A Cup of Joe

Seattle on Film!

Looking back at these images makes me SO happy! I just got a bunch of film back from my awesome-kick ass-coolest-lab-ever, Richard Photo Lab and it's like Christmas for me! The next few blog posts will be all from my film cameras, but this first post is especially lovely to me. I took a bit of a trip-o-inspiration a few weeks ago to Seattle and I only brought my film cameras. I needed some time along to reflect and re-energize for this coming season and it was exactly what the Dr. ordered!

My friend, Jeffrey, has been in town visiting Minneapolis this week from California and we've had some really awesome conversations about just how important it is to take time for yourself and to recharge, as an artist. It's not only valuable to us, but a service to our clients as well!

Be fresh and Refreshed!

Happy Monday Everyone!

North American Hairstyling Awards: NOMINATION!!!!!!!!

Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmyGOD! Last night, while hosting a BBQ for some awesome photographers, I received a call from the OH-so-fabulous Faatemah. I knew when I saw her calling that this was going to be good news, but I had NO idea how good!

Big Risk = ENORMOUS Awards!!

This past year, I really, REALLY, wanted to do a high-fashion shoot for Minneapolis and finally convinced the crew at Metro Magazine that I could pull this off. They believed in my and my mad skillz, which was awesome, but I also felt like I had a lot to prove with this opportunity. When I sat down with the editors and art directors, we made it clear that we only wanted to work with the best of the best. Faatemah was our first and only option for hair, but this girl was BLOWING UP, so we didn't quite know if she had time for our shoot. I was prepared to make it worth her time and she came to us and said she would love to collaborate on this shoot, but it must be good enough to enter and win the North American Hair Styling Awards (NAHA).

What is NAHA?

The North American Hairstyling Awards (NAHA) is the most prestigious photographic beauty competition in North America, celebrating the artistry and skill of the professional salon industry. Each year, individuals are recognized in 13 categories of excellence during a star-studded awards ceremony. NAHA is part of PBA Beauty Week, North America's largest, most inclusive beauty event, offering unlimited networking, education, and professional growth opportunities to all sectors of the beauty industry. PBA Beauty Week is produced by the Professional Beauty Association and is held in cooperation with Cosmoprof North America.

The judges take into consideration the following:

Concept or overall creative approach

Art direction and composition

Demonstration of skill in the execution of style, make-up and appropriate wardrobe

Harmony between photographer's execution and stylist's creativity

Appropriateness of image for concept

Technical ability corresponding to category entered

Continuity of all images within the entry

Appropriate use of lighting highlighting details

It's the Grammy's of Hair.

AND WE JUST GOT NOMINATED...THE TOP 5 IN THE WORLD!!!!

This is SO cool, for so many reasons, but I think the coolest of them all is that it is a true testament to the level of professionalism and talent from both the hair stylist and photographer. The hair has to be rockin', and the photography has to rock even more to effectively show the full potential of the hair. It's a unique marriage between artists that has to be dead on to win...and we did it!!

I can't even tell you guys how HUGH and AWESOME this is! Out of HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of entry's, we are at the TOP and that is one, amazing, feeling!!!

You can check out all of the Nominees in 13 different categories here and NAHA will announce an official winner of each category in July!

Special Thank-You to Faatemah - for being so awesome and pushing us to enter this! and the Staff at Metro for letting me live out this crazy dream that has CLEARLY been a great success on so many levels!

You can see Behind The Scene images from The Fine Lines shoot HERE!

The Final Layout: Fine Lines

In the words of Faatemah, "Get ready girl, your world is about to change..."

Our life through an Instax!

There has been SO much happening lately! My team has been on the road a lot and all along the way, we've shot TONS of film! I'll share more of that with you when the film rolls come in, but for now, here are a bunch of fun images from our Instax camera!

The instax camera is like crack for me! It's been a really awesome tool for me to document my life this past year.....I have a bit of a personal project going on with it, which will simply need some time to shape.

In this post, some awesome people make appearances:

Tara LaTour's amazing dresses The OH-SO-AWESOME Sara Montour Mr. Daniel Chin Insta-Friend Dan Miles, who inspires me now on a daily basis B-Funk Melissa O! The Cornjadi's and their epic wedding - congratulations you two! The Traveling Photo Booth's awesome booth

Yeah for living the dream!

Tara LaTour + Eliesa Johnson = The Shit!!!

I am soooooo excited to share these images with you! Like, little kid-jumping-up-and-down excited! A few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from a girl named Tara. In that letter, she asked me to photograph her final Collection for her graduate program at Parsons (yes, like project runway Parsons...only real students are even more bad-ass!) The hitch was that she was in NYC, I was in MPLS and her deadline was in a week and a half. She sent me a link with some cell-phone-shots of her dresses and my jaw dropped. I knew that I needed to do absolutely everything I could to photograph this amazing pieces of art! The universe came together for us and it just so happened I was going to be in NYC that coming weekend, so we started planning our last-minute shoot!

The best part about my job is this sense of collaboration I get from working with other artists. It's amazing to just create with other amazing people who also have a vision. Tara really gave me free reign at the shoot and everything just simply fell into place! Before the day was done, I knew I wanted these images to be shared with the world and be published . 1) I wanted people to find/know/experience Tara and her beautiful collection. 2) I think these images are fucking amazing and I am way too excited about the whole project to NOT share this with you!

Through our conversations, I really began to respect Tara even more. She is on a mission to 'Revolutionize' the wedding industry and I absolutely believe she will do this!

A special THANK YOU to the Wedding Chicks for publishing this spread on their blog and sharing this with the world! Check out their review + Post HERE! (And we would love to hear your comments on the spread + designs overall!)

Here's a look at all of our original spreads! Please head over to the Wedding Chicks blog to see more photos + behind-the-scenes sketches from Ms. LaTour!

Here's to being remarkable!

LOVEe Consults: PhotoJessic!

This past week, I sat down with the lovely Jessica of PhotoJessic for her LOVEe Consult! As artists, we talk a lot about our Personal Style. This also comes with many questions: What is my personal style? How do I find it? What if it changes, is that ok? There's no doubt about it, finding your personal style is a process, but it must not be forced. Jessica and I talked a lot about how there is a big trend in the photography industry right now with the Vintage theme. Soft colors, leaning towards warmth and romance are everywhere. Jessica's major question was, "I don't want to be like anyone else, I don't want to be trendy, but I really, truly, love the vintage vibe...how do I stay original?"

The thing that Jessica didn't realize is that she has her personal style nailed down. When you walk into her studio space, the light is soft, her building is old, and she even has a vintage clock. Her favorite colors surround her and even the way she dresses is just soft and pretty. She exudes everything that is soft, pretty and vintage. Her images reflect her personal style, which is key.

Defining what your personal style is should be natural, because it comes from YOU and everything you are about. It is derived from your personal experiences, the kind of music you like, and everything you are attracted to in this world. Above all, by staying true to yourself, your images will be of things you are passionate about and ultimately they will be executed in a way that no one else can, because it is YOU. Your style will evolve, just as you change as life goes on, but there will always be core elements that will be timeless. Embracing the process of change will lead you to finding - and then realizing- what makes your images yours.

To learn more about LOVEe Consults and to schedule yours today, CLICK HERE!

Have an amazing weekend everyone!

LOVEe

Oooh la la!

Ahhhhh, shit! I've been wanting to get some new photos of myself for a long while now, specifically for the blog and website! I think it's good to update your photos every few years and freshin' up things a little bit around here!

I started to think about who I would want to take these photos and the same girl kept coming to mind. She's incredibly talented - and a no bullshit kind of girl, which I absolutely love. Above all though, I knew I needed a photographer who's images would exude a feel that I wanted to be 'my image' for clients to see...Angelica Glass was the only woman for the job!

Getting these images done was SO much fun! I got all made up by the lovely Erica Flamm and all styled up as well! I always feel like blog images should be super fun as well - and why not go all out?

We shot yesterday in NYC and I am thrilled with the few images Angelica has posted already! If you want to be inspired, make sure to check out Angelica's blog!

A HUUUUUUGE thank you to Angelica for the rockin' photos, they are perfect!

LOVEe

Award Winning!!! Hell Yeah!

