Remember baby Eloise?  She is ONE!  Better believe it…PINK — everywhere!

Eloise’s outfit is fantastic - especially the crocheted crown/headband, the tutu, and glittery-squeaky shoes!  Gorgeous birthday girl :)

and, of course, joyful parents :)

Eloise eating cake, non-stop :)

HUGE pink balloon!

Happy 1st Birthday, Eloise!  I know you will only grow more and more beautiful and strong, just like your parents :)  Zach and Colleen, thank you so much for letting me capture the growing Joy in your family.  Eloise’s first birthday is indeed a milestone, so congratulations and keep up the amazing love…oh, and don’t forget to celebrate always!!! 

Canon 7D, 24-70mm f/2.8L, 35mm f/1.4L; VSCO Film

I love Danielle Kurant.

Now that that is out there, I can go about my usual blogging :)  I’m super excited that Danielle is coming out with a second CD!  Her first CD, Beginnings, is fabulous.  I also cannot believe that she trusted me enough to do her album portraits and layout.  I have included some samples below…I get nostalgic seeing pictures I took with my first DSLR, a Rebel XT.  We had so much fun on Clearwater Beach for that shoot!

Anyway, these pictures are from the recording of her second album, which is highly anticipated by yours truly (I cannot emphasize this enough!).  Sometimes, I blame the fact that I like to do everything interesting on my friends.  Danielle is one such lovely soul.  She is in medical school and still highly active with writing and performing music (shout out to Trey Penton, another close med student/photographer/artist/musician/filmmaker friend!).  All of my friends inspire me SO MUCH!

Also noteworthy in these pictures are Jed Mootsey on the guitars and Brody Murakami, the sound mixing magician!  Danielle has such a way of drawing awesome people into a little movements of awesomeness and beauty :)

BTW, that gold mic is like super duper expensive because it has GOLD on it. what!

Music lights up Danielle like nothing else :)

Check out the video of her in studio, even her “warm ups” are amazing :)

Graphics from her first album, portraits shot at Clearwater Beach, FL:

Canon 7D with 16-35 f/2.8L, 50mm f/1.4, 70-200mm f/2.8L IS, Speedlite 430EXII

Canon Rebel XT with 300mm f/4

One of my favorite things about being alive is experiencing friendships with creative people.  Mandy is one of these people, loving photography, graphic design, the blogosphere, etc. etc.  Her laugh is contagious, and we share a severe addiction to loose leaf tea :)  We wanted to get some portraits of her made in order to showcase how gorgeous she is and so that she can use some for her sites.

All these pictures were taken by Dan :)

Am I the only one who thinks these pics are straight out of an Urban Outfitters’ catalog?!  Incidentally, Mandy works at one :p

Juxtaposing some industrial shots with nature to see both sides of her personality :)

We love pictures of people and/or things levitating :)

Ahhhhh levitating!

We love Mandy!!!

Canon 5D Mk II, 24-70mm f/2.8L, Rokinon 85mm f/1.4

I’m excited to introduce our first shoot of 2012, featuring Dan’s family!  Yes, this is THE “DN” in DN.JY and THE Dan Nguyen of Simplexity Studios :)  This family is definitely near and dear to me, and it is fitting to start of a good year with some perfect subjects :)

We decided to do a morning shoot in the neighborhood, as the sunlight in Florida can get really harsh very quickly.  As it turned out, the morning light was gorgeous for such an awesome family with such great personality :)

Enjoy!!

One thing characteristic of Florida landscapes is the Spanish moss…I usually resent them, but I now love how they frame the portraits!

Feet shot of the three brothers — nguyening!

Found a worn gate that looks like a studio setup! whoa.

killer jumping picture, Aidan! 

Honestly, what an awesome family!!  Thanks for letting me make portraits to celebrate the new year!

Canon 5D Mk II, 24-70mm f/2.8L

Most of us think we want Christmas to be like this:

…when perhaps what most of us need is this:

May you all know true Love and Light that wrap around and around and around and never let go.

To all who gave me the privilege of helping to make memories with those you love, THANK YOU!  You have enriched my life through DNJY more than you will ever know <3

Below is a slideshow of one portrait from every shoot in 2011, enjoy!

WHAT: this is an experiment in the power of community. It’s smple: Art for Change!

“For every photo you take home, drop some change into the rice bowl.”

ONE full bowl feeds ONE child for ONE month

Common Grounds Coffee House, my favorite hangout and study spot in Carbondale, graciously hosted this community experiment this Fall.  I heard about RiceBowls and thought it would be fun to try out this idea, since I had a lot of extra prints of my random travels lying around.  All these pictures span about four years of my life and feature locations from all around the US!

Words fail to capture how meaningful this journey was — meeting new people who have amazing passion and kindness, inspired artists who also love their community, and of course, the amazing work that the staff and partners of Rice Bowls do everyday to bring food and Love to orphans all around the world!  I am blown away by their commitment to doing all they can to spread this joy!

I would collect the full bowls every other night or so, and mark them off — super exciting! 

I should have taken an “aftermath” picture, as there were about 20 pictures left out of about 3/400.  

Needless to say, the project was a HUGE success, as we raised $320!!! Thank you for your extraaavagant GENEROSITY, coffee-lovers!!!

I realized that I didn’t actually own a hammer, so I had to smash these with the backs of screwdrivers…sorry for the random bangings, neighbors!

Be sure to check out Rice Bowls for truths about malnutrition around the world and how you can help! 

Jennifer is one of my really great friends from Vine — as my first small group leader, and partner-in-crime for so many videos and creative projects, sometimes I think she knows what I’m thinking even before I say anything :)  It’s always good to have that kind of connection :)

Yancey has grown so much taller in such a short time!  Super rambunctious and fun-loving personality aside, Yancey expresses a growing courage to me.  In fact, both Jenn and Yancey stand for an enduring courage.

They picked out a pair of costumes just to be silly and warm up for the shoot, and how awesome is this?! Robin Hood and Jenn the Princess :)

It was one of the rare sunny days we’ve had here in wintery Southern Illinois, so it was nice to take advantage of lens flares and the such :)

Silly Faces!!

:) :)

Canon 7D, 16-35 f/2.8L, Rokinon 85mm f/1.4