blackbird portraits

Yea adobe!

2012-02-02T06:01:00.001-08:00

Mad Props to Adobe, I'm impressed beyond words. Last night (February 1) I got an email notification to let me know that my new Photoshop CS5 for Mac has been shipped. Estimated arrival date is January 31. That's right, adobe values their customers so much, they're going to go BACKWARDS IN TIME to get me my package.

Living Social

2011-08-12T07:09:00.000-07:00

Just got contacted by the good folks at living social. Looks like I'm going to be featured sometime this fall. This is my first experience with anything like this. A little nervous.

New studio update

2011-07-17T13:38:00.001-07:00

Productive week at the new studio. Ceiling fans wired and installed, new chandelier wired and installed, mudding, taping, sanding walls done, walls primed, floors swept and vacuumed, bolts protruding from concrete floor and walls ground off, trash taken out, new colors chosen.

For david's benefit

2011-06-22T15:01:00.001-07:00

To my photography peeps; David Grupa is a talented photographer here in MN. David was recently diagnosed with cancer, and despite the fact that he has insurance, each treatment costs him several thousand dollars out of pocket. Please check out this online auction which was arranged by my friend and studiomate Kirsten. There are great deals, and you get the benefit of helping someone in need.

www.fordavidsbenefit.com

First session in the new studio

2011-05-13T10:51:00.000-07:00

Well, I have finally moved out of my old studio, and made the loooong move (about 200 feet) to a new studio, on the same floor of the same building. Funny and ironic, I left the old studio because I was having trouble finding time to participate in co-op activities for a few hours a week, yet now, I'm in the new place almost every night trying to get things set up. I have my first paid session on saturday and I have lots of things to prepare before then, so I put an ad on my facebook page looking for someone who wanted to do some posing for me, and I got several calls within a few minutes. These are my favorite shots.

The great computer meltdown of 2011

2011-03-26T05:26:00.000-07:00

I've been pretty bad about blogging for a while. It's been crazy here since January 1, due to a family illness and death, and all the relatives coming to Minnesota from Chicago and Madison as a result, as well as my wife falling on the ice and needing ACL reconstruction.

On top of all this we had BOTH computers meltdown on the same weekend. My desktop computer, which has been a workhorse for as long as I've had it, was so full of junk that the only way to clean it off was to reinstall windows. This of course requires you to reinstall all of the software (Microsoft office, photoshop, lightroom, etc.) after the fact. Normally, this is one or two nights worth of work, but just about everything that could go wrong during the reinstallation, did. Therefore, this process took more like 5-6 nights. In addition, many of the files that I had backed up so they weren't removed during the installation process, were somehow removed anyway, so I lost some financial records, pictures, etc., but nothing too serious.

The SAME weekend, I finally gave up on my laptop, which had been a constant source of frustration for 2-3 years. We bought a new HP probook laptop, but again, installing all the new software took several nights of work.

In addition to all this, I decided to finally get a handle on my finances by buying and learning Quickbooks. Installing, learning, and importing all the year's transactions has been very time consuming, but it will all be worth it.

A great new intimate photo shoot

2011-02-22T05:55:00.000-08:00

A few days before a session, I meet the client at the studio to discuss plans and give us both a chance to get to know each other. I have to admit, when I met this young lady, I was a little worried. She was so outgoing and chatty. I might have misinterpretted that as nerves. I didn't think she'd be able to pull off the facial expressions, poses, etc. Holy crap was I wrong. There's another one of her on my facebook page. Go to www.blackbirdportraits.com and click on the "facebook" link.

A Valentines day session.

2011-02-21T08:15:00.000-08:00

Right before Christmas, I got a call from a gentleman who wanted to buy a gift card for his girlfriend as a Christmas gift. He told me that she has done some professional modeling and been published many times. I was really nervous to work with her because I'm not as experienced, sophisticated, or talented as some of the photographers she must have worked with in the past.. It was very intimidating to meet her. But I found her to be one of the nicest, most professional people I've ever worked with.

There are more pictures of her on my facebook page here:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Blackbird-Portraits/168387598427

I'm part of the problem.

