Everybody Jump Jump: Eugenia & Richard’s Family Session!

I had a lot of fun with Eugenia and Richard, along with his energetic kids Zoe and Ryan, during their family portraits in Pasadena!

Eugenia and Richard are both designers of all things fun … including Rose Parade floats. I can tell that their creativity extends to Zoe and Ryan, whose personalities are so much fun! Here are a couple of my favorites from their session:

Thank you for a really fun shoot!

Hey, St. George, Utah … we’re planning a family portrait day!

Guess what, y’all … we’re coming to St. George, Utah for a portrait day!

Portrait day is your golden ticket to show off your family’s personality and individual style. With a “say-anything-but-cheese” philosophy, we aim for real and fun photography, and want to share it with our St. George peeps! We’re offering an awesome discount on session rates for this day only: $50 off a regular session, $25 off a mini session.

With the holidays around the corner, portrait day is a perfect opportunity to create images for Chirstmas cards and gifts for grandma. It’s the best chance to get the gang together for a memorable framed portrait for your living room (those kids aren’t getting any younger!).

The Nitty Gritty:

– When: Saturday, October 16, 2010
– Where: Nisson Park, Washington, Utah
– Limited sessions available! First come, first serve.

Two Packages Available:

“The Small Wonder” -  $125 (usually $150)

– 45 min session
– $25 studio credit toward prints & products
– Easy for couples & families of 4 or fewer. Gives us the time for the basics + a few fun extra photos.

“The Brady Bunch” – $250 (usually $300)

– 1 hr 45 min session
– $50 studio credit toward prints & products
– Best for families of 5 or more, or groups of any size wanting more awesome combinations and extras.

All sessions include:

– Invaluable cheatsheet before session for portrait tips, what to wear, etc.
– A relaxed portrait experience in which we capture multiple images of the entire family, as well as smaller groups (just the kids, just the parents, the whole barrel of monkeys).
– Image presentation and order consultation for wall art and gifts a few days after the session.

What can we create?

– Awesome holiday cards
– Custom framed wall portraits
– Gallery canvas wraps
– Slideshow videos
– Custom-designed keepsake books

There are a *very* limited amount of time slots available for Oct. 16 with this discount. The two best ways to contact us about booking your session:

– By email: contact [at] gearhartphoto.com
– By phone: 818-949-8645 and leave a message.

P.S. — Portrait day falls on UEA weekend, so you can easily plan us into your festivities. Or for those in northern Utah, come down and make a vacation of it! What’s UEA weekend? If you’ve grown up in the state, oh you’d know. Lots of boring education meetings happen up north then. But more importantly, it’s a long weekend for Utah school kids!

Russell Gearhart Photography creates vivid photo stories with a craftsman’s eye, for people who love life. Russell’s roots are in southern Utah, his home studio is in Pasadena, Calif., and his camera is available anywhere with light and good lookin’ people.

Click here to see more of Russell’s portrait work on Facebook … and “like” us if you like it!

A Day with the Nortons!

I had the honor of photographing a family from my home state of Utah! Deb and Jeff Norton took their whole family to southern California for a week of vacationing, and we got in some awesome portraits and a Day-in-the-Life session while they were here.

All 12 of ‘em — which includes the Anderson and the Larsen families once you start counting all the kids — got a lucky comfortable So Cal summer experience because the heat wave hadn’t quite arrived yet.

Check out this video of their Day-in-the-Life session:

And here are some of their awesome portraits:

After jumping on all the beach rocks in La Jolla, we went for pizza. The kids then got dressed in Maltilda Jane clothing and we finished the day at Golden Spoon, a frozen yogurt shop in north San Diego county. It made a perfect backdrop!

The camera loves this family!

Tamer’s Senior Portraits

When I first met Tamer a few months ago, he explained his name with, “You know, like a lion.”

Tamer’s got confidence and charm that’ll disarm anyone, and the camera seems to like him, too.

To coin Tamer’s words, his senior portraits are crazytown. We moseyed, and sometimes ran, through some very cool hallways and courtyards of old town Pasadena to make images that could easily come from a different part of the world altogether.

Thank you, Tamer! And thank you to Ingrid for all the assistance with lighting and parking meters! A little side note … Ingrid actually originally found the secret red-brick-and-vine location, then she showed me one day while we were walking and wandering downtown. I have a feeling we’ll be going back for more …

Haram Iran Promo Photos

Take a look at the promos and setups I photographed for a very dramatic show called Haram Iran, which opens tomorrow in West Hollywood!

