Peyton's Model Shoot

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Jim Walker is based in Knoxville, TN and specializes in Senior Portraits for High School Graduates.

The Hunter Becomes The Hunted: In the Studio With Sarah Van Sickle

Sarah Van Sickle is a woman on a mission.  She is changing the lives of women in the Knoxville area through an effort called What's Beautiful: Team Knoxville.   Sarah meets in various parks around the city and offers free workouts.

But it's more than just exercise.

Sarah is addressing head-on the self confidence issues which are such a struggle for so many women.  Sarah brings such energy and encouragement that her humble workout meetings have grown to several hundred participants.  Sarah believes that she is on a hunt for beauty and is committed to help each participant focus on the beautiful things about them instead of focusing on their self-perceived flaws.

In fact, her nick-name has become, Sarah the Beauty Hunter.

My wife, Sandra sent me a link to read about Sarah several weeks ago, when she was just getting started with her workouts.  I was so impressed with Sarah's passion for her workout students.  Even more touching though, was the way Sarah shared her own struggle with her beauty.  Yet, she has such incredible courage to go out everyday and help other women face their fears and doubts.  Sandra and I agreed, that we both wanted to help.  So we called to arrange a photo shoot.

Once, I talked with Sarah, she confessed that she was super nervous but that she needed to face her own fears.  You see, like so many of the women Sarah is helping, Sarah doesn't feel beautiful.

As a photographer, I see this all the time.  My portfolio is full of beautiful faces, but like Sarah, each of those people struggle with their beauty.  I have come to learn that photography is far more than mega-pixels and great lighting.  As a photographer, I've got to find a way to connect with my client and make them as comfortable as possible so they relax and authentic smiles and laughter come through the images.

I knew I could  show Sarah just how beautiful she really is.  It was time for Sarah the Beauty Hunter to become the hunted!

To help me with this I enlisted the help of professional makeup artist Kimberley Bell Thomas.  She did the awesome makeup for my recent Tribal Affect images.  Oh and Kimberley did  Pat Summit's make up for the photo shoot images used on the ESPYs award show for ESPN. 

We knew we needed to take Sarah beyond the edgy sports look that everyone might expect.  We wanted to give her the full beauty and fashion experience during her photo shoot.   The behind the scenes video below shows Sarah on set in the studio and some of the resulting composite images that I created for her.




Sarah had a great time at the shoot and loved the images.  I'm so glad that our team could show her just how amazingly beautiful she really is.  Thanks to Sandra who shot the video and Kimberley for rocking the hair and makeup!  I don't think folks are going to start calling me Jim the Beauty Hunter, but if they do, I'll take it as a compliment!  I'll go on to tell them I once shot Sarah the Beauty Hunter!

PS  When we booked the shoot with Sarah, little did we know she would go on to be selected as one of the new faces of Under Armor.  Congratulation to you Sarah and all the women who have joined your hunt for beauty!

Emory's First Birthday Party!

Wow, how time flies!  It's been awhile since I've found time to blog.  Time for some catching up.  

Shot these for Emory's first birthday!   

 Heather (mom) brought Emory's present to the studio so we had lots of props to shoot with.

Of course at the end of the shoot, it was time to get messy!

We all had a great time, especially Emory!

UTAH: Part 12 The Still Images

Hopefully you have enjoyed watching the short daily videos I've posted about our recent trip to Utah. Those videos were shot with my new Sony Cybershot camera (DSC-HX9V) which I absolutely love and highly recommend.

But we didn't go to Utah to break in the new point and shoot. We went to attempt to capture the vast beauty of the region with our DSLRs. I used my Nikon D300s and primarily shot with the ultra-wide 14-24mm and occasionally with the 70-200mm. (Sandra shot with the D90 with the 18-105mm and occasionally the 70-300mm.) We are both portrait shooters and know little about how to shoot landscapes properly. So we dove in and really challenged ourselves to learn more about how to use our cameras in a very different setting than portrait work.

The scenery was so inspiring and we had so much fun and got some great exercise hiking to our locations. It was so much fun having Sandra by my side shooting too! It was truly a wonderful vacation. We are already talking about next trip! (maybe the California National Parks? ) I've put together a slideshow of my favorite images from each of the places we visited. I recommend you click on the video and change the setting to 1080 HD if your connection will allow it. Also, crank up the speakers and enjoy!

UTAH: Part 11 - Final Day

Today was our last full day of our vacation and it was a pleasure to spend it in Zion National Park. Wow, what an incredibly beautiful place! We spent the entire day in the park beginning at Weeping Rock. We then walked the Narrows trail until we got to the river crossing. We finished the day shooting along the river all the way back to the bridge at the main junction at sunset. We have had so much fun and taken so many photographs. I'll be editing for a while to catch up once we get home. I've been trying to turn the videos around quickly and get them online, so you could follow along on our great adventure. Hopefully, you've enjoyed these daily updates. Here is the final day. Enjoy!

UTAH: Part 10 - Zion National Park

The day begin with a sunrise shoot in Bryce's Canyon before checking out of our hotel and driving to Zion National Park. Sorry, no video of the sunrise, but I got some awesome stills that I'm still working on.

