What is Beauty?

Now that you know what I do to an image after it's captured in the camera, let me show you what I DON'T do my images....


To learn more about the above video, visit Campaign for Real Beauty.

Good makeup and lighting can go a long way, but how much of what we see in magazines, television, and movies is REAL? How much of the media messages we're getting are a mere illusion created by great photoshop artists?

As a teenager, I remember feeling a LOT of pressure to be beautiful. Of course, now I can see that most of the pressure was in my own head, but my idea of beauty was fed by fashion magazines, mall window ads, billboards, and movies. When a girl is trying to figure herself out, and trying to appreciate what is beautiful about herself, it's hard to look in the mirror and realize that you don't look like the beautiful people you see in fashion ads. It's also very hard to understand that what you're seeing in fashion ads isn't how people naturally look.

As much as I hate WalMart's employment practices and market bullying, I really appreciate that they use their real employees in their store ads. Granted, they tend to find some of the most outwardly beautiful people that work in their stores, but these aren't people who make their living based on upholding a certain unrealistic vision of beauty aided by personal trainers, professional make-up artists, plastic surgery, botox, and photoshop. I only wish more catalogs and magazines would show REAL people.

One of the hardest decisions I had to make for one wedding was whether or not to whiten a single dark tooth on an important family member related to the bride & groom. If it were me, I would have wanted it whitened because it was so obvious - or I never would have opened my mouth in the first place. However, there may have been a story behind that tooth and why the family member hadn't done anything about it. Perhaps it was the mark of a challenging history with illness, or a memory of an important moment in life. Who am I to alter someone's reality? I asked permission before making any changes, and to this day, I still feel a little weird about whitening that tooth, it's almost as though that image is in someway lying about who that person is. For that reason, and all the others mentioned, I rarely ever do photoshop work on a person unless they request it.

Do you look back at pictures of yourself when you were younger and think about how beautiful you really were back then? Do you think about how stupid you were to think that you were fat or unattractive, and how you were so convinced that you were the ugliest duckling? Now, fast forward to 20 years from now and look back at yourself... think about how beautiful you are today and how you're taking the beauty that you have now for granted. It's always easier to think the grass is greener on the other side, because what we imagine is always more beautiful than the actual reality. Think about the people that you find beautiful... I bet they have a lot of hang-ups about flaws that you've never even noticed because you only see them as beautiful for who they are. Now think about how others perceive you - and that what they see is your natural beauty, not the things which you consume yourself with obsessing over.

Thankfully, I've grown up to appreciate what makes me naturally beautiful while also accepting my differences, and in the process, I've realized that many of the people whom I coveted as beautiful on the outside, can be very unattractive on the inside. As an adult, I now understand that what's on the inside is the most beautiful part of a person because, let's face it, our outside appearance changes over time and while the changes may not always be flattering, how we treat others and what we love about ourselves is ultimately the beauty that we project to others. A person's humility, kindness, caring, passion, and love are what make them beautiful beyond belief, and while that is difficult to capture in a photograph, this natural inner beauty is the ultimate goal I strive for when I'm capturing an image. There are times when it is very challenging, especially if a person is unhappy or unkind, but even then, there is a quiet struggle happening inside- from which a dusty treasure chest of beauty can still be found.

Obviously, this is an issue that I feel so passionately about, and the only way that we can change the status quo is to first understand the reality that we are faced with. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, and I hope that you can help make a difference in small ways. First- love yourself and what makes you beautiful, then- tell other people what you love about them and what makes them beautiful. Appreciate what makes you naturally beautiful - it is unique and unlike any other, therefor it is useless to compare yourself to others. There is beauty to be found everywhere, if only we take the time to see it and appreciate it.

Holly & Sam Engagement

This engagement session almost didn't happen! When we planned to shoot Holly & Sam's engagement session, it was originally supposed to take place at a cider mill, with beautiful fall colors. However, a huge storm with chilling high winds rolled in that day and changed our plans. I was watching the doppler radar via internet all day long and determined that we should find a location that would allow us to utilize natural light, while still being covered from the elements. My choice: Belle Isle with its beautiful conservatory and covered porch around the casino building. I started getting tons of ideas about all of these great shots we could do that would incorporate raindrops, the conservatory settings, etc. However, plans had to change yet again when I arrived early to find that the conservatory was under renovation that day. Talk about bad luck!! Despite all of this, the show HAD to go on because I wasn't going to be back in Michigan for a while!!





Even under the covered porch of the building, it was incredibly windy on all but one side. Fortunately, all of that wind was pushing the storm out of the area, so the rain finally stopped, but it was still FREEEZING!! Holly & Sam were such troopers about braving the cold!! I made sure we took several "warm up" breaks by driving around in the car with the heat on. ;-)





Once the sun broke through a few clouds, the sky and lighting were AMAZING!!! It made weathering the storm, and sticking to our plans totally worth while.


(for some reason, cross processed images feel very "Detroit" to me)





The wind was an issue from time to time, but we found ways to make it work for us.





Normally I don't like really "dark" images, but I think I was inspired to create some after we had such a dark day.



When I was planning on rain, I had made some really cool plans to shoot through a rainy car window among some other awesome ideas (that I'll have to try with another couple), but with no rain drops on the windows, I quickly changed plans and created the shot below and the cool rear-view mirror shot inside the car where we were nice and warm! Despite all of the challenges leading up to our shoot... I would have to say that this was a total success!!



Technical notes for photographers: None of the images above were photoshopped other than sharpening for web and adding my logo. All of the post-processing work was done in Adobe Lightroom Beta. If you'd like to see the original straight from camera JPEG images, CLICK HERE to view the entire set of processed and unprocessed images on flickr. If you're a photographer and you haven't tried Lightroom yet, make sure you check it out while it's still free in Beta version.

Heidi & Tony Engagement

It always amazes me when a couple stays together after dating in high school and going separate ways afterward. There are so many things that can test a relationship in college, so it takes a very special relationship to endure through that. Heidi & Tony are just that couple and while oddly matched in height at six foot something and five foot nothing, they are a great compliment to each other's personalities. (As a side note: I have non-blurry versions of the picture above, but I loved their expression in this one the most - so genuine and happy.)





Heidi & Tony wanted pictures in their hometown of Shelbyville, IN. They knew someone who was gracious enough to let us use their beeeeeeeautiful property with all kinds of great things to use as backgrounds!! I think the property looked even nicer than the city park I saw on the way into town! They even had a rope for swinging into their own pond!




Tony played ball in high school, so Heidi wanted to make sure we incorporated one of Tony's favorite things into our engagement session! How sweet! I've never tried sports photography before, so I was all for it!! Of course, Heidi didn't have a second pair of shoes on hand, so she played in her heeled boots!! Even with that handicap, I think she still outscored Tony! Maybe he was distracted. ;-)





This was such a gorgeous and romantic setting!! I'm so glad Heidi got permission to shoot here!!





Thank you for a great shoot Heidi & Tony!!! I'm really looking forward to your wedding at the Winery!!