Although photography was a BIG piece of my business early on, I found that I struggled with the balance of photo vs. design clients -- unless they were the same person/company. All of us who choose a creative profession, we ultimately have dabbled in a variety of genres. And the beautiful thing about art, is that each genre can stand alone, or be combined with another to form something great. Photography and design. Painting and drawing. Sculpture and woodworking. Print-making and fashion design. But, from a business standpoint, I think it is very challenging to do multiple genres, and do them well. 110%. All the time. I love photography. I love design. And they often go hand-in-hand. But I found that doing both FULL TIME ((together)) strained my creative juices. And my time management. And my sleep habits.
That being said, I *do* offer photography services for my design and marketing clients. After all, photography can make or break a project (web or print), and having creative "control" over each aesthetic involved, makes the end result that much better. And, even though I have put most wedding, senior and family portraiture on a shelf in my office in an effort to purely dedicate myself to design, I still shoot the occasional friend, or friend-of-a-friend. Case in point, the Murphy Family.
Sarah Kate graduated this past May and started her freshman year at Appalachian State University a couple of weeks ago. We shot her senior photos last fall on the campus of Queens University in Charlotte, and finished up at my "secret dog park location" nestled deep in the Elizabeth neighborhood. The lighting was perfect, SK's hair is (always) perfect, and it only took about seven times rescheduling the shoot to get weather below 95 degrees. Talk about a contrast from our current season...
The next few images are some of my absolute favorite ever captured. The sun was setting fast, and the contrast between the low light, the dark foliage and the nude/blush palette were just perfect.
Earlier the same evening, we took a few quick shots of the whole, beautiful, perfectly-dressed Murphy family. I feel super lucky to have these five people in my life.
Life beats down and crushes the soul, and art reminds you that you have one.
— STELLA ADLER