We entered Zion through the east gate and drove through the mile long tunnel and then down the switchbacks into the canyon floor along the Virgin river. We exited the park through the south entrance and found our hotel and grabbed some lunch.

We returned to the park in the afternoon to scout some locations for tomorrow's shoot. We drove from the gate to north end of the park where the road ends at the Narrows trail head. Here is the video of the drive. Tomorrow should be awesome!

UTAH: Part 9 - Bryce's Canyon

Today our goal was to photograph Bryce's Canyon in the morning light. The weather was cold and clear and the wind was dying down which was a good thing. We didn't get started quite as early as we planned, but it turned out that with the angle of the sun this time of year, much of the canyon was in deep shadow, so waiting a little later turned out to be a good thing. We drove to the end of the park and started at Rainbow Point, elevation 9115 ft and worked our way back to Sunset point. We hiked below the rim a bit to get a different perspective. The view was stunning.

UTAH: Part 8 Bryce's Canyon

Tuesday, (Day 6) was a nice laid back day. Since we had arrived at Bryce's Canyon the night before, we decided to get a little extra sleep and then have a nice breakfast before scouting the park for our sunrise shoot on Wed. The weather was very windy and cold, so we skipped any hiking. Instead we drove around stopping at several of the nearby overlooks and also driving a bit deeper (and higher) into the park until it started snowing. The clouds looked pretty dark, the kind that could deliver a lot of snow although there was no snow in the forecast. When it started coming down a bit harder and visibility dropped, we headed back down. Before we left the park we stopped at Fairyland overlook. It was beautiful with the snow flurrying about. Hopefully we'll a light dusting. The red rocks with a layer of snow would be awesome.

UTAH: Part 7 - Arizona Advenure

While our trip has been primarily about four of UTAH's National Parks, we couldn't resist a stop in Monument Valley which straddles the boarder with Utah and Arizona, and a stop at Antelope Canyons near Page, AZ.

Day 5 began by shooting the night sky and sunrise from our hotel balcony at The View hotel. The desert floor made a nice foreground and the Three Sisters monument rocks made a wonderful silhouette against the morning sky.

We then packed up and headed toward Page, AZ. We arrived at the tour area of Upper Antelope Canyon around 12:15, just in time to join up with a tour. We took the longer photographer's tour and there was only 4 of us plus our guide, Gabriel. This is the off season and tourist numbers are really down which gave us plenty of time to get great shots. Other tour groups would pass through occasionally and Gabriel did a wonderful acting as traffic cop to hold up people while some of our long exposures finished.

After photographing Upper Antelope Canyon, we crossed the road and bought photographer's passes to Lower Antelope Canyon. This allowed us 2 hours of unguided time to photograph to our hearts content. We followed a tour group down to the entrance, but they moved quickly on and we took our time and for much of the time had the place to ourselves.

After finishing our time in the slot canyons, we grabbed some food in Page, AZ and headed for a night drive to Bryce's Canyon. More on that tomorrow.

The short video below is a nice summary of our day.

UTAH: Part 6 - Driving to Monument Valley

Sunday, we checked out of our hotel and took a quick side trip along the Colorado River. We returned to Moab, for a quick lunch and to fuel our Jeep Patriot, then we headed south to Monument Valley. Technically, we are just over the UTAH state line, in Arizona.

We checked into our hotel "The View" which is appropriately named. We've got our cameras set up on the balcony and intend to shoot the night sky with the 3 Sisters rock formations silhouetted in the foreground. The morning sunrise should be lined up just right so we'll see what we get.

Here is a short video of our drive and at the end a glimpse of our room and the view from our balcony.

UTAH: Part 5 - Canyonlands National Park

Saturday, we visited Canyonlands National Park which has a very different perspective than Arches NP. You are up high on flat ground looking down into the Green River and Colorado River Canyons. We started the day at Mesa Arch at sunrise along with 40 other photographers. The morning sun bounces of the canyon wall and lights the arch from the underside with the most wonderful orange glow. It was stunning! We did a short but steep hike to one overlook, but most of the places we shot you drive to and take a short walk.

We finished the day at nearby Dead Horse State park overlook for sunset. Wow, what a view. Another fantastic day of photographing and enjoying the wide open spaces of UTAH.

Tomorrow we leave Moab and head south to Monument Valley on the boarder of Utah and Arizona. Should be fun!

UTAH: Part 4 - Arches National Park Day 2

Here is a video summary of Friday, the second day of sight seeing in UTAH. The video starts with our sunrise shoot at the LaSal Mountain overlook and the massive red rocks behind us being painted in the morning light. We then returned to the park later that evening to hike the trail to Landscape Arch stopping along the way to visit two other arches. It was a wonderful hike, but it wasn't the sunset location we had hoped for. We did capture some of the evening light on the distant bluff and mountains. It was a beautiful day!

I'm working on another video of Saturday's adventures. I should have it posted soon.

Thanks!

UTAH: Part 3 - Arches National Park

Here is a quick snap from the morning sunrise shoot in Arches National Park. I took this with my Sony P&S. This was taken from the Lasal Mountain overlook just as the sun peeked over the mountain tops.

We returned to Arches later in the day for a nice hike to Landscape arch and more shooting. Tomorrow we get up really early to head to Canyonlands National Park. I've been so busy shooting both images and video, that I have not had time to do a lot of editing.

We are having a great time here in Moab, UT. I'll post more when I get a chance.

UTAH: Part 2 - Arches National Park

Thursday was Day 1 of sightseeing of our trip to the canyonlands of southern UTAH and northern AZ. We began the day in beautiful Arches National Park. Our first shoot was the sunrise at Turret arch. We entered the park in nearly complete darkness, with just a hint of morning light. We setup near North Window arch and shot back toward Turret arch and waited for it to be washed in the early morning light.

After the sunrise, we walked around the Window area photographing various things before driving to Delicate Arch to scout our sunset location. We made the short but steep (0.5) hike to the upper overlook across the canyon from Delicate Arch. Then it was back into Moab for lunch and a brief nap before heading back later that day for our sunset shoot.

We arrived at the trail head a couple of hours before sunset. We hiked the 1.5 mile trail which isn't too strenuous for folks that are in shape. But for us out of shape folks carrying gear, it took a little longer than we would have liked. But we persisted and arrived just in time to setup our gear and catch our breath before the last 30 minutes of golden sunlight painted the Delicate Arch and the distant peaks of the La Sal mountains in the distant background. Totally worth the effort to get there.

The video below captures a nice summary of the day.

UTAH: Getting There

Sandra and I finally are taking a real vacation! The destination is the canyon land of southern Utah and northern Arizona. Our plan is to visit Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Monument Valley, Antelope Canyon, Bryce's Canyon, and Zion National Parks.

Our goal is to have fun and to learn more about photographing sunrise's and sunsets while enjoying the beautiful landscapes. So we've packed our cameras, gear, and computer. It should be great fun and you are welcome to follow along with us by checking this blog.

Wed. morning we flew direct from Nashville to Las Vegas. We chose to begin our journey in Moab, UT, near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. That way, we got the long drive part of the trip out of the way and will be working our way back toward Las Vegas over the next 11 days. The long drive to Moab was made better by the rugged and beautiful scenery. Here is short video shot through the windshield of our Jeep Patriot rental. The video has a music track so set your speaker volume the way you like it and enjoy!

I'll try to post regularly, but I'm not sure how much video I can upload. So far, my connection has been a little slow. The video upload ran all night. It's now Thursday morning and we are up early to catch the sunrise. More later.....

Emory Luke - 6 weeks old

Since the arrival of Emory Luke, I have been super busy! Not only is being a Grandpa pretty cool, but I've been busy working on some cool photography projects. I'm having a blast, but I have been falling behind on the blogging. So I'll attempt to get back on track with some of my latest adventures.

The photo above is one of my favorites from Emory's newborn session. In that photo, he was one day old. Recently Heather and Emory came for a visit and of course I shot more photos shown below. In these, Emory is 6 weeks old. Wow does time fly!

The weather has been remarkable warm for March, so we headed the lake to soak up some sun.

The breeze made things a little cooler than we would have preferred. Emory seemed content to simply lay in his blanket and snooze.

He did manage to open eyes just a bit.

Then I got this cute sleepy grin. But it didn't last. Emory wasted no time in resuming his Sunday afternoon nap. Yep, naps are good.

Say Hello to Emory Luke

Today Sandra and I became grand parents! Emory Luke was born at 6:13PM; weighed 8lbs 9oz; length 20.5 inches. Heather is doing remarkable well.

Shooting Fireworks

Tonight, I made my first attempt at photographing fireworks. The fireworks display was part of a large outdoor party thrown by Faith Promise Church on the campus of Pellissippi State Technical Community College. I set up my tripod and camera on a hill overlooking the campus. I used a 3 to 6 second exposure for these shots. I had a lot of fun and I'm pretty happy with how the images came out. I hope you like them too.

Secret City Festival - WWII Reinactment

The Secret City Festival was recently held in Oak Ridge, TN. This year the festival featured a WWII living history encampment as well as a small skirmish reinactment between Allied forces and German SS forces. After the skirmish, the public could walk through the battle area and the camps and get an up-close view of the period uniforms, vehicles, and camps for the soldiers. These reinactors spend a lot of effort getting the details accurate and it really is like stepping back into a living history. Below is slideshow that features the Allied troops in the first half and the German troops towards the end.



If you would like to purchase copies of these photos click here.

Emerson's Habitat for Humanity Video

This is a video I put together for Emerson's Machinery Health Management business in Knoxville, TN. It follows the progression of construction of the Emerson sponsored Habitat for Humanity house built in April 2009. The video appears to end around the 4:13 mark, but keep watching. There is a nice surprise at the end. Total run time is 5:33. Oh yeah. I almost forgot. Turn up your speakers. The music rocks.





Emerson is headquartered in St. Louis MO. The Machinery Health Management business is part of Emerson Process Management located in Austin, TX.