The show tells the story of two Iranian 15-year-olds accused and tried for homosexuality. It is based on actual events in Mashad, Iran in 2005. The show began in Chicago, and tomorrow evening is its west coast premiere.

We photographed the three leads (Andy Gala, Tamer Aziz, and Michael Tauzin) separately and together against a white seamless. I  lit to show plenty of definition and contrast, but it still was meant to make it easy for the graphic designer to alter the tones later for an implied hot desert environment.

The first image shows the three guys together:

The producers chose a different set of  images for the one sheet, and I really love how it came together! The final design actually reflects the relationships and story extraordinarily well (design by Noah Benjamin):

Surrounded by photo equipment after the shoot are produer Christopher Sepluveda (left), actors Andy Nala, Tamer Aziz, and Michael Tauzin, and producer Jeremy O’Keefe.

I went back to photograph setups this week. I was so impressed with the cohesiveness of the show, from the lighting to the costuming to the set design! And the actors really put their all into their parts, even though they were only performing their setups for my camera!

Tamer actually plays this scene (above and below, when he is put into prison) in silhouette, which is just right for what I think is one of the best-choreographed moments of the production. But a silhouette didn’t work as well for the photo — his lines and movement complete the visuals when he’s standing a few feet in front of you. So I took a little artistic license and added a kiss of light when he hit his mark (below), in hopes that it would play better as a still image. It turned out to be one of my favorites.

I urge you to make time to see this show! It is directed by Michael Matthews and produced by Jeremy O’Keefe and Christopher Sepulveda. For ticket info (it runs from March 5 to April 4 only), visit the Haram Iran Facebook event page or see the Celebration Theatre’s website.

Haram Iran on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=345262086252

Celebration Theatre – http://www.celebrationtheatre.com/

Happy anniversary, Stephanie + Ryan!

Oh, if I could shoot Stephanie + Ryan’s wedding every weekend! Now I know, it’s easy to say that every couple is my favorite. But these two have a style all their own, almost straight outta Middle Earth. Their wedding was so creative thru-and-thru that it’s impossible pick only a couple favorite photos! They were hitched on the secluded hilly grounds of the Center for Energetic Healing in Simi Valley, CA, which has no lack for forest-y nooks and crannies.

We were nearly done with the bride-and-groom session — and they were getting tired — when I spotted a tree trunk up a hill. It was a bit of a hike, so I gingerly suggested that I had one more crazy idea. I remember that Stephanie, though her feet were hurting, replied something to the effect of: if your wedding photographer has an idea, you should go with it. (Sound advice!) So we braved the hill, the ants, and the sticker bushes to make Ryan a Prince Valiant:

My other favorite image came at a very emotional moment during the ceremony. They had one of the most heartfelt ceremonies I’ve seen, and there was barely a dry eye in the crowd by the end. During a fantastic reading by her bridesmaid, Ann, Stephanie spontaneously reached for Ryan’s hand, then turned and looked at Ann. The moment gave me butterflies:

Happy one-year anniversary, you two! May you stay well!

Here’s Edward, the newest addition to the Jenks Family!

Way back in 2006, I had the honor of photographing Trisha + Jon’s Oahu wedding. In 2007 they asked me to photograph baby Catherine. And just two weeks ago, I got to see their new little one, Edward, in front of my lens!

Edward is about 8 weeks old. When he’s awake, Edward is wide-eyed and takes it all in. Catherine, who is almost 2, is a very smart girl with a love for Yo Gabba Gabba and fruit snacks.

We shot this session at my friend and fellow photog Kelli Maguire’s studio in old town Whittier. Kelli is always so generous and upbeat, and is wonderful with children. I have so much fun hanging out with the Jenks family … I can’t wait to see what their next surprise is! Here are the photos:

Ok, maybe that last one is a lil’ too “Anne Geddes” for my usual tastes. It was Kelli’s awesome idea, and it was fun trying to “homage” the style. Mere millimeters out of frame is Kelli on the left and momma Trisha on the right, making sure Edward stayed floating on his mark. Kelli was right in the “spray zone” too, and bravely took one for the team.

Thanks, Jon & Trisha; it was a blast!