2010-11-15T14:49:00.000-08:00

I got an interesting call from a college student named Elizabeth today. She is a women's studies major here at the U of MN. She is doing a project for one of her classes on how women are portrayed in the media. As part of this project, she wanted to pose for some photos in my studio, and then wanted the pictures thoroughly retouched so she could show the class "before" and "after" images to illustrate how these photos are commonly manipulated and how this process conveys this unattainable ideal to women and girls. Interesting project. Makes me wonder how much smoothing and contouring I should be doing with my clients. Ideally, none. My guess is that if I didn't I'd be out of business pretty quick.

Goodbye Yelp.

2010-11-09T09:29:00.001-08:00

Friday, I had 7 completely legit 5-star reviews on Yelp.com. Now I have 3. This filtering process that yelp has seems completely random and ridiculous, especially since those reviews have been up for weeks. It's time for us to part ways. I wish you the best yelp (lie). I enjoyed our time together (BIG lie). I've always thought you were user friendly, easy to use, and accurate and trust worthy (HUGE lie).

Kejleb

2010-07-11T09:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I shot an aspiring actor/model named Kejleb (pronounced "Caleb"). We were in the studio about 2.5 hours and we shot mostly conventional headshots/portraits, but we also got a little outlandish on some. There are a few more of him on the facebook fan page: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=168387598427&aid=232732#!/pages/Blackbird-Portraits/168387598427

Now I lay me down to sleep...

2010-06-16T08:45:00.001-07:00

I found out today that a cousin of mine in Chicago just miscarried their twin boys Joe and Jack. I wanted to do something so I donated some money to an organization called "now I lay me down to sleep" (www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org). This is a great charity. I've been approached a few times over the years to be a volunteer photographer for them, but I would be an emotional wreck. Please consider donating a few dollars.

Baby Mia

2010-06-14T06:11:00.000-07:00

Kids and me....we got an understanding. They don't like me and I'm not crazy about them. Once in a while, I get a calls about doing children's pictures and I ALWAYS decline and refer them to my friend Stephanie (www.stephaniedehler.com).

But recently, through the miracle of facebook, I've reconnected with my old college friend Stacy. She and her husband Greg (who is an extraordinarily bad hockey player) have a new daughter Mia. We did a few (467 to be exact) pics of her on Sunday at the studio. She wasn't in a great mood. There are a few more posted on my facebook fan page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/manage/?act=42326159#!/pages/Blackbird-Portraits/168387598427

A new boudoir shoot

2010-06-13T07:37:00.000-07:00

It has been really busy for the last several weeks, updating the website, pricing schemes, etc. Yesterday, I finally got into the studio with a client for a short boudoir session. These are two of my favorite pics from the session. There are a few more posted on my facebook fan page...http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=221915&id=168387598427&saved#!/pages/Blackbird-Portraits/168387598427

NEW packages, new prices

2010-06-07T16:50:00.001-07:00

My boudoir business normally slows down during the summer months, so I've introduced a new "budget" option, and reduced prices on ALL other boudoir packages.

1. NEW package: A one hour boudoir session, in studio, with 10-15 final images for $100!!

2. A two hour boudoir session, in studio with 25-30 final images, regular price $200, now only $175.

3. A two hour boudoir session,, in studio with 30-40 final images, and a 30 page, high quality photo book, regular price $400, now only $300.

As usual , there are also big discounts available for MILITARY FAMILIES, referrals, past customers, etc!!!

Please be sure to check out the new pricing and new boudoir gallery on my website at http://www.blackbirdportraits.com, or call me at 612-597-6463.

"cougar month" extended

2010-06-01T06:14:00.000-07:00

I've been working on a lot of things this month, updating the website, updating the gallery, a new logo, etc., and I didn't realize until this morning that today is a new month, and I hadn't chosen a new "monthly special" yet (I started offering monthly promotions and discounts a few months ago).

Therefore, in order to get a new a special posted, and to spare my brain from having to be creative on short notice, I decided to extend cougar month for another month. I know there were at least three potential clients who wanted to take advantage of this offer in May, but couldn't get on the schedule, so this will be good news for them (are you reading this B.F, A.W, and D.L.??)

$80 for a one hour studio session with about 10 final pics. Call me at 612-597-6463 to schedule your appointment.

