AdFed Award Winner!!

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Well, I have some exciting news!

For the first time ever, I entered the AdFed Awards - and I WON!!!

AdFed MN is a non-profit professional trade association serving the local advertising community including agencies, advertisers, suppliers and students. Each year, they host a big awards show, that is basically the Academy Awards of the local ad world! Advertisers, Agencies, Designers, and Photographers from all around submit work in several different categories. These categories  range from everything from Guerrilla Marketing Campaigns to Billboard ads!

I entered in two of the Photography categories this year and here is how I placed:

Photography - Self Promotion - Campaign

Title: The Modern Day Man

Award: SILVER!!!

Photography - Editorial - Campaign

Title: Fine Lines

Award: Merit

I am BEYOND thrilled that The Modern Day Man shoot took the Silver honor!! This was a test shoot for my portfolio and to be honest - I didn't expect to place at all! I was more entering this competition for the experience and exposure to just be critiqued and judged, so I am SO excited about actually winning! I also love that this was something that I dreamed up and worked with an amazing team to create - and that it is good enough to be award winning! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make the awards show, so I'm don't fully understand what this winning thing means, but I do know that my work gets published in a book that is distributed among the Advertising community!

I've posted images from both shoots below - enjoy!

The Fine Lines Shoot for Metro Magazine also received a Merit award in the Editorial Campaign Category!

One Step Closer // Personal Photos!

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I'm on the CUSP of getting ready to send out my portfolios and begin the official ELIESA campaign! That's right...I said campaign! As far as I am concerned, this is a mission of three things:

1) To get my work in front of new editors/agents/art directors/designers and publications.

2) To network and begin building relationships with potential clients

3) To book some kick ass jobs!

While all of these above things are necessary and exciting, I am a big believer that it all starts with me. I want my potential clients to know me, just as much as they know my work. I want them to WANT me soooo bad, they can't say no! In the commercial world, I have always been taught to 'sell your work' first, but I'm taking a different approach this time around! I'm selling myself, and the idea of working with me, just as much as the amazing work we produce! I want clients to know that they are getting the complete package and that we are going to ROCK whatever concept we are given!

This past week, I had the lovely opportunity to get in front of the camera and update my personal photos with my friend, Collin Hughes. I have always loved Collin's work and it made complete sense for him to photograph me. When choosing a photographer to take images of you, choose wisely! I chose Collin, not because he is such a good friend, but rather because his work and the energy in his work emulates the exact vibe that I want to put out there for my clients. Needless to say, he did an amazing job! Here is a tiny quick preview of some of the images from our shoot!

CREDITS //

Photographer - Collin Hughes

Hair + Makeup - Margo Gordon

Styling - Alice Sydow

MOTO HIGH // Test Shoot!

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It's done! It's finally done! I am SUPER stoked about how the images from my last test shoot turned out!

The concept was somewhere in between a Dolce & Gabbana ad campaign and the Drug, Sex, and Rock-n-Roll attitude! I wanted to have this juxtaposition of a trashy environment, mixed with classy attire. I wanted it fashionable, yet gritty. Polished, yet messy. Refined, yet questionable! I was super lucky to, once again, work with an AMAZING team! A. Michele Boutique let us use their gorgeous pieces to style all of the models! Seriously, this boutique had absolutely everything we needed to pull the shoot together and I really, really appreciate local shops who are willing to collaborate with us on these test shoots! Collaboration is what this is all about!  Now, onto the sexy car...I was coming into the studio a few weeks prior to this shoot and my friend, Betty - who is an amazing jewelry designer, drove by in this beauty of a ride! I literally chased her down and was like...BETTY! I MUST USE YOUR CAR!!! It fit perfectly in the setting and was the perfect pop of color to tie in the whole shoot!

