NEW CO-OP STUDIO (the beginnings)!!!!!!

What's even better than being a photographer passionate about her job?

A group of passionate photographers getting together to start a co-op photography studio in North Salt Lake City, Utah- that's what!!

Yes, you read that correctly!  I am so excited to have officially signed on board to be a part of this venture.  The co-op studio is just in the beginning stages of formulation and in my hand I hold a key to the studio.  Well, the key is on my key chain currently- I found it difficult to grasp the key in the palm of my hands and type at the same time.  I'm sure with practice...  nevermind, I digress...

Anyway, we have a group of approximately 6 local Utah-based photographers that have come together to create a co-operative venture.  We will be plotting build-outs, gear usage, time management, and general fun shenanigans learning from each other.  Personally, I look forward to each individual photographer sharing their knowledge (and occasionally a frothy brew) while swapping stories.  I hope that we can cross paths the the Utah County Co-op to gather ideas and suggestions to help us bring together a studio that will resemble their success!

While we are all excited to hit the ground running with this venture, here are a few pictures I snapped of what it looks like currently.  These are the quickly shot "before" pictures!  (Do I need to say they are unedited??)  While we are planning on some pretty cool set-ups for the space, I wanted to make sure other local photogs know that we are also discussing being set-up to rent out the space hourly.  If you are interested in finding out more information about renting the studio, please do not hesitate to get in contact with us!!  In the meantime, here is what we are walking into:

PS- there will be a mini fridge.

You better believe I am booking this time out quickly!  Get in touch asap if you want to be part of the initial rush of in-studio sessions!  :D

Let's do this!!   {cue music for impending world domination}

Mehendi (Henna) Celebration!!

It is not often that I am a loss for words... my friends and associates can attest to that.  In this instance, I am having the opposite problem; I am brimming with enthusiasm for the last couple of days and the amazing imagery that has come out of them!

I have had the honor to shoot a traditional Hindu Wedding Ceremony here in Salt Lake City, Utah.  The entire experience has been inspiring beyond words and it is because of my overwhelming feeling of amazement that I am struggling to poetically depict the last few days.  In an attempt to explain all of the events in a somewhat coherent manner without resorting to blushing adjectives and near stream-of-consciousness babbling about colored fabric, I will start simply with the Mehendi Celebration.

What is a Mehendi Celebration??  It is also called a Henna Party.  I will not go into a detailed description of this celebration, so if you would like to know a little bit more about the celebration here is a website to get you started:

http://weddings.iloveindia.com/indian-weddings/pre-wedding-functions/mehendi-celebration.html

Obviously, this is a quick overview, but the above link has (hopefully) given you a short idea of the importance and ritualistic nature of what I was witness to.  Please don't hesitate to do more research on this subject!

While you are researching this amazing experience, I would like to express my appreciation for being asked to photograph this beautiful bride's day!  Without further ado, here are a few pictures from the Mehendi Celebration!!

As you can tell, I even had a difficult time choosing just a few photos to post here!!  What a great problem to have!  If you would like to see more photographs from this celebration, please visit my website here:

http://www.synergyimpressions.com/Weddings/Courtney-Mehndi-Party/17547682_RKZwHg#1335792264_2zgkh9R

Feel free to comment!

Munoz 10 Year Vow Renewal

What a day!  I had the pleasure of being a part of the Munoz Family 10 year vow renewal ceremony.  This fun-loving couple immediately stole center stage with their glowing admiration for each other and their quick-witted down to earth sense of humor.  From their "HIS and HERS" t-shirts to the live vocalist (who was SO amazing, most didn't realize she was singing live)- this was a ceremony to remember.

All weddings have a sense of love and affection, but there is something to be said about a ceremony that celebrates 10 years of those feelings.  I feel exceptionally grateful for capturing such an inspiring day.  May you both look forward to another 10 years of such dedicated affection and laughter.

Art City Austin- Who's Who??!

I realize that many of you have been holding your breathe with anticipation, wondering who all these fabulous looking people I photographed in Austin are.  I apologize for the loss of sleep that my disregard for your burning curiosity must have caused.  Fear no longer, your questions are about to be answered.  Yes, it's time.  You are ready, young grasshopper, to have a glimpse into the world of Art City Austin that I was fortunate enough to experience.

If you are reading this, tilting your head like a dog listening to high-pitched sound, wondering what the hell I am talking about- that can only mean you have not "liked" my photography facebook page.  To remedy this, you should click this link: http://www.facebook.com/synergyimpressions

Ok, now that we have the formalities out of the way...

While in Austin last week, I was fortunate enough to experience Art City Austin.  While migrating through the crowds of onlookers surrounded by artisans from near and far, I decided that one way I could express my inspiration was to do so with my camera.  Not only would this be a way to merge into the creative energies that were swirling around the streets of Austin, but an attempt to cross-network with other artisans.  My hope is that some of you may see examples of their creation, check out their work, visit their websites, and maybe even decide to have some of their work live with you.

What you'll see is a quick snapshot of the artisan, potentially a snapshot of their work, and below those images, links to their websites for additional information: their bios, stories, adventures, and any other interesting facts they may have online.  I urge you to take the time to view their work, get inspired, stalk them on facebook, and show your support.  In fact, I know a few of these artisans will be coming to Park City as well- which means you local Utah folks may even have a chance to meet some of these brilliant people.

Ok, on with it!  Here you go!

Artist: Michael O'Brien

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/michaelobrienart

Artist: Leif Holland
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/LeifHollandArt/107887802626904
Random video I found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdHdeYH3fh4

Artist:  Brianna Martray
Website: http://www.briannamartray.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/briannamartrayfineart

Artist: Todd Alexander
Website: http://web.mac.com/toddalexanderart/Todd_Alexander/Home.html

Artist: Wendy Newman
Website: http://wendynewmanjewelry.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wendy-Newman-Jewelry/110758455637864

Artist: Jerry Allen Brem
Website: http://www.jabrem.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Art-by-Brem/270669166924?sk=wall

Artist: Kreg Yingst
Website: http://kregyingst.com/

Artist: Michael Chen
Website: http://michaelchenphotography.com/

Artist: Mychal Mitchell
Website: http://ionahandcraftedbooks.com/

Since I know all of you reading this are avid art connoisseurs and thus have spent the last 3 hours pouring over each featured artists website, I will refrain from making this post any longer with further commentary from myself.

Thank you to the artisans for allowing me to photograph them and sharing their creations.  Also, a huge thanks to you, the readers, for continuing to supports artisans and creators alike.  Please feel free to leave comments and future showing information below!  Go forth and be inspired!

Art City Austin Inspiration

Before you read any further, please know that I am operating remotely in Austin, Texas and my computer (as well as any processing abilities) remain in Salt Lake City, Utah.  That being said, I have access to a computer at the moment and cannot wait to spill the contents of my over-flowing brain onto this blog.  I wanted to draw your attention to the first sentence so that I could expose my inability to share my photos and videos of the subjects I am about to describe.

Art City Austin.

How fortunate that I arrive in Austin, Texas during an art festival!  Creative energies everywhere.  Inspiration leaping from canvas to metal sculpture... enlivened persons wandering from booth to booth, gently caressed by the warm Austin breeze.  Yes.  This is how the world should involve art.  Whole hearted-ly and with reckless abandon.

Inspired by the surrounding area and infused with a newly awakened inspiration to connect with a place I had previously know so little about- I spontaneously launched a "Get to know the People of Austin" project.  As you roll your eyes and wonder what debauchery I have gotten myself into THIS time... let me explain.  A society is a sum of it's parts, those parts, by default are the people that inhabit that specific geographic region.  Demographic and cultural tendencies not withstanding, I wanted to capture moments of the people that inhabited this area that seems so vibrant.  I wanted to connect with them for a moment, to form a bond, to maybe even create a future relationship or some greater far reaching effect that is not even realized yet....

What amazed me, more so than my own eagerness to photograph seemingly random people, was their own eagerness to be photographed.  It was their own willingness to open themselves up to a complete stranger with a big camera from Utah (you know, that state that has those crazy liquor laws) that inspired me to continue to harass (speak with) people and take their photo.

This idea became even more interesting as I walked into the art festival.  All of a sudden, every 10 feet there was a new face, another inspired being, a fellow artist.  Although it would have been slightly unrealistic to photograph each and every artist, it was incredible to cross paths briefly, explain the project, exchange business cards, snap a photo and wander on.

Why would I want to take random photos of artists and put them on my website??

Simply put: to connect.   To connect our inspiration, to connect our ideas, our websites, our social media outlets, our insecurities, our strengths, our weaknesses, our art.  I hope to share websites and potentially cross-link our respective visions.  I'm sure some of the artists will look at my website (yes, I handed my biz card to everyone I shot) and think... pshaw, this girl isn't my style of photography.  I decided that was ok.  As nerve-racking as it can be to deliberately send other artists to your website, the potential to assist in the creation of an artistic network made it worth the knowledge that my photography could very easily be judged by the same people I was so eager to capture in one shutter click.

So there it is.

Art is greater than the individual.  With that in mind, the more individuals that interact the greater the chance of an increased societal impact of said art.  That's just my personal opinion anyway.

