TUCSON PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER WHO BRINGS A MODERN STYLE TO ARIZONA PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY | PURPLE NICKEL STUDIO BLOG

Holy, Moley, Me, Oh My!!!

Eric — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 17:10:46 +0000

Casia • I have had the privilege and honor to watch you grow into a strong, confident, beautiful woman over the last 8+ years. I do not have the vocabulary to describe how extraordinary it has been and I cannot dream up what my life would be without you. I love you like no other and get butterflies imagining the rest of our lives together…

Eric

new studio space new studio space new studio space

Casia — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:49:38 +0000

OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!!!!! The time has arrived……….we have a new studio space for Purple Nickel!!! I know right?! It still hasn’t set in and we are constantly muttering ‘I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS SPACE IS OURS!‘. And in unison. Ok maybe not at exactly the same time but it does get brought up at least 10 times while were in the space. We officially got the keys last Tuesday. HOLY CRAP! We have always kept our eyes peeled for a RAD space that would support our creative juices and when we stumbled across this one it was way too good to pass up. We almost didn’t even know of its existence. As we were leaving from checking out 3 other spaces in the same building, it was brought up that a certain tenant had 2 SPACES up at the end of the month. So we immediatly said ‘where’s the other one?‘. The landlord casually replied ‘oh on the second floor…yeah it has exposed red brick walls, natural window light and hard wood floors!‘. ‘WHAAAAAAT?!‘. Unfortunately that day we couldn’t see inside the space and could only get a glipse through some casement windows that lead up the stairs. For the next two weeks we went CRAZY!!! Yes we had to wait that long to view it after the current tentant moved out. Our stomachs were tied in knots. I think mine more than Eric’s. Every second we debated ‘should we do it…should we not do it?‘ But the one thing we’ve realized over the years is WE MUST TAKE RISKS! And this is a big one…

And a BIG shout out to Erin & Don Durband for the awesome sweet ass hook up!!! We could have never done this without you guys and we LOVE YOU BUNCHES!

We can’t wait to show you our journey…

let’s get learned!

Casia — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 05:37:01 +0000

So you wanna strengthen your brand, develop a style that showcases your personality and take your biz to the next level?

AWESOME…let us help! (You heard it right, you get both of us)

There’s nothing more we enjoy then sharing our knowledge with fellow creatives. I mean come on, what could be better then sitting around shootin’ the breeze, eating some good food and taken some photos? Sounds like fun to us! That’s why we offer in person half day mentor sessions designed to meet your specific needs. In other words…you ask, we answer : )

If none of these dates suit your fancy…head on over to the sign up form to let us know when you’re thinkin’

In and around downtown Tucson, Arizona

What we’ll provide:

• A welcome lunch, mmm yummy!

• 4 hours of brainstorming, learning and laughing

• A mini shoot @ the end just for the hell of it

Channon of Urban Chic Portraits – “If you are a photographer ever looking to take your business to the next level you should hire Purple Nickel for a mentoring session. I just had one this week and WOW!!! So informative, fun and worth the time and money. Great people and great photographers. So much to learn from them about business and life. Thanks Casia and Eric!”

Check out their mentor session HERE!

finders keepers . design within reach

Casia — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 04:43:47 +0000

Yay…another installment of ‘finders keepers’ here on the Purple Nickel Blog!!! It’s been awhile and I do miss sharing all the goodies we like, love and lust over. Or should I say ‘drool’ over. Well this little find comes all the way from Scottsdale, Arizona! Ok so that’s only like 2 hours away from us here in Tucson but who’s counting. We picked up this cutie on Sunday after hearing about Design Within Reach’s floor model sale!!! Woo Hoo! And all thanks to Gabe, the store manager. SWEET. He promised to hold this Eames Plastic Molded Chair for us until the next time we were up in Phoenix. WE LOVE IT! Yes we only have 1…so far. But can’t wait to start a collection. We need at least 2 right?. And it’s a perfect shade of buttery yellow lime. YUMMY! And totally perfect for our production office or a studio space.

Speaking of studio spaces, we have been exploring that concept for quite sometime now. Probably for the last 3 years… but again who’s counting?. Oh me, that’s right. Yes… it’s always fun to look and we keep our eye’s peeled wide open for something that would suit our funky creative juices. But what we’ve seen is that they’re either too dark (meaning NO flippin’ windows), boring drop down popcorn ceilings, musty smelling like a basement, corporate stuffy office-like, no parking that’s near by or for clients, not located near downtown Tucson or is just plain out of our price range. I’m sure other photographers and biz owners share similar experiences?. It’s crazy how many ‘duds’ you view. Honestly I would say it’s just as tough as finding your ‘dream home’. You know it exists, you just have to be patient. Or build it! Ha. Well until that time comes (building) we are enjoying our options or at least laughing about them!

mod book . tucson portrait photographer

Casia — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 06:06:09 +0000

Eric just completed another one of our KILLER mod book designs and we totally want you all to check it out! SUPER FUN!!! This book was designed for the Puddy’s family portrait session we did at the Tempe Center for the Arts. We LOVE that place and you’ll see why after viewing the images. It’s totally our style because it contains sleek modern lines and textures. Plus we kinda have a soft spot for large concrete walls. Ok so below are a few spreads we selected to showcase that represent our style when designing our custom books. The book is being constructed by one of our favorite album vendors COUTURE | BOOK. We LOVE their products and can’t get enough of em’.