CREDIT//

Photography // Eliesa Johnson

Production // Chelsey Paul

Hair // Micah Savage

Makeup // Margo Gordon

Talent // Kristina & Elle – Ignite Models, Ewalt & Siddiqee – Vision Management

Assistants // Jonny Bennett, Louisa Podlich

Post Production // Liz Hardt

Clothing // A Michele Boutique

Car // Betty Jager

RENEGADE ROMANCE // TEST SHOOT!

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The beauty of testing is that anything can happen! While getting ready for the MOTO Shoot, which I know you are all DYING to see and will be released in the very near future, I took some images to simply warm everyone up to the camera! There is something about these images that I am totally digging, so I decided to actually use them for my portfolio!! With every series of images that I put together, I like to compile a story, in editorial form. This series is titled Renegade Romance, for, I think, a pretty obvious reason!

CREDIT//

Photography // Eliesa Johnson

Production // Chelsey Paul

Hair // Micah Savage

Makeup // Margo Gordon

Talent // Kristina & Elle - Ignite Models, Ewalt & Siddiqee - Vision Management

Assistants // Jonny Bennett, Louisa Podlich

Post Production // Liz Hardt

Clothing // A Michele Boutique

The Grand Finale // Self Styled!

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For the past 2 years, I have photographed many people around this city for Metro Magazine's Self Styled article! I have had SO much fun with this particular spread and it has been a staple for the magazine since it's start! The time has come to retire Self Styled and move onto bigger and better things. With this, I bid adieu to this spread and present you with the final Self Styled portrait!

New Portfolios // Done and Done!

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Woo hoo!!! Our FINAL portfolios came, hand delivered, by Aurora of Red Organic!! This is the final step in the branding process of ELIESA. It's been an amazing process, but the portfolios are better than I ever imagined! I am SO proud of them and even more excited to start pounding the pavement and putting them in front of potential clients!

Our next step will be making the actual prints for the books, compiling our list of Art Directors, Editors and Agents that we would like to work with and beginning to share our work with them! Then, the real work begins...the hard phone calls, meetings, leave behind campaigns, test shooting...

It's all a part of living the dream!!

A BIG thank you to Red Organic for bringing this brand to life - and hand making these gorgeous books!

Moto Test Shoot // Behind The Scenes!

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With every shoot that we do, I try to have someone there catching the behind-the-scene moments!! Our new photographer for our sister company, Louisa, captured some sweet shots! When she showed some to me, I thought, "This is totally why I hired you..." She is so good! I thought I would share some with you and to see more, head over to Louisa's personal blog!

Moto Test Shoot // Sneak Peek!

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Yesterday's test shoot went SOOOOOO well! I've just narrowed the final image picks down and I am THRILLED with the outcome! Now begins the post-production-process, which is going to be a little complicated for us! We are really pushing the limits with this shoot, not only with the lighting and concept, but also in our editing process. My creative vision for this goes far beyond the actual shooting and I'm sooooo excited to dig into this! Obviously, I will show you all the end result, but while I was culling through everything, I came across this image that I fell in love with! The tone of our shoot was quite serious and I absolutely love this photograph, because it shows the tone of our crew and the actual set that day! There's a certain amount of acting that is necessary to make a good model, but these are genuine smiles and I'm so drawn to the energy of this photo!

Below is an image of yours truly, which I also love! Collaboration is KEY to a successful shoot and this totally captures my feelings about everything that is going on right now!

And last, but not least, our oh-so-fabulous crew shot! A SPECIAL thank you to absolutely everyone who helped out with this! I'll talk more about these people when all of the final images are released, but they deserve a little love:

Jonny - Assistant

Louisa - Assistant

Liz - Digital Tech / Post Production

Margo Gordon - Makeup

Micah Savage - Hair

Chelsey Paul - Production

Ewalt & Siddiqee - Vision Management

Elle & Kristina - Ignite Models

A Michele Boutique - The Sweet Clothes

Betty Jager - The Sweet Car

Flashlight Photo Rental - The Sweet Gear