Another boudoir shoot

2010-04-01T05:56:00.000-07:00

Here are a few shots from another boudoir shoot I did in the studio last week. This young lady (who shall remain nameless for obvious reasons) was a lot of fun to work with and really willing to try just about anything despite her nervousness. We ended up with A LOT of pics for the book she's making for her husband. ... Again, there are a few more pics of her on my facebook fan page

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Blackbird-Portraits/168387598427?ref=nf

New boudoir shoot

2010-04-01T05:02:00.000-07:00

I've had several boudoir shoots in the last few days with one more tonight and a few later in the week. I took these at the studio on Tuesday. This young lady would like to remain nameless, because the pics are for a little black book for her husband. Little black books were popular a few decades ago. An engaged woman would give her husband to be a "little black book" of intimate photos on or before their wedding night. A cool idea I think. There are more pictures of her on my face book fan page that can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Blackbird-Portraits/168387598427?ref=nf

Egg of Nyx

2010-03-11T15:47:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, I got a call from a guy named Todd Bertson who, along with his friend Paul, is in a band called "Egg of Nyx". Things are starting to pick up for them and they needed some shots for promotional stuff, etc. They came out to the studio last Monday night and we shot for 2 hours! I really like shooting band members because it always becomes a big old sing-along. You can see a few more samples on my facebook fan page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/manage/?act=42326159#!/pages/Blackbird-Portraits/168387598427

Studio space available

2010-03-06T15:10:00.000-08:00

Hola amigos. Sorry it's been a while since I rapped at ya. It's been a really weird couple of months, and I've been in the studio a lot, but I have not been keeping up with the blog.

If you know of anyone who might be interested in acquiring some studio space, please be sure to let me know. Our studio co-op has a few impending openings. The studio is located in Harriet Island neighborhood in St. Paul in the old ACVR building. We have 2,200 sf of shooting space, a meeting room, changing room, storage room, etc. GREAT natural light too. Really convenient access from I-94, Hwy. 52, and downtown. Rent is EXTREMELY cheap so it's suitable even for hobbyists.

Brian and Bryan

2010-01-28T18:39:00.001-08:00

On new year's day, my wife and I, along with several neighbors, flew to Omaha to attend the wedding of our former neighbors Brian and Bryan. They had asked me to photograph the ceremony. On the date of the wedding, we all took a limo over the river into Iowa, where same sex-marriages are recognized, and had a very brief and informal ceremony at a park. We then returned to Omaha for the formal ceremony and reception in this UNBELIEVABLE art museum. The ceremony was held in front of an amazing, colorful glass sculpture that I'm guessing was done by Dale Chihuly. Very beautiful, but I can't imagine a more difficult lighting and color correction situation.

Amy

2010-01-18T17:54:00.000-08:00

I got a call from Amy, who lives in Bloomington, last Friday. She is getting married in a few weeks and wanted to give her fiance a "little black book" before the ceremony. It was a last minute decision to do this, so we had a lot of trouble finding a date that worked for both of us. At one point, we decided we couldn't find a mutually agreeable date, and gave up, but on Sunday, I got a text from her saying that her plans had changed and we were in the studio an hour or two later. We signed contracts and 5 minutes later, we were shooting. She is beautiful. I love her pics.

Jen

2010-01-05T18:11:00.000-08:00

This is Jen, she's gorgeous and fun. I shot her a few weeks ago at the studio. Jen was the first shoot I had after my accident a few weeks ago, and she was really cool about being patient with me as i hobbled up and down ladders, moaning, groaning and swearing, not to mention waiting a few extra weeks for me to get her pictures done while I dealt with doctors, dentists, surgeons, etc. Thanks Jen, you were awesome to work with and very forgiving!!! These pics were a gift for Jen's husband, luckily they weren't a christmas gift because I would have missed that deadline.

Carol

2009-12-06T10:15:00.000-08:00

I went to Mankato to do a boudoir shoot for Carol who wanted to make a book for her husband for Christmas. We shot these in her house. We only had about an hour and a half, but we still ended up with about 35 or 40 great final images...more than enough to make a great calendar or book.

Ta

2009-11-29T12:27:00.000-08:00

FINALLY catching up on some of the shoots from last weekend. I did several and then had to contend with the holidays as well. This is "Ta" who contacted me after I photographed a friend of hers last week. Ta's boyfriend is currently serving in Iraq, with only a few months until he comes home. She had a cool idea to send him a sexy picture or two every day until he came home.

Dee dee

2009-11-24T17:16:00.000-08:00

I had three boudoir shoots this weekend. Dee dee was the second. There was an article in one of the photogrpahy magazines last month, called "the three colors that look good on everyone". One of the colors was red. I couldn't agree more with this.

