Purple Nickel Studio . Tucson, Arizona . off the grid . Photography Blog

finders keepers . etsