Photography Portfolio Session – Eric H.

Hey Everyone!! Look at me all updating TWICE in one week!

The time has come once again to present another photo shoot to be part of my growing portfolio, but as always – a little background story first!

The photo session with Eric H. came about kind of out of the blue and very quickly. Eric and I have only known one another for only a few weeks. We met literally over face book after a friend of mine had approached him asking if he’d let me photograph him. Eric was immediately up for it and so we began arranging a time and throwing around a couple of ideas I had on what I wanted to achieve with the shoot. It is hard to explain in words just how excited Eric seemed to be for this shoot. It really made me feel great to have such an enthusiastic person to photograph!

That is leads me into the main point of the blog post for today. I honestly cannot explain just how genuinely nice Eric is as a human being. He seemed to really be excited to be a part of my photography endeavors to create a portfolio and was so easy to work with and get along with. He had no reservations with anything I threw at him, which for me is awesome since I seem to be the type to “fly by the seat of my pants” type of photographers. I will have a pretty basic idea of how I want the images to look, but I can side track at the flip of a coin to something else.

Normally, how I operate when I do a photo shoot is I will go for a while taking photos and not really speaking as I seem to get really wrapped up in the photo taking process. After a couple of shots pass, I try to show the model the images on the camera screen, just so they can be aware of exactly what I’m doing. Every time I did, Eric’s eyes seemed to light up and he seemed so excited about what we were creating together. That was the thing with Eric too, even though I would go for an extended period just shooting, he seemed very at ease and comfortable. We would once in a while make some type of small talk (including me flinching once as a bird swooped down almost hitting him on the head as he just kept on focusing on me, not even fazed even though I saw a much worse outcome!), but mostly we just wandered around Lagoon Park (a park in the town I live in) in a very comfortable silence.

I feel like I am dragging a dead horse around with my point here, but the one thing that set in stone just how decent of a guy Eric seemed to be came when we were heading back to his vehicle to drive to a separate location for more photos and he without hesitation offered to carry some of my equipment. It was just small things like having the decency to do that that set him apart from any other client that I have worked with. The fact that he cared enough to do that was just humbling.

Okay! I am done with my babbling – I just want to give a HUUUGE Thank You to Eric for working with me, and hopefully we’ll get the opportunity in the future for another great session!

Now on to the photos…

The following 3 photographs are what is known as a “Bokeh Panorama” – Basically each one of these photos are three separate photographs that I have "stitched" together to create one large image. Awesome, eh? 


You can see a diagram of how this was achieved on my facebook page

You Just Got Reality Checked, My Friend

Hey Everyone

I apologize once again for my absence from the blog, but I have had such a busy schedule the past few weeks (I am not complaining at all, I'm doing exactly what I love so it’s all good in my world!).

So first a little update on the Prairie Gothic art show endeavors: I officially have a majority of the photographs taken and edited for the show! I say majority because there is a couple that will be in need of a reshoot as I am just not satisfied with the results just yet. Otherwise, everything is coming along great and I am super excited for the show on August 3rd at Java River Cafe in Montevideo, Minnesota! It is an Open House event, so everyone is welcome!

These past couple of days has been kind of a roller coaster of emotions for me, to be quite honest. I've been doing a lot of thinking to myself about where it is exactly that I want to go with my photography journey and I think I have finally worked out at least a part of that out. The first thing is that as far as the Conceptual Portraiture direction I was planning on heading is no longer in the works. As much as I love Conceptual Photography, it is just not a good option for me at this point. My photography is my fulltime job right now and as far as any income with that type of work, it isn't really an easy thing to do. I have never claimed to be a good personality type to "sell myself", so the thought of having to actively sell my personal work just terrifies me.

With Conceptual Portraiture it just feels that it is too much "work" for lack of a better word. I don't want to have to work to CREATE a piece; I want it to come naturally as possible. The process of having to create a concept for each photo that I put out is exhausting and all I want to do right now is create portraits. Simple, but compelling portraits. That's it. I don't want to have to have some "hidden meaning" behind things anymore. I just want to create something beautiful and that I am proud of. That being said doesn’t mean that my conceptual work is going to come to a complete stop! I will still be working on a few pieces now and then just to keep my creative juices flowing, but right now my attention is going to be to just create something simple. I think in a way I am feeling a bit burnt out with my photography work. I have been doing photography since I was in 10^th grade of high school – almost 10 years now (that made me feel very old just then. Geeze) - I have never had a “plan b” as far as what I have wanted to do in my life, photography has been EVERYTHING. I know for a fact that photography is what I want to do and nothing else.

Okay, now that I have rambled on completely scatterbrained for a while, I will leave it at that. I have another blog post coming later today that will be a lot more interesting to read, I promise!

Prairie Gothic - Behind The Scenes, Part 1

Hello again!

I apologize for the MIA status I have had this entire week, I have been neck deep in prep work for my photoshoot which is actually happening tomorrow afternoon!!

Here are just a few "sneak peek" behind the scenes kind of images of my sister Amanda & I prepping some props for the photos..

Wish me luck, everyone!! :) 

And finally, a random shot of myself taken by my sister. Note the angry expression from someone else trying to use my camera and take a photo of me.. 

Neal Freeman - Portfolio Session #1

Hello once again readers!


I am SO EXCITED to finally showcase the photo session I have been working on as a collaboration between myself & Kelsey Ryman of Miracles Ink of Montevideo, Minnesota. I am currently in the process of trying to build a portfolio of clients that have tattoos and such and an awesome guy named Neal Freeman was nice enough to volunteer to be my first model for this photo shoot (a huge thanks to him!). 


This project will be on-going through out the next couple of months, including some more shoots that will feature Neal as he gets more work done so make sure to stop by the blog for more updates coming soon!


Have a good weekend everyone!!