Jolene

2009-11-19T16:37:00.000-08:00

This week I did a THREE HOUR boudoir shoot with Jolene. We were in the studio until 10:30 pm with her husband Tom. There's a bit of an art to choosing pics to put on the blog. You want to put up pics that you know the client will like, but you don't want to put up the BEST pics because then there's nothing for her to look forward to. I broke my rule in this case, because I love this pic (the one in the white) so much. It's my favorite from the whole shoot.

Ruettimann family

2009-11-12T06:23:00.000-08:00

I had a few family shoots over last weekend and am finally getting caught up with processing, and of course the obligatory blogging. This is the Ruettimann family; Pat and Deanna and their sons Bradon and Bryce. They were a really fun bunch to work with, even though Bradon lost his interest in being photographed pretty early on.

Sophia and Oliver

2009-11-08T12:55:00.001-08:00

My neighbors Brian and Melissa asked me to get some studio shots of their kids Sophia and Oliver. This was one of two family portrait sessions I did this weekend. This is a pretty new area to me, but I'm learning fast. Rule #1 is that the posed studio backdrop look is ok, but I really like the shots that happen when you stop worrying about lens selection, sharpness, composition, lighting, etc. and just let kids be kids.

heather

2009-10-23T05:52:00.000-07:00

I'm finally getting caught up on processing pictures from last weekend (probably my busiest weekend ever). This is Heather. She's putting together a book of personal photographs for her husband. She came to the studio last saturday and we sat in our meeting room for over an hour, talking about dogs, and everything else, before we even started to talk about doing her pictures. I don't think I've ever worked with anyone quite so nervous about doing this, but it's pretty understandable. By the end of our 90 minute session, I think she felt a lot more comfortable and got some great shots.

The Milbrandts

2009-10-19T17:15:00.001-07:00

On Saturday, I did some family pictures for the Milbrandt family; Dan and Tiffany and their girls Ada and Tehya, who were really cute and adorable. Ada wasn't so into the "sitting still" scene. I'm guessing this is par for the course for girls of that age. After a while, we gave up on the hopes of really traditional pictures with everyone smiling and looking at the camera, and we just let the girls run around. During the afternoon, the sun filters into our studio through the dirty windows, and we get really cool rim light as you can see in the first picture.

Shannon

2009-10-18T17:55:00.001-07:00

WOW!!! What a weekend. I worked 9 hours saturday (did some private lessons, and three boudoir shoots), then today had some family portraits. On Saturday, I did another shoot with Shannon, who I had shot once before. This time we did these in the studio and she brought her friend Kara, who actually ended up getting some pictures done too. She said she wanted some pictures in this hot pink trench coat. She rocked this!

Angela+boredom+insecurity

2009-10-13T17:27:00.000-07:00

As you probably know, I recently joined Freightbox Studios photographer's co-op in St. Paul. Working with my talented partners Tonya, John, Geoff, and Dale has made me feel pretty insecure. Last week, I was pretty bored, so I called my friend Angela, and met her at the studio for some shooting. As I processed these, I decided to experiment with some more abstract looks and take some chances. These are a few of my faves.

ANOTHER artificial aging job

2009-09-20T16:37:00.001-07:00

Well this is just plain weird. Last week I blogged about how I did a photoshop job for a guy who wanted me to make someone look older in a photo. I commented that I had never once been asked for that. Well yesterday, I got another "aging "job from a man named Dave, right here in the twin cities. Dave's son Alex is getting married and at the reception, they want to show a slide show of the bride and groom and at the end, they want to show them together when they're 90. Dave was looking for a humorous looking image on this. We merged four different images together for this. It took me just about all night saturday, it was a good thing my wife Lora was out of town so I could work on it. Dave sent me some images of the bride and groom, then we purchaed some images of an old man and woman.

Maggie

2009-09-19T14:13:00.000-07:00

Last night, I did some lingerie photos for a new client named Maggie. She is the sister of another young lady I had shot named Jennifer. It seems Jennifer had so much fun with her shoot last week, that she told Maggie all about it, and next thing you know, I got a call from her. Maggie was a lot of fun to work with. Very outgoing and really open to new ideas.

Stephanie

2009-09-14T18:06:00.001-07:00

My friend and sometimes-partner Stephanie asked me to do some head shots of her for a new business venture of hers. We shot these at my new studio. I think these are my two fave shots. Be sure to check out steph's site at www.stephaniedehler.com.

Johnson family portraits

2009-09-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

My wife works with a woman named Gayle, who wanted to get some portraits of her extended family, as a gift for her in-laws upcoming anniversary. She was nice enough to contact me to book this. We shot these last Thursday at Minnehaha falls in Minneapolis. This was a big group of people to work with, especially since I was using off-camera, battery-powered lighting. Lots of stuff to carry around, lots of names to try to memorize, lots of people to keep track of. What a day!

A really hard but fun photoshop gig

2009-09-01T06:28:00.000-07:00

I got a call from a man named Ron in Chicago. His friend Gerry is about to have a big birthday, and they wanted to make some gag t-shirts for the guests. He sent me a picture of his friend and asked if I could make him look old. It's funny, 99% of the time, people ask me to make them look younger. I had no idea how to make somebody look older. I had to do a lot of research on this. I turned his hair white (an interesting challenge in itself), receded his hairline, added a lot of wrinkles, "droopified" his face and neck, added liver spots, and put about 10 pounds on him. When we were done, we decided to incorporate an old man's body into the photo, so we bought an image from istock photo and merged the two images together.

Jeff

2009-08-03T16:24:00.000-07:00

I got a call from a man named Jeff in Apple Valley on Saturday. He is a local financial planner and needed some good looking head shots and executive portraits for his website, etc., but he is also an aspiring model and wanted a few dramatic shots too. Jeff is one of the most friendly, polite, professional people I've ever worked with. As we went through our poses I actually asked him to do a couple of shots with his shirt off...as you can see, he is a well put-together dude.

Michelle and Marlon

2009-07-25T12:33:00.000-07:00

This morning, I shot a very unusual wedding. Michelle and Marlon were getting married in their backyard in St. Paul. It was a very brief, small and informal affair. There were only about a dozen or so family members. My whole session lasted only an hour or two. After the wedding, we headed up to some railroad tracks by their home, and I shot some really cool shots of their daughter Mya, and then took this family portrait in their living room.

Kerrie

2009-07-22T06:06:00.000-07:00

Last night I did another boudoir shoot. This was for a young lady named Kerrie. I think she said these were just a present for herself and hubby. Again, this was done in the comfort of her own living room. So far, I think every single boudoir shoot has been done that way. I'm sure people feel more comfortable and secure doing them there. We had a lot of fun with this. As usual, she brought a friend and they laughed the whole time. These are two of my faves.

photographing alice's artwork

2009-06-30T17:53:00.000-07:00

Today I did something I had only done once or twice before. I was contacted by an artist named Alice, who asked me if I had ever done any product photography. She is a painter and wanted several of her pieces photographed. Due to a miscommunication, we had to shoot these on her dining room table, and I used my collapsible backdrop as a background. I thought I was going to have to spend a lot of time in photoshop removing the edge of the table so that the background looked seamless but when I got home and looked at them, I realized that I really liked the way the edge of the table looked. On some of these, I backlit the piece with a radio controlled canon ex580II. It added a cool glow (I bet Jen Whalen is diggin' that, right Jen?). Sorry these aren't totally centered, I haven't cropped them yet.

tiffany

2009-06-28T07:08:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I did a two hour boudoir shoot of a young lady named Tiffany, who is making a book of the pics for her husband. We shot at a friend's house with a portable backdrop. Once she got over her case of nerves, and had a few shots of liquid courage, she had a lot of fun. This is one of my favorite shots of the day. I love the red on black.

tiffany and jeff

2009-06-14T14:25:00.000-07:00

My wedding partner Stephanie and I traveled to Union Hill, Minnesota, just outside of New Prague, this weekend to photograph Tiffany and Jeff''s wedding. As usual, it was very physically demanding, being on your feet for 8 hours, and this time, we had the added stress of being in direct sunlight for several hours. Tiffany and Jeff (or "Jennifer" as he will forever be known, for reasons I won't get into) were great to work with. What a laid back, fun couple. This is one of my favorite shots from the day. As Stephanie was shooting the wedding party, I grabbed the bride and an attendant named Cassie, and we sneaked off and shot this in the middle of the highway, as a line of cars patiently waited for us. We used a 36inch scrim diffuser to soften up the direct sunlight, which was out of control.

