Lauren - Kalamazoo studio portraits

I always find myself craving creative work to help make the Michigan winters seem a little more bearable, and a little more … short. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of cold weather activities to be enjoyed, but for me, they are drastically overshadowed by the lack of sunshine and drivable roads. Paired with the overwhelming amount of brown and beige, I look for color in photos where I can.
When Lauren reached out to me, we went back and forth on portrait themes until we landed on this moody and colorful concept.
She does her own hair and makeup, and she put together this sweet look to complement a lot of experimental photo techniques, and I had the best time working with her on these (We even snuck a film soup by Dubblefilm shot in here).

Thanks for making the season a lot more joyful Lauren!

Nicole - Kalamazoo studio portraits

Michigan winter is kind of an odd beast from a photography perspective. On one hand, you can’t feel your feet for several months and the sun might not show itself for three weeks at a time. On the other hand, snowy engagement sessions are amazing, and the frigid weather is the perfect opportunity to utilize cool lighting and indoor locations! Our Kalamazoo studio ends up being my cold weather sanctuary most of the time, and the coffee is always flowing.

Nicole is not only an awesome model, but an incredible person as well. I’ve known her for years, our first shoot together taking place in 2016. Nicole is consistently stunning, and my work has been through quite an evolution since then. She came to me with a portrait concept and then just let me go crazy with experiments and camera tricks. It was a refreshing shoot and a great time featuring gels, shutter drags, and Butter’s the cowboy corgi.