portrait session // sammy & brian's south park wander

I'm so excited to share these photos of some dear friends of mine! I met Sammy and Brian through mutual friends a few years ago, and their energy is always so positive and fun. They're the kind of people you want to stay late at the party so you can squeeze in as much time as possible with them, and if it's a costume-themed party, you can bet they'll win best-dressed. When these two got engaged recently, I eagerly offered to shoot their engagement photos, and a neighborhood stroll idea was born.

They wanted to incorporate some of their favorite South Park spots in their shoot, like Grant's, South Park Brewing Company, Bad Madge, and Whistlestop, and I was more than happy to follow along and document along the way. I'll share my favorites below!

I'm so happy for these two :)

life lately + christmas!

Two blog posts in a month? I'm on a roll! But my horrible blogging consistently aside, here are some rad life things I've been a part of the past month:

// After a looong hiatus of not participating in any Collaborative Thread events (see: twins), I, along with a couple friends, went to their speed-dating-for-creatives event last month. It was hosted at the beautiful Moniker General store, and I loved the format because it forced me to talk to more than just two people (I'm so shy at these things). I met tons of awesome women in all different kinds of fields, and I even met a fellow Virginian :)

The girls I rolled with: Summer has her own personal chef business, and Leah of Tiger + Ox

// I'm one of those people who can only handle about two holiday parties during December, and then I just want to retreat under a blanket until the second week of January. But I'm really glad I went to my husband's work holiday party this year! I offered to take portraits at the event photobooth-style, and it. Was. A. Hit. My ambitious endeavor of gluing 600 sequins to foam boards totally paid off, and bonus: my sister-in-law was visiting too, so she attended the party with us! So I got to shoot lots of great portraits such as these:

// The twins' second Christmas! This time with all the wrapping paper and bows their little hearts could want! We didn't want to go too crazy with buying gifts this year, which was a good thing, since most of their presents came from two sets of very generous grandparents :)

I will never get tired of seeing cute kids in Christmas jammies :)

photoshoot flashback // specimen

Photography: Lisa Kimberly // Fashion design: Annalynn Luu // Jewelry: Sweet1985 // Hair: Badri Kermani // Makeup: Danielle Henry // Model: Mio White // Assistance: Kristina Yamamoto

Once upon a time, before the twins came along, I collaborated on a really fun photo shoot with some talented women. And then I never got around to blogging it, until now. So here goes! 

I worked with two very different designers and a sculptor, not to mention a fantastic creative team. It still blows my mind what can happen when all sorts of creative types input their skills and talents for a shoot, and how lucky I feel that I get to photograph the magic. Looking at this image humbles me, because I know that I am just a slice of this image; it takes more than one person to make a great shoot happen, and this is proof of that.

This dress was designed by Annalynn Luu, and it's made out of....wait for it....trash bags. Unfreakingbelievable. Our mood board for this shoot was a little bit Victorian, a little dark, with some insect imagery thrown in....so while editing this, I decided to add the moth, and it seemed to fit pretty well. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't also partly inspired by Miss Aniela and her ongoing surreal fashion series. She often incorporates animals or objects into her fashion images, so this is a bit of a homage to that.

Those beautiful elk sculpture were made by the uber-talented Zynada, and they fit in so perfectly with this shoot. Not too long after this shoot, I photographed more of her sculpture work individually, which you can see on her website. Sweet 1985 also provided some of her rad jewelry for these looks, which was another bonus.

Photography: Lisa Kimberly // Fashion design: Jaqueline Hazel // Hair: Badri Kermani // Makeup: Danielle Henry // Model: Mio White // Assistance: Kristina Yamamoto

This amazing cardboard dress was made by the second designer I worked with on the shoot, Jaqueline Hazel. Another creative soul who makes her garments out of unconventional materials. She was inspired by sort of an underwater vibe, and to me, Mio looked like this beautiful, ethereal mermaid.

I wanted to play around with some in-camera motion blur for this garment, which is harder than it looks to capture. But out of dozens of images, this one spoke to me the most.

This was probably my favorite look/shot of the day! Another amazing cardboard dress design by Jaqeuline.

And here's some behind-the-scenes from that day!

Badri Kermani did her hair magic for the shoot, and I've worked with her before, so it was great to see her and collaborate with her again.

My good friend Danielle graciously lent her makeup skills, and she really nailed it with all the different looks. So many creative women working together under one roof = my heaven :)

From left to right: Zynada, Annalynn, and Jaqueline.

This was seriously such a fun shoot, and I'm glad that I was a part of it. Hopefully I'll be doing more artsy fartsy things in the near future :)

photoshoot // wet hot electric summer

Oh man, this blog post is waaay overdue. I shot this over the summer, and even though I've already shared the final images on my flickr and facebook pages, I wanted to write up a little something to share how this shoot came about, some behind-the-scenes, and even some unedited raw images because there were so many great ones. So here we go!