shannon

2009-06-07T05:28:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I did another boudoir shoot for a young lady named shannon. She is planning to make a calendar or book for her hubby for Father' day. While we were shooting, her husband found out what we were doing and started calling and texting her. I thought there was a good chance he was going to kill me. Let's just say his reaction wasn't quite what I expected. He became an adamant supporter of our cause. I have so many great pictures from this shoot, it was hard to find a fave. I love this one in color, but it looks terrible on the web, so I converted it to B/W.

sara and ben's wedding

2009-05-30T06:13:00.000-07:00

Hola amigos. Sorry it's been so long since I rapped at ya. Last weekend, Stephanie Dehler and I shot Sara and Ben's wedding in Mankato. It was a long day; two hour drive down there, eight hours on site, two hour drive home, but it was great. We got great shots, with no problems. For those of you who don't know, Stephanie is talented partner for weddings. Be sure to check out her website at www.stephaniedehler.com.

More angela...

2009-04-20T05:12:00.000-07:00

Last week, I posted a few pictures on Angela. Yesterday, my assistant Jennifer Whalen and I went to her mother's house in White Bear Lake to get a few more images which she wanted. I think this is my favorite shot of the day.

Melissa

2009-04-19T13:26:00.001-07:00

I got a call from a young lady named Melissa, who wanted some "boudoir" shots as a gift for her fiance. We shot these at a trendy hotel here in the cities (which shall remain nameless).

Another tough editing job...

2009-04-18T07:08:00.001-07:00

A man in Arizona named Daniel e-mailed me yesterday. His father recently passed away, and his memorial service is coming up in a few days, so he needed some old photos restored very quickly. I really like this picture of his dad. He's a very cool looking guy.

Joel Ashbacher

2009-04-16T15:49:00.001-07:00

Joel is a local actor who contacted me last week because he needed headshots immediately, for an upcoming audition. We didn't even have any time to book studio time. He wanted something gritty and dramatic, rather than classic looks. The first shot above was taken in my kitchen. In the evenings the sun sets over my backyard and light comes pouring through one window, and more diffuse light comes into a window on another wall in the same kitchen. I always wanted to take headshots there, and this was a perfect chance. We shot the second photo in my living room with a portable backdrop.

Angela

2009-04-08T17:27:00.000-07:00

Angela is a local actress and opera singer.

We took some shots of her last night at my house, with her boyfriend Kiernan (hope I spelled it right K!) acting as a lighting tech (unpaid).

Professional, personable, and totally at home in front of the camera. She really took charge of this shoot.

She also just happens to be gorgeous and photographs beautifully!

Here are a few shots that I really like. It's probably not a great idea for me to post two pics with the same color effect, but I really like this effect on her.

my friend marie

2009-03-22T08:09:00.000-07:00

In a previous consulting job, marie was my favorite client. We had a great working relationship and would go out frequently for lunch, or maybe a beer. We no longer work together but we stay in touch. She's re-entering the job market and needed some headshots for her online networking. We did this shoot at her home. I think this pic is proof of my long-held theory, people look so much better when they don't work so hard to smile.

Terans

2009-03-20T08:31:00.000-07:00

I have the day off today (not sure why, but I don't ask questions when a day off is involved), so I finished up working on my shots of a girl named Terans. She has an online cooking show and needed some shots. We considered shooting her in the kitchen, but of course, that seems way too obvious and predictable. My portable/collapsible/reversible backdrop finally showed up in the mail, and this was my first chance to try it out. I think these are my favorite shots.

Jay

2009-03-17T17:48:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, I blogged about a great, fun shoot I had with Comedian Chris Shaw and his friend and bandmate Jay. While Chris was getting dressed, I tested lighting with his friend Jay. I just needed him to stand there, and not pose or smile or anything, but when I got home and started looking at images in lightroom and photoshop, I kept coming back to this one. I have a photoshop action that I've been wanting to use for about a year, but just haven't found the right image for it, but when I saw this shot, I knew it would be perfect.

Comedian Chris Shaw

2009-03-16T05:55:00.000-07:00

This sunday afternoon I shot some head shots of comedian Chris Shaw for his promotional materials. I had ordered a new portable backdrop system for this shoot, which didn't arrive on time (thanks a lot US postal system jerks), so we had to improvise. I removed the white diffuser from my reflector and clipped it to the backdrop stand. However, this meant our backdrop was only about 36 inches in diameter. So we had to shoot an awful lot of really tight shots, which to be honest, I thought would look pretty good anyway. After we shot these, his music partner Jay came over and I took some really nice natural light shots of them jamming on the couch, sorry I haven't gotten those posted yet.

