When Eric and I first met Read & Amber of ‘greenray‘ tees we were BLOWN AWAY by their enthusiasm. They’re a husband + wife creative duo…just like us! So they know exactly how fabulous it is to work together as a partnership. And of course we wouldn’t have it any other way!!! Read + Amber are starting a brand NEW adventure together within the clothing industry. So exciting!!! Their AMAZING concept behind greenray’s organic graphic tees is to help spread awareness about environmental issues through a bug named Ray…their ECO-friendly ‘praying mantis’. He’s way cool and gets to participate in so many RAD-ilicious activities…from biking to meditation to breakdancing!!! Their first line up which hits this spring consists of 13 designs made for men & women…some are for both! But you’ll just have to wait n’ see all their wicked creations once the site unveils….oh’ so very soon! Seriously you’re gonna LOVE IT!!!

Here’s just a little teaser of ‘breaker ray’ the version for women to hold ya over. Can you spot ‘ray’?.

And we can’t say this enough but thanks again Read & Amber for such a killer weekend of shooting. We couldn’t have asked for a better group of models/friends to hang out with during the journey!
Enjoy…

This has to be one of our top favorite family me2 portrait sessions of 2009!!!  Really…it is…(click HERE to check out their sneak peek).  Eric & I were able to capture AH-mazing architecture, crazy sick details and super hilarious moments.  The Puddy family totally brought it!  We couldn’t have asked for a better day too.  Normally we do our sessions in the later afternoon but decided to do theirs in the morning and so happy we did. It literally started raining minutes after the last frame.  The weather gods were looking after us!  I love it when that happens.  Especially here in Arizona where rain is abnormal and tends to just happen on a dime.  The storm clouds roll in literally as fast as they roll out.  And this day was exactly that. But the early cloud cover did play in our favor creating a lovely soft box of light.  Perfect!

The location was also perfect.  Since the Puddy family lives smack dab in the middle of Phoenix we knew we would have a hand full of sites to choose from…the next question was…which was most their style and ours?  We have tons of favorite spots in Tucson where we shoot at constantly but when it comes to Phoenix it’s honestly overwhelming.  So we decided to ask our Phx photographer buddy Josh Snyder since he totally gets our simplistic MOD vibe.  All the places he recommended were fabulous…Thank you Josh!  After much comparison Eric and I decided to take the family to the Tempe Center for the Arts!  We only got to scout the location from internet land but immediately fell in love.  It was sooooooooo the right decision.  Then come to find out as we were photographing the family Don Puddy (Dad) told us how fitting the site choice was since his company managed the construction of the site.  CRAZY HUH?!!!  I guess we know how to select a fabulous location…don’t we?!  It was really cool to find out all the concepts about the building’s shape, sound barriers (airplanes fly over about every 5 minutes) and it’s massive curved concrete walls.  Which we couldn’t get enough of…shocker!

Ok so just to prepare yourselves this is a HUGE blog post but I promise you it’s soooooo worth the scrolling!  Hope you enjoy our last session that wrapped up our bitchin 2009! Yep…I just said it.

I believe it was on Eric’s Birthday that I took these a few weeks ago before he arrived home that evening. As I sat at my computer I glanced out the window of our production office and saw that the leaves across the street from our home were FINALLY changing colors. Gezzzzzz…I think it’s safe to say that our fall season doesn’t really seem to last all that long. You blink and it’s gone.  Tucson goes from blazing hot temperatures of the dry summer heat to 85 degree fall weather and then BAM…it just hits…a cold front and the leaves start changing and falling off the branches all in the same week! I look out the window now and only 2 weeks ago the trees were full. Crazy. So I grabbed my iPhone and used what battery juice was left and snapped away. Well more like clicked the camera icon. All photographs were taken using a mixture of ‘Polarize‘ and ‘Vint Shift‘ iPhone apps. I had a mere 10 minutes to capture the leaves before the sun faded away.  Enjoy…

I had to get this up while editing…Introducing the Puddy Family!!! Well really only Lexie. She’s the cutest of the bunch. Can’t believe we got her to make eye contact with us let alone the camera. LOVE IT! She’s kind of a diva though when it comes to new faces and takes some time warming up to you. But we didn’t mind the challenge…in fact we welcome it. We just ignored her until she was ready…really that’s what we did…creates a funny story! Almost like a movie star who’s ready for their close up when they say so. Ha. Good thing it only takes her about 20 minutes.

Speaking of stories…When Joan first emailed us we knew immediately that this family was going to be AWESOME. Here are her words exactly… ‘Our 2nd family portrait in 28 years … it’s been too long! Sons are 28 and 26 … we live next to the Heard Museum in a mid-century co-op. Saw the article in Desert Living … feel like you two are the photographers for us!.’ ~Joan Puddy

Woohoo what a great way to start an experience!!!  And we’re all about creating one.  So of course we started their’s one afternoon during lunch @ Postino’s…the most yummiest place for bruschetta, proscuitto and wine.  Some of you may already know this but for those of you that don’t getting to know our clients (*soon to be friends*) before a photo shoot is soooooo important to us.  It helps us get a sense of everyone’s personality, style and character.  We gain so much knowledge.  It’s truly incredible.  To hear that the whole family gets exactly what we’re all about just rocks our world.  Purple Nickel Studio strives on creating a fun laid back experience filled with silliness, rad details, and over all goodness.  Who wouldn’t want that?. Well the Puddy Family surely brought it and we can’t wait to show you the rest of their session. One word…’HILARIOUS!’. Oh just you wait!!!