Oh yea, and I will actually put all those pictures up when I get back to Salt Lake City, since I'm not going to want to out in the snow anyway....

Open your eyes

Today's post is a post from a dear friend.  This is worth every second of reading.  Take a deep breathe and a moment to go to this site, watch the video, and think about it.  Please.

http://thisbrazenteacher.wordpress.com/2011/03/21/you-cant-do-that/

Thank you.

Help spread the word!!

If you would like to share this website with your friends, associates, neighbor, mailman, etc. but aren't sure how, here is a great way to jazz up your blog and help keep the good karma flowing.

Look to the right of your screen.
Your other right.
There ya go.

See the black banner like button thing over there that says "I SHOOT PEOPLE"?  See the one under it that says "Learn how to light"?  Well, if you would like to have one of those of the fancy shmancy buttons on YOUR blog, here's how you do it.

If you want it to look like this:

Go to your blog lay-out editor.  Go to your gadgets.  Add a new gadget.  Select the one that allows for HTML/JavaScript.  In the big white box that shows up, cut and paste this coding:

<a href="http://www.synergyimpressions.com/"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpsJSwMc5ugaVbVFj8kv9t7_DBnElZYi1LMeyKhdo80bsSItgpGAEIUMIuJB17b_BmnfyHRnjiLoWKpiMZDxrn2_vYO2oUMCqcfR7W1YKI_yhJ7w8Ft3DmmTnbtRM4So0QKg6rsqr_jhyB/s1600/I+shoot+people+copy.jpg" width="200" height="75" border="0" /></a>

If you are a non-violent person and/or don't get the play on words, you could also try this banner like button:

Prefer that one?  Ok, follow the steps listed above and use this code instead:

<a href="http://www.synergyimpressions.com/"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ3hRwu-JQ9uNf-7SiiIPXhNC2wploHXN_cgMN6YbwoI3Ysvie8LCdrnz6JvFLK1ew1mPyRGePkiuhP4upNRVe834yem4qY0O3x4g8pwW5AiwoHU6MqUfz5zXA_psnZdftjoKB0pzCoBwB/s1600/click+here.jpg" width="200" height="75" border="0" /></a>

Still not your cup of tea??  Ok, how about this one?

Alright, alright.  If you like this one, use the following code:

<a href="http://www.synergyimpressions.com/"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXvzRzE2HhqqPsUR5hAWneGd4S93W6EXUcQ6l_SFOBaL68FH0qXHNHO1AZ0XSodnqCsQCFosBATCRy-u65ksV-7ISOAoFY-fvNH9eIjxIg7gr9GVH-v8kR9RDrubzFQNOylwrWsOrYH1J0/s1600/Synergy.jpg" width="200" height="75" border="0" /></a>

I hope that all made sense!! I appreciate the shout-outs and all of the support you guys continually show me!  It gives me warm fuzzy feelings.

Seriously.  Thanks for your support and I look forward to seeing these banner like button things on your blogs too!  Make sure you leave your company name and website in the comment section if you use one of these!  I'd love to see where they are gong.


Cheers.

Sample Buttons

Here are some sample buttons for you to preview!!  Vote for your favorite one! 

Creativity and Flexibility = FUN

We have all had our fair share of photo shoots that didn't quite pan out like we had anticipated.  The best photographers I have known are the ones that not only were able to size up the situation quickly but maintain a flexible approach to getting the job done.  They are the ones that rather than screaming and pulling their hair out casually make a reference to needing a beer and then MacGyver  an entire lighting rig with chewing gum and a paper clip.  Wait?  Do we need to take a minute to bask in the glory that was MacGyver??  I think we do.  Here you go:  You know you thought his mullet was sexy- so click here. 

Ok, now that we all went running down memory lane and are plotting just how many paper clips it would take to rig a lighting system, the point of this post was to suggest a flexible approach to photography.

For example, I was shooting a Hockey-Meets-Boudoir session that was intended for a Christmas gift.  The secrecy that went into scheduling this shoot was second only to that of Air Force One.  While making covert plans to shoot so that the model's significant other would know nothing about our shenanigans, we forget to update Mother Nature on our itinerary.  Our outdoor shoot quickly turned into an evening scramble and we found ourselves making last minute adjustments that could have easily been embarrassing if we had not been able to find such humor in the situation.

