some fun studio portraits

We did a really great family portrait session with Doug & Becky this weekend while grandma was in town...then we had everything ready for them to view tonight before grandma had to leave! Whew! Here are a few of my favorites from the session:


The little man wasn't too sure about me at first...but we ended up as buds, as usual ;)




I really like the art of this one...it's going to look great on the wall!





















Even mom & dad got into the action...can't resist some fun romantic pictures!




Thanks for being great subjects!

CPG field trip images

Here are some of the images from my last post calling for models. The day was a litle dark and gloomy with what seemed to be the start of a cold rain (this is why I turned down the offers of baby and small children models). We were going to head to a small park downtown but with the cold, grey day we decided to take advantage of the weather to create the perfect mood for this harsh, industrial, railyard setting. Check out some of my favorites:







Sisters goofing off on the side here while their other sister was being photographed. I guess I can't resist fun, happy images!




I wonder if we can find the maker of this coat...I think with our great model we have a catalog cover image here!




And of course, one of our signature relaxed portraits:

Free pictures!

Hey, want some free pictures? My photography club - the Christian Photographers' Guild and I need a model or family of models Monday, March 23 at 5:30pm in downtown Colorado Springs.

If you're free at that time, willing to brave whatever weather we're having at the moment and several cameras all stuck in your face, you'll come away with some great pictures for free! This is a great chance to get a family portrait update or some last minute senior portraits!

If you're up to the challenge, e-mail me: tim (at) imagefactoryphoto.com ASAP and we'll connect. First come first served!

St. Baldrick's

Friday I joined up with Ted from A Better Image Photogrpahy to photograph people getting their heads shaved to raise money for St. Baldrick's Foundation for childrens' cancer research.






This is the first I'd heard of this organization and I was pretty amazed at all the festivities going on at the event which took place on Colorado College campus downtown.


In addition to the head shaving, there was face painting and activities for the kids:






...and of course the kids loved watching 'daddy' lose his hair!




Each volunteer got to tell the audience how much they had collected in pledges to get their head shaved...some were well in excess of $1000!




The barbers & stylists even got into the fun...here's a 2 for 1 deal:




And here's Ted, working as dad and photographer all at the same time...superman!




To see, download and purchase pictures from the event, go to Ted's web site: www.abetterimagephotography.com.

The latest upgrades to our online galleries are cool!

In our continuing quest to be the best (I wanted to say relentless pursuit of perfection but the Lexus lawyers said I couldn't), we've installed a major update to our online gallery & ordering system today.

There will be some terrific features coming over the next few weeks -- all intended to make viewing pictures faster and easier, and to make it easier to share pictures and make online ordering less complicated.

The first big upgrade we want to spotlight is in the gallery view -- you'll now see a few icons below each picture like this:




These icons let you enlarge pictures, mark them for side by side comparison, add to your favorites gallery or add to your shopping cart -- all right from the thumbnails page. I think the most useful of these is the magnifying glass, which will pop up a bigger view of the picture just by rolling your mouse over it! Really useful for checking expressions & details as you scan through lots of pictures. Here it is in action:




We really think this is going to be a great upgrade for our wedding clients especially, who end up with SO many pictures to look through! If you have an online gallery, go check it out today. Let us know if you need a reminder of your access code.

-Tim & DeAnna

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

We had a great luncheon today at Castle Glen Eyrie. The weather was just perfect --- it practically felt like summertime, driving through the trees and back to the carriage house.




Our friends at the castle put on a great luncheon with - of course - corned beef and cabbage.




In the background is the yummy chocolate cake they made for the occasion...here's a closer look:




One of our albums will be on display there soon and we can't wait to get back and shoot another wedding there. Anyone out there getting married there this year? Let's hook up! Be sure to ask for Danae at Glen Eyrie -- she's the friendly wedding coordinator.

Aaaooooo!

We had a beautiful orange full moon the other night that we watched rise over the plains in the east but by the time I got home to set up my camera on the back deck where we had a great view, the orange had faded. Still, a pretty cool sight. This is the equivalent of a 450mm lens on my Nikon D300...times like this I wish I had a much longer lens, it would be cool to make my own full moon screen saver picture. I guess a telescope would be best for that.

modeling portrait session

Today we got to hang out with Morgan, a student and aspiring model and we got to make her very first modeling portraits!

The weather was warm but with heavy winds outside we decided to start off in the shelter of our studio and warm up with some head shots:




After we started playing around a bit more, we got some fun looks and this is one of my favorites:




With the sun setting in the west and catching her beautiful brown eyes, we used the wind to our advantage to blow Morgan's hair a bit, making for some playful images like this: