A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting Andy for the first time and working with her when she came into our photography studio here in Seattle.  She has recently been through an ordeal that most people would fear and dread, yet has remained incredibly positive throughout even when things were very tough going.  Her long time friend Cheri had suggested that Andy have some professional photographs taken of her to commemorate her winning battle with cancer and they both came in for a really fun photography session with us. 

In advance of her coming back into the studio to look at all her proofs I thought I would post a few previews for her and Cheri to see you.  I feel so lucky that I get to spend time with people like Andy who’s determination and strength shine through and reflects a true celebration of life.  To me this is a good reminder that everyone needs to get professional photographs taken every few years to capture ones life in all its forms and memorize that particular stage.  

My friends Charlotte and Aaron have a regular event where they invite a bunch of good people over for dinner and a movie.  I’m a new guest at the events and getting to know everyone but so happy I got onto their invite list.  Charlotte is simply an amazing cook and the food is always incredible and everyone has lots of fun. 

Each event has a theme and they are always looking for ideas so I suggested that we try some goofy photography one evening.  I’ve have been wanting to try a ‘silly faces’ project for a while ever since I read John’s write up here. The concept isn’t a new idea but John’s blog entry got me thinking about trying it but I obviously needed a bunch of subjects to work with and who better than this fun group of people. 

Charlotte had checked out the movie Pecker chosen due to the photography theme.  That in turn lead to the food which was wonderful beef sandwich’s who receipt comes from Baltimore as that was where the movie was shot.  More importantly that is where Seth is from – a fact that many of us didn’t know.  The surprise of the evening was the salad that had bacon hidden in it and best I can most things taste better with bacon!   Desert was a wonderful cheesecake that got just as much attention that was handmade by a professional cheesecake maker.  Just yummy food.    

And then came the photography project.  During the drinking and eating stage I would round up a few folks at a time and try to get them to look all silly with goofy faces and such.  Obviously everyone has their own viewpoint of what ‘silly’ is and that was half the fun.  The resulting photographs were all very different.  Then yesterday I cropped a bunch of the photographs so that they were square and built this simple montage.  If you click on the photograph below it should launch a bigger version to check out all the silliness. 

All in all not a bad first attempt at this.  I wasn’t perfectly happy with the lighting as the space was limited and I should have chosen a different setup to get more even lighting.  With everyone moving around the right hand side often didn’t have enough light resulting in un-even light in the background.   Lessons learnt for next time!

Below are a bunch of the proof’s that I didn’t end up using for the larger composition.

All in all a lovely night and a cool little project.  Special guest George, the little black & white kitten was once again the star of the evening.