As I briefly stated in my previous blog post, I was super excited to find out that one of my prints had won in the 16x20 Print Competition in Las Vegas! I was incredibly excited, but then today I got the official results of all of my prints that were entered - and SURPRISE!!! Not one, but TWO of my prints were big winners! The two famous images are below and come from the fabulous Fine Lines shoot and the lovely Siegfried Wedding! Entering images in competitions is so much fun - and I also believe it is essential. It is most definitely a way to put yourself out there, and continually hold yourself accountable to creating solid, mind-blowing work. It's also very interesting to go out of your comfort zone and have judges critique your work, which is again, an essential part of growth for any artists!

Competitions can be a pretty penny to enter, and in the end, there is no guarantee that you will win. But I also think it is an investment in yourself as an artist. Not just in the cost of printing and actually entering, but an investment to your creative health. It feels so good to win...and without taking risks....I would never be AWARD winning! (For the 2nd year in a row...don't worry, I'm brushing my shoulder off right now! ;0)

LOVEe

For your Saturday Viewing Pleasure...

This video makes me happy for so many reasons! I love you all!

LOVEe

We are Invincible!

So, last night, I went to the John Mayerconcert. It. Was. Amazing! For some reason, whenever I am at concerts, the lyrics hit me like a ton of bricks and I have these big realizations about life, love and business!The last song John sang is called 'No Such Thing' and as the song started, my friend Erin (who I went to high school with, but we were never friends-until-after-high-school-sort-of-thing) said to me, "Wow, Eliesa, think of how far you have come..." I didn't know what he meant by that, I mean, yeah, I have a successful business and I love what I do, but he's on a fantastic journey of his own through school, why would he say that? The lyrics go something like this:

"Welcome to the real world", she said to me Condescendingly Take a seat Take your life Plot it out in black and white Well I never lived the dreams of the prom kings And the drama queens I'd like to think the best of me Is still hiding Up my sleeve

They love to tell you Stay inside the lines That something's better On the other side

I wanna run through the halls of my high school I wanna scream at the Top of my lungs I just found out there's no such thing as the real world just a lie you've got to rise above

So the good boys and girls take the so called right track Faded white hats Grabbing credits Maybe transfers They read all the books but they can't find the answers And all of our parents They're getting older I wonder if they've wished for anything better While in their memories Tiny tragedies

I am invincible (x3) As long as I'm alive

and suddenly it hit me...we are living in a completely different world now.

I am also reading this fabulous book called Linchpin by the one-and-only Seth Godin and it talks all about this new world we are living in. His major point is how we have all been trained to think that our lives are suppose to go a certain way. We go to school (which is very structured), continue on to college, graduate, and go on to work for a company who will determine how much money you make - but alas - they will give you health insurance and really 'take care' of you. We've been raised to think that this process is the way to happiness.

Yesterday I also had a conversation with a friend who told me her father just got laid off from his job and he is having to face a world that he never thought he would have to learn. The world of computers. Her father literally has to go back to take classes to learn about the internet, because that is THE only way to apply for a job. It's not easy for my friend to see her father, who she has always envisioned as a strong leader to be back at the level of a 5 year old - and I am sure terribly aggravating and frustrating for him to be back at square one when he is 'suppose' to be enjoying these years.

As the song above was playing, I kept thinking about the book, my conversation with my friend and the comment that Erin just made about how far I've come and the BIG realization I made was that in other people's eyes, I have constantly gone against the grain. I have always done the opposite of what I was 'suppose' to do and I most definitely did not take the easiest route to get where I am. But I believed in myself, in my craft and in my dream. To other people, I have not just built a business, but I have shown other people that following your dream and being successful at is IS A REALITY!

The world that we are in now is not structured and safe. It is essential for everyone to look inside themselves and figure out how to be indispensable - to be sooooo good at what you do that people can not look away! There is no longer the guarantee of health insurance or a high paycheck out of grad school. This doesn't mean that I think everyone should go and start their own business, just because I did, but whoever you work for - it is still up to you to 'seize-the-day"! Think out of the box, challenge others, get creative and be a leader in everything you do.  I'm a big believer the our mindset and world views are going to need to change in order to adapt to the new, fast world as-we-know-it.

There are no longer rules - get use to it and enjoy it.

Embrace the change.

With this new world comes new opportunities for you.

What are you going to do?

LOVEe

Related articles:

• Linchpin by Seth Godin - Video Book Review (chrisbrogan.com)