Derik and Jeremy

2009-03-07T18:07:00.000-08:00

It was a beautiful, warm sunny day here in Minneapolis today. A great opportunity to shoot pics of Derik and Jeremy down in the warehouse district. This was taken behind the old General Mills plant. They are my kind of people because they like a very heavily processed look to their photos.

My most challenging job ever...

2009-03-01T11:42:00.000-08:00

Somebody asked me the other night if the jobs I get are difficult. To be honest, most are pretty easy - maybe a little time consuming. But a few weeks ago, I got an email from a man named Peter Brockman. I'm not sure where he was from, but it was probably some place cold, maybe right here in Minnesota. He had caught quite a fish this winter, and took some photos, but unfortunately, there was something on the lens (probably ice) and the entire center of the photo was obscured by this colorless blob. He asked me if I could do anything with it, and after one look, I quickly told him no, I thougt it was hopeless. But I started thinking of it over the next hour or two, and started to experiment. I actually took a portion of his left elbow and used it to reconstruct part of his right shoulder. Then I had to hand paint some of the fish, the snow, etc. I worked on this over 2-3 nights. It's not perfect, but it's sure a lot better.

Joe the engineer

2009-02-28T12:49:00.000-08:00

Today I drove out to Minnetrista, MN (about 45 minutes west of cities) to shoot some portraits of Joe. Joe is an engineer who will be starting his own website and needed some nice headshots to post. This image originally was on the reject pile, but started growing on me for some reason.

He had this great german shepard "puppy' named "Diego" who needed to insert himself into some/all images.

A busy couple of months...

2009-02-24T16:11:00.000-08:00

Much as I suspected would be the case, I have not been keeping up on this blog.

Fortunately one reason is that January, 2009 was the busiest month I have ever had, and February appears to be even bigger.

In January, I helped a woman named Alison in Alabama, rescue some of her wedding photos. This was one of the biggest jobs I had ever worked on, and it made me revisit an idea I had several months ago, for the next "blackbird" company...blackbird weddings, specializing in rescuing and enhancing wedding images.

I also had the pleasure of photographing a delightful woman named Liz in her paint studio in lowertown St. Paul. This was a great natural light project.

In February, I also did a couples session with Jen and Paul in Cowles conservatory and the Sculpture garden in Minneapolis. This was a saturday morning and we had gotten 4-5 inches of unexpected snow, so we had great light and a fresh coating of snow for our shoot. Paul had a pretty serious ankle injury so I felt pretty bad for him trying to get around in the snow, but they were both pretty tough. This is a close up of one of my shots, with a really great black and white photoshop action I found, which I'm not telling anyone about.

My first entry

2008-12-29T17:18:00.001-08:00

Hello all. What a momentous day, December 29, 2008 - my first blog entry ever.

I've started this blog because there are a few major changes underway with my businesses. As you may know, my photo editing business - Picturescue photo editing (http://www.picturescue.com) has been in business now for well over a year, and has been much more successful than I had anticipated. As a result, I'm starting a few off-shoots.

One of those off shoots is already up and running. Blackbird effects (http://www.blackbirdeffects.com) went live on December 23, and has already been very successful, in terms of traffic anyway. Blackbird effects provides photo editing and enhancement services to professional, semi-professional, and advanced amateur photographers worldwide. Some people call this service "retouching", but I don't like to think of myself that way. My e-mail will be paul@blackbirdeffects.com

In the next few weeks, I will also start phasing out Picturescue, and replacing it with blackbird editing (http://www.blackbirdediting.com). Very little will change in terms of pricing, service, or guarantee. However, the website will be completely revised and updated, and the name of the company will change to something much easier to spell, pronounce, and remember. My e-mail will be paul@blackbirdediting.com

As if this wasn't enough, my friend and partner Stephanie Dehler and I are getting ready to begin work on our new website for our wedding photography business; blue photographic (http://www.bluephotographic.net). We are starting our second season of shooting now, and again, we have been much more successful than anticipated.

Speaking of Stephanie, you should really check out her website; Stephanie Dehler Photography (http://www.stephaniedehler.com). She's an incredibly talented portrait photographer, specializing in kids portraiture (how do people do that?). She has been very, very helpful in my business. Thanks!