High School Senior special

May starts our favorite time of year at the studio. It's High School Senior season!

Now is a great time for the class of 2010 to have their senior pictures taken. For that reason, we are offering a special here at the studio:

*Any senior session booked during the month of May will receive 1/2 off the session fee (A $200 value).

We will also be giving away two free sessions this month, and all senior sessions will receive their images on CD.

To receive this offer, you need to call us during the month of May, and is for "in studio" sessions only.

Here are examples from our 5/2 session:
















http://briandownerphotography.com/
sales@briandownerphotography.com
(480)247-0885

Senior session

This stunning young woman is Christina. She is graduating this year, and I was fortunate enough to be able to provide some senior images for her. Obviously, I don't have to tell you how much fun it can be to shoot someone so beautiful.

My luck must be with me today, because I not only got to shoot Christina, but her gorgeous sister Diana. Diana is 15, a gymnast, and runs track. I'm still working on those images, so stay tuned.

One last thing about Christina. For some reason, her boyfriend didn't take her to prom. That caused me to come up with the image below. Something tells me that not taking Christina to prom is going to haunt some man for the rest of his life.

Mother's Day Special

Just in time to honor all those wonderful mothers out there, we are running a Mother's Day special. It's a great way to honor all those mothers out there who give so much for all of us.

If you book your maternity, or infant, portrait session before Mother's Day, we will waive the session fee (A $400 value)! We are also providing a 10% discount on any wall portraits for these sessions.

Now for the "fine print":

• This special only applies to maternity and infant sessions that are booked before 5/10/2009. You do not have to have your sessions completed by 5/10/2009, but you do need to have it scheduled by then.
• A 10% discount is only applicable to Wall Portraits (16x20 or larger).
• Maternity sessions, and infant portrait sessions, are available as either fine art, or contemporary images.
• For infant portrait sessions, the child must be less than 3 weeks old at the time of the photography session.
• Nude/Semi-nude maternity images are only available as fine art. If you would like a nude/semi-nude maternity image, you must request it at the time of scheduling. Any customer that wishes for nude, or semi-nude, images will be required to be accompanied by a spouse, or the father of the baby, at the time of the session.
• Nude/Semi-nude maternity sessions are not available for expectant mothers under the age of 18. No exceptions.

Springtime!

Spring...My favorite time of year. Here in AZ, it really only lasts for a couple of weeks, and before you know it, it's 115 degrees outside.

Normally, I'm too busy to take pictures of my own Children for Easter, and this year I was determined to not let that happen. I had set aside the day before Easter for some outdoor pictures of my children, only to find that day filled with rain. Oh well, there is always next year.



I had a rare free morning, so I grabbed my youngest and took her to the park for some pictures. She has just the most amazing eyes, and I wanted to use the natural light to bring them out. If only I could get her to look at me, that is... Seems she was far more interested in the little boys playing on the slide than having her picture taken. Sigh.



Next year. I promise.

Updates, updates, updates......

Seems like just yesterday, but it's actually been over 4 weeks since my last blog entry. Where does the time go?

Anyway, some exciting news here at the studio. We recently attended a seminar put together by David Ziser and Marathon press. It's the first training opportunity I've been able to attend since the PPA convention in January.

David put on a great show. I always find it fascinating when I watch how another photographer uses light. It's like being able to see object with another set of eyes. This training opportunity re-ignited my passion for the artistry and creativity in my work, which always seems to be running a bit low towards winter's end. The coming of spring, and all it's beauty, always drags me outside and ready to try and explore new things. Now, with my normal techniques in my "bag of tricks", ideas for tweaking some of those techniques/tools, and brand new ideas inspired by the recent training, I'm ready to play.

I was also hoping to attend a senior photographer's workshop in Utah this summer. Sadly, I am not going to be able to make it. With our third child coming in late June, and due to some complications with the pregnancy I am going to be staying close to home.

In other news of late, we just joined WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International). WPPI is just a great organization, full of training opportunities, print critiques, and tools to take a studio to another level in performance. I'm really excited about this, and I only wish I hadn't waited so long to join. I can't wait to see how the studio will change and evolve in the future as we implement all the great things we are learning already.

Ahhhh, spring. I do so love this time of year.

Harley

I had the wonderful opportunity to shoot Rob and his Harley today. Rob is a MSF (Motorcycle Safety Foundation) instructor, as well as a writer for motorcycle magazines. Plus, Rob is just a great guy, and I had a ton of fun shooting him and his bike.



This is just one gorgeous Harley, and even a sportbike enthusiast like myself can appreciate the beauty of this black and chrome piece of eye candy. I'll be editing these photos for quite some time. I'm sure that more than a few of them are going to make some great posters.



Thanks for a great time, Rob.

www.briandownerphotography.com/

Engaged!

You may recognize Steph from a blog entry last month. When I processed her images, she asked me if she could use one of them for a wedding announcement as she and her boyfriend had just gotten engaged. Well, of course she could use them, but I wanted to do something a little special just for them. So, I offered them an engagement shoot.

We decided to take some pictures out at Tempe Town Lake. I'm so glad we went outside for this series as the weather was just perfect for March in Arizona. Beautiful sunshine and a nice breeze made it just so much fun to be outside.

Big thanks to Steve at SCP Photography for his help today. Breezes are wonderful things, but not when you need to hold onto a 6 foot reflector panel that tends to act like a large sail.