This was my second time shooting garments made by my fashion designer friend/favorite Serbian lady Tea Ninkovic (You may remember my forest shoot with her last year). I'd been itching to try some kind of swimsuit shoot, and I knew she already had these unique swimsuits on hand, so it seemed a natural collaboration. In fact, Tea had already had some of her suits photographed before by a different photographer, but we wanted to make it a real summer-y shoot, complete with a swimming pool.

A friend of mine who lives nearby has a pool at her place, but I'd never seen it before, so I went over one day to scout it out.

(from my Instagram)

Um, yes please? Not only is it a great-looking pool, but there's tons of greenery and plants and fruit trees surrounding the backyard, so I knew we could make it work. I was inspired immediately. I kindly asked my friend if we could take over her backyard for a day, and she said yes. So far so good!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I asked my friend Debbie Chialtas if she wanted to come on board and help style the shoot. She has a background in fashion design and loves to collaborate on freelance projects, so she was totally game. We decided that Tea's suits would lend themselves really well to a sort of 80's-but-more-modern vibe. Edgy, but not too gothic, and using bright colors. And this is where the blessed Pinterest comes so in handy for mood boards. We started pinning our little hearts out. Here's a couple screenshots!

We were basically pinning ideas and inspiration for the hair/makeup looks, accessories, posing, mood, and even post-processing/editing. It's also a really good idea to have these mood boards handy on the day of shooting, and of course, to show them to your model and hair/makeup artist well in advance. It keeps everyone on the same page. But on the flipside, I also like to keep things flexible when I shoot, and not feel restricted to doing only certain looks. Sometimes happy accidents or impromptu ideas make the best shots!

So the day of our shoot arrives, and we set to work!

Kalia White did the hair and makeup, and I worked with her last year on another shoot, so it was great to have her on board. And the lovely Salina Rene was our model, who I met through Debbie. She's done pin-up type modeling before, so I knew she'd be comfortable in front of the camera. Not to mention the swimsuits fit her like a glove.

Accessories! Better to have too much than not enough, amirite ladies? Also worthy of note: those rad yellow pumps that Debbie helped me find at a thrift shop for 8 bucks!

Me, on a crate. This photo makes me laugh because it kind of looks like I'm 12 weeks pregnant or something, but I assure you, I was not. Just a food baby, I swear.

Here's one of the resulting images from me standing on a crate. I love this photo so much. It makes me wanna go to Palm Springs for a week, and do absolutely nothing by a pool.

This shot really epitomizes the whole mood I was aiming for....just this sun-drenched, scorching-hot, almost...hyperreal quality. With all that expanse of aqua blue water. I love it. And I have to note that Tea also made the rad umbrella hat that Salina's wearing. So quirky and fun.

So by this point in the day, the sun was high overhead, with practically zero clouds. I really wanted Salina in the shade for this shot on the diving board, so we had to improvise. There were a couple really tall standalone umbrellas next to the pool, so Tea helped me drag one over, which was not easy due to the extremely heavy metal base. But it worked!

Another one of my favorite shots. I really should show you the original photo sometime, because man, there was a LOT of clone-stamping/cleaning up I had to do in this image. There was a pool-cleaning hose/pump thingy inside the pool, so whenever I shot her in/next to the water, we'd have to move the hose around as best we could to get it out of the way. But inevitably, it would end up in the shot, because the hose would start moving around like a snake as soon as you let go of it. Such was the case here, but I loved Salina's pose and the composition so much that I refused to let a silly hose ruin the photo.

And now I present to you some of the raw unedited images from that day that I really like.

I briefly messed around with the idea of Salina posing with a beach ball I brought, but not all ideas work. She still looks great though. And the yellow pumps make an appearance!

Pretty close-up makeup shots. And the zipper-tie necklace is made by Tea as well.

I really like the rainbow bokeh flare going on in the left photo.

So behind the backyard is even more backyard, and it's all wonderfully overgrown, so I wanted to try some shots there. I had brought my flash kit and wanted to use it back here, but lo and behold, my flash trigger battery was dead, and I didn't have a spare. Bummer. But I shot some natural-light images anyway. Also, more umbrella hats!

So we were basically at the end of our shoot, and feeling great, so we told Salina, "This is a bathing suit shoot, and we have a pool, so like, get wet or something!" It didn't matter if her hair and makeup got messed up, this was just for fun. And I started snapping away. She floated around, and I learned that it's really hard to make a still photo of someone floating on her back with her eyes closed NOT look like....lying dead in a pool? (no offense to you Salina, you looked amazing, it was all me). I must work on that :)

So long story short, it was a successful shoot, and I'm so grateful to everyone who participated and helped make it happen. One last final gif group shot!