. Here were two incredibly successful photographers, and while undoubtedly savvy businessmen, they were also amazingly generous with sharing their knowledge and experience. Photography can be a very cutthroat industry sometimes, so that was cool and inspiring to see. And if I may venture briefly into slightly political territory (I promise not to make it a habit), as a woman and thereby definitely a minority in the crowd, I felt very comfortable and welcome at the event. I was not talked down to, nor did I feel I received special treatment. It was simply a non-issue.

So expect to see some of this new and exciting knowledge informing my work at Striking Photography over the next few months! A whole bunch of seniors should be rolling through here soon, as well as some business headshots, wedding work and more...

And may you, dear reader, continue to grow and learn, whatever your field of work may be!

Killer new blog look coming soon!

So I am crazy excited about the new look that is going to be available thanks to blogger! It will be so much more interactive and really showcase my images! Keep checking back here over the next few weeks to see it... and let me know what you think in the comments section!

Sneak Peek: Fall Family Fun!

So I wanted to title this post "Fabulous Forward-Facing Fall Family Fun" but I thought that might have been a little bit of overkill on the alliteration... LOL

This gorgeous family wanted to get outside and take advantage of some fall colors. Although we had missed the peak of the leaves (which in Kansas City is around mid to early October), I did some location scouting and found some very beautiful pockets of leaves, and also an amazing grove of evergreens that had a wide, grassy lane going right through them... which created this fantastic, magical forest feeling!













The afternoon light was slanting through the trees just right, creating a lovely rim light, and the kids and I had fun playing red light, green light all along the path.

Mom, a former model, and Dad, a musician (was it the hair that gives it away? *wink*), completed the quartet. We took some of everyone relaxing together in the grass, but this shot was my fave of the entire family. They just look happy and confident and cool, striding together into their futures together!

If you are interested in scheduling your own family portrait (think spring, flowers in bloom, new leaves), please give me a call at the studio: 913-602-8061 or send me an email via my contact form at Striking's website.