Pierson Studios-Contemporary Children Photography

2010 Celebrate Differences Calendar Done!!!!!!

Now that this calendar is out, I wanted to show a few of the image from the inside. This is a project started by Rebecca Christianson and is growing fast. It's an organization that brings awareness to families that have kids with disabilities. I met some great kids doing this and had a lot of fun! Although, it was a ton of work too. 14 different locations, all outside except one. And my wife very graciously donated her time for the graphic design which she did a wonderful job on.

Is it dangerous?

Reprinted from my newsletter.

I have had this discussion with people before and I heard it mentioned on the radio this week. The topic I'm talking about is this; is the world and even our immediate community, more dangerous for kids than when you were growing up? I remember at age 11 or 12 riding my bike all over my neighborhood 5 or 6 blocks (big ones), to visit friends. I would be out for hours in the summer time.

Today, I can't imagine allowing my daughters to do that. But here's a question (and feel free to email your thoughts or better yet post them on my blog), is the world really more dangerous than when we were growing up? Or is it because we have more knowledge of the evil. Has technology made us more aware? I mean think about this, there were child molesters when we were kids, there were people who kidnapped kids. So are there really more bad people out to hurt children or are we just more aware of them. I don't know the answer, but as our girls begin to develop and look more like teens, the question surfaces about how far to let the reigns out before it becomes dangerous. I wish this parenting thing was easier. (Hey Mom, You never told me how hard it really was).

Red umbrella shoot behind the scenes video

Enjoy!

Everything

Life has been crazy. Work is coming (nice) and I am finishing a huge project for Aurora Christian Schools. It's going to be a 5 minute video of kids and parents talking about what it's like to raise them. The video involves something like 20 locations and just as many kids. 

I have also been booked for enough work that it's severely limiting my schedule this fall. So if you are a parent and want to book a fall gig with me, call right away because there just aren't that many days I have left.

Lastly, if you are a photographer reading this, I have been putting together some ideas for you. I have a forum but I'm thinking of moving it to a blog format which is open to everyone and there is no need to register. Just jump on and read. We'll see, it's still cooking right now.

Here's a still from the video. TTFN!

Cold and wet

But my model did great. She had to spin with her eyes closed in a confined space with freezing cold water coming down on her with an air temperature of 68 degrees. You try it!    

The  shot took 6 hours of prep time, 3 hours set up, 1 hour shoot time and 3 hours post work. The props included 20 umbrellas and the generous use of a lift and yard from First Place Rental in Oswego.

test

Over the weekend I spent my time pounding stakes into the ground and attaching umbrellas to them. I was setting up a test for a shot I am doing 5 hours from now. It's going to consist of a 12 year old girl standing in the middle of this target with rain falling down. (Artificially made rain). It should be cool, and probably cold for my model. Highs are expected to be around 69 degrees at shoot time. We'll see how it goes!

Cute one.

She was a little afraid at first, but warmed up nicely. We did this in Aurora with the awesome buildings and older walkways. Love it there.

So I wanted to put together a funny video for this workshop. My sister in law was totally onboard. And no photographic equipment was harmed in the making of this short.

website tip

Just found out there is a site you can use to rank see how your ranks with search engines. Checkout grader.com if you have a site and need to see how it's doing with visibility.

That's my business tip for the day.

Friends

We just got back from a trip to see some good friends and this was one image from our journey. I get some eye rolling when I pull out the camera, but I think they enjoy it as you can see.