Meet Jim O’Halloran–an extremely talented local musician, performing both locally and internationally with numerous groups over the years. Jim is currently staying busy while creating music within his own group, the Jim O’Halloran Trio, which consists of Jim, Dean Schmidt on Bass and D’Vonne Lewis on drums. I had the opportunity to watch their trio […]

Like almost all of my clients, I never loved getting in front of the camera. It’s a vulnerable place to be. I remember a few years ago there was a recorded experiment making the rounds on social media (an ad for Dove, actually–it was genius). It was a forensic artist who was drawing portraits of […]

Featured today is Lucinda O’Halloran of Spirit Garden Design!   Tell us a little bit about what you do (how could I introduce you at a cocktail party?).   I am a landscape designer and a garden coach.  At Spirit Garden Design our goal is to create beautiful, functional, and magical outdoor places.  Places that are […]

Recently, as a client of mine was leaving mystudio after her session, she said to me, “Thanks!  That wasn’t terrible!” Which struck us both as funny, and then she told me I could use that as a testimonial. When Audrey came into my studio for a session, and when she was driving downtown, even when she was looking […]

As pretty much every portrait photographer out there, I’ve always adored the look of Oliphant’s custom hand-painted canvas backdrops.  But so do Annie Leibovitz and the rest of the world, so their price tag is justifiably out of reach in the thousands of $$.  While they’re certainly worth every penny,  I’ve always wanted to try my own […]

Decide on your goals for the shoot.   One of the questions I always ask clients before a session is, “Imagine someone is seeing your image for the first time.  What are three adjectives you’d hope they would use in describing you?”  From that, I always get a range of answers, often including things like “approachable, trustworthy, […]