This book contains 43 spreads, 88 pages total. WHOA…that must sound like a lot but actually it’s very simple to achieve especially if you were doing weddings. It just takes creative thinking + simplicity. Also back in March while attending WPPI we stumbled across the Harrison’s booth (another awesome husband + wife photography duo) to check out their latest album template creations! H2O | CREATIVE is a branch of their company, launched to help enhance the creative work flow of other like-minded photographers. They offer RAD customizable INDESIGN album templates for the MODERN artist. We used their templates as inspiration for this one. You gotta check them out!!! Eric used to layout all our albums in PS, but not anymore. INDESIGN is the way to go…trust us. Once you have it all set up and get the gist of things it’s PERFECTION! Plus, since we incorporate graphic elements in our MOD books it makes sense to use a program that’s vector based…insert happy face here!

To check out the whole book design…click HERE!!!

our home project . sandblasting

Casia — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 00:43:29 +0000

Finally these are posted…we’ve been waiting to share this project with all of you and can now show you what the results are. A few weeks ago we were able to take off a whole ENTIRE week to focus on our home project. WOOHOO! But this time we wanted to tackle the exterior for a change…which our neighbors are probably thanking us for doing so. You can also check out our interior remodel progress by clicking….HERE. Needless to say the ‘before’ exterior status of our home was an eyesore!!! The outline from the old shutters next to the windows, the faded paint touch-up and the bubble-like blistering from the cracks were long lived. But they are NO MORE!!! Muhahahahahaha. And we couldn’t be happier with the ‘after’ results. Basically we wanted to remove all the exterior light blue paint on the block through a process called ’sandblasting’. Don’t know what this is? See SANDBLASTING 101 an informative piece by Bill Tonnesen & Baja Sandblasting (who we hired) that was posted on one of our favorite sites Modern Phoenix Neighborhood Network.

So restoring the look of the grey block was really really really important to us. Not only would the look be FABULOUS but it would also be practically maintenance free (after we seal it). No more peeling faded ugly paint!!! Plus we are the ONLY ONE’S on our street and I believe whole neighborhood to not have the block painted. Now we stand out more from the crowd of mid-1950’s homes. Sweet. To some of you the progress may look minimal in the photographs but it is substantial when viewing in person.

Our next step is to remove the lovely hummingbird door screens my mom installed when she owned the home for security and to replace the ‘original’ decayed wood door with a horizontal 5 lite solid core wood door we found @ Gerson’s salvage yard! We’re going to sand it down, paint it a high gloss orange or lime green and order some modern sleek hardware!!! We also need to replace all the fascia boards and re-putty the casement windows + paint until we are ready for brand new windows down the road.

Thanks for checking out our project and we hope to have many more updates throughout the year! Eric is going to post renderings of the exterior so you all can get an idea of what we are envisioning…so look for it!

The entire house as a ‘before’ shot…

6th annual modern phx expo + purple nickel studio

Casia — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 04:16:54 +0000

In April we had the AH-MAZING opportunity to collaborate with DWR (design within reach) in the 6th Annual Modern Phoenix Expo!!! Thanks to Alison King, founder of MoPho, we were introduced to the witty Gabe from DWR. We paired an eclectic mix of mid-century modern furniture from their Scottsdale location along with our 21st century modern HIP photography. IT WAS PERFECT!!! Here are some details we grabbed of the killer booth living room space. The idea behind the collaboration was to create a look that reflected a cozy living space along with some personal artwork. As if it was an actual living room. Cause you know purple nickel ain’t gonna do a boring ’stand behind your table and hand out brochures’ booth concept. It was really different for the attendees because they could actually walk into our space, sit on the furniture and roam through the pages of our books. Check em’ out…

Funny enough while we were editing through the images we found this shot where we randomly captured our recent client’s ‘David + Elfi‘ who booked us after seeing the space. WOOHOO!!! And Gabe also happend to be in the shot. He’s the one in the light blue button down shirt with a clip board! Ha. Yeah we put him to work collecting info/volunteers to receive a complimentary MOD headshot by yours truly. Actually we didn’t put Gabe to work…he totally offered which was way cool. Thanks dude! We’re gonna post the MOD headshots in a later post so stay tuned.

If you didn’t notice by now the last image are our brand spankin’ new biz cards that we had designed by a good friend of ours Leticia. She helped our vision come to life and you have to see them in person to experience the texture, size and embossing. WE LOVE THEM!!!

We’ll also be posting our 2 sample book designs in a slideshow…coming soon!

Below is our ‘take away’ we created for the MoPho attendees. Specs: 6×9 on glossy finish

gonzalez . tucson photographer

Casia — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 18:28:33 +0000

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of photographing the Gonzalez crew for their family portraits. This is their 3rd session with Purple Nickel Studio!!! AWESOME! We photographed Rhonda + Jerry’s engagment session in 08′, then their wedding in 09′ and now their family in 10′. We LOVE our job!!! But these guys always make it easy for us and it totally shows in their session. When our clients give us creative freedom it’s endless on what we’ll come up with. And we have to say this is one of our favorite family sessions this year so far…
Check em’ out they’re too COOL!!!

Thanks Gonzalez family…we always have a blast hanging out with you guys and are soooo lucky to have you as friends!

Give it a sec to load…

self portrait

Casia — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 06:10:15 +0000

This is the look ya get after a blazin HOT photoshoot!

It was nearly 95 degrees that day!

But just wait until you see the session…it was soooo worth it!

sweet 16 . tucson photographer

Casia — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 04:35:17 +0000

8 girls + 8 guys = SWEET SIXTEEN!!!

You’ve gotta click HERE to check out the previous sneak peek blog post and story…you know you wanna!

Just for laughs…

We photographed the above series of images separately (cropped ‘in camera’) and then pieced together in post production. We never meant to compose the images this way at the time but after some experimentation we knew we just had to show em’ this way. Hope it made you giggle!