The outdoor location(s) failed.  Yes, we tried more than one.  By that time, we did not have access to the studio either.  So,  we sent my assistant to Bed Bath and Beyond for a King size black sheet, more duct tape, and a six pack.  (For the record, I don't suggest automatically resulting to drinking during a photo shoot)

With supplies in hand, we literally went to my apartment and created a makeshift studio in my kitchen.  Here are a few pics of what it looked like:

(Yes, my cat really did decide this is where he needed to relax)

Ok, so once we got everything cleared out of this space and got the lights somewhat in place, the sheet arrived and it looked more like this:

Was it perfect?  Nope.  Was it anywhere near what we had anticipated?  Hell no.  Did we get some amazing shots and have an even more amazing story and experience from it?  Absolutely.

The ability to rig things like this is why I will forever love duct tape and Speedlights.  What was the gear used?  

Nikon D200

Nikon Speedlight SB-800

Nikon Speedlight SB-900

Both were fired remotely through Nikon's CLS system with the help of two hot shoe mounts.

The stands were all super cheap.  I picked them up when I bought my first "lighting kit" for probably no more than $150.00.  

I probably could have gotten away without the secondary stand with the reflector, but I wanted to kill as much of the "super flattering" over head florescent light as possible.  Since I was spatially limited in respect to light placement, I ended up doing a little more adjustments than usual so that I didn't get blown out images. 

I hope seeing some fun ways around lighting and location difficulties makes you want to grab your camera and rip apart your kitchen, too!!

Happy shooting and remember that inspiration is contagious.  Get out there and use that duct tape!!!

I have a website, isn't that enough?

Standard rules apply:  We have a concept, create a rough storyboard, and get a website!  Yahoo!!  I have a website.  See?  I type my domain name and look!!!  There it is!  My pictures, my products, and my rambling are all right there for the entire world to bask in it's ingenious glory!  We check our e-mail and cross our fingers that people will be so inspired that they will, of course, seek out our respective sites and clearly be so inspired by the chic template we have chosen they will thoroughly read all the content we threw together (which of course is written in papyrus or comic sans) and the orders/work will come streaming in hand over fist.

So we check our e-mail...

Still checking e-mail...

The frenzied e-mail checking slows...

So now what?  

While I have often thought about making my website just a splash page that says, "I'm good at what I do"  "trust me", I have a sneaking suspicion that a minimalist attempt at marketing would lead to a minimal return.  Since my long term goals include eventual world conquest, I have begun to slowly take a hard look at SEO.  

What is SEO?  If these three letters don't mean anything to you, stop reading right here and do a google search.  

If you are still reading this, I would like to share a few things I have found that have helped my Utah based photography company begin to get slightly more traffic to my website.

First and foremost, you need to be able to see the traffic to your website.  Seems pretty basic, huh?  Yea, it is.  I want to know how much traffic I get when I post something, and I want to see where the traffic comes from.  Google saves the day with Google Analytics.

"Google Analytics is the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Powerful, flexible and easy-to-use features now let you see and analyze your traffic data in an entirely new way. With Google Analytics, you're more prepared to write better-targeted ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives and create higher converting websites."

This is a great place to start.  Check it out.  It's free and it's fairly straight forward to use.

Once you have your tracking in place, don't be afraid of Facebook and Twitter!  Free is our friend.  I'm sure you have a personal facebook page, right?  Well, get one for your company.  Facebook is doing an awful lot of work to promote business traffic.  Their "insights" include a complete demographic break down on who is looking at your website.  Guess what that means?  Yup, there's your target market.  If the people viewing your website is not your target market- you better re-evaluate your marketing strategy.

Ok, now streamline it!  You have a twitter account, a personal facebook page, a business facebook page, and roughly 6 e-mail accounts.  Make sure your website had "buttons" that link to your FB and Twitter accounts.  People will click them.  Also, make sure that your twitter/FB pages have your website on it.  You will be surprised how much traffic you will see from FB.

Also, you can set up your FB page so that any status updates you post will automatically post to twitter.  Perfect.  Two birds with one stone.  Then go even further and check out  Tweetdeck .  From here you can check FB and twitter at the same time.  Of course, you can get tweetdeck for your smart phone.  That's right, kids!  Social Media on the go!  Let's face it, less time spent in front of the computer can be a good thing too.  

Ok, the structure is in place.  (deep breathe)

Since this post is getting quite lengthy, here are a few links that will help you continue to make yourself and your company more visible.  

Start with  Simple SEO Strategies.

Once you have somewhat digested that site, take a look at This killer site.   Yes, this site is for photographers.  The content is great and guess what?  Google search what else you would like to find information on.

I don't pretend to present myself and some traffic-driving internet guru.  That is exactly why I wanted to share this stuff.  If I can do it, you can to.  There are so many ways to promote your business that just need a little bit of creativity to help shake things up a bit.  Get out there and be seen!  

Have other websites that you stumbled upon with more fun info about this stuff??? Share it in the comment section.   Have questions?  E-mail me :)

Happy world conquest!