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

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! 

Fall is amazing.  Fun is amazing.  Friends are amazing.  Question of the season: why not combine all three?!

I had the privilege to hang out with eight wonderful ladies who are friends through one of Vine’s awesome Monday-night small groups :)  All of them had such great personalities and beautiful souls. Further, in ways I can’t completely put into words, when together, they become something of a combined force.  It’s like they make each other shine brighter.

Spending the afternoon with them gave me a better understanding of how joy can have so many different facets and expressions; and how community involves breadth as well as depth of beauty.

Thank you, ladies, for a fun Fall afternoon :)

Left: Awkward family photos :)

Right: The shoes are a tribute to Casey Raymer - awesome!

Bottom: “SQUIRREL!”

Proof that silly goes hand in hand with fun most times :)

Location: SIU Campus Lake

Canon 7D, 35mm f/1.4L

October is always a great month — not only does it kick off the holiday season, it brings the joys of Fall, the breezes of change.  The only downside to October is that students have midterm exams and papers and projects.  Insert mournful sigh.  

This particular afternoon, though, I was stoked to have something to look forward to after exams.  One of the most awesome people I know from Law School, Tess, gave me the privilege of taking chill-time portraits of her and her childhood-friend, Miranda.  We hung out by the Campus Lake peninsula and had fun, as proven below :)

It was awesome to be around two people who have been friends for what would seem to be forever.  Sometimes, I feel like true friendship is rare in our modern, tech-infused world, so it was fun to see how Tess and Miranda are so incredibly comfortable with each other and can carry on a true conversation without thinking about it :)

All in all, what a great afternoon.  Tess and Miranda, THANKS so much for letting me capture your friendship! Enjoy the pictures!

Silly faces!

The Lake was absolutely beautiful

Shot on a Canon 7D, with Canon 35mm f/1.4L

First of all, there is a back-story to why this shoot started out in a laundromat.  To summarize, I have enjoy exploring and I might be an old person.  That’s not what this blog is about.  This blog is about three lovely ladies I have gotten to know through my local church family, Vine. 

Devin, Michara and Tashina met through Vine as well, sharing small groups and were also roommates!  The idea of doing “Friends” shoots came to me when hanging out with Devin one afternoon when she was helping out with some videos for church.  These girls were just so close that I wanted to document the beauty they shared :)

Each of them has such unique and fun-loving personalities, it was easy for me to capture their joy.  Thanks, ladies, for being spontaneous with the laundromat idea and for being so joyfully beautiful in everything that you do and say!

Mama’s Little Helper:

Downtown Carbondale:

This last picture is one of my all-time favorites.  If pictures do really speak a thousand words, this one speaks ten thousands of the Love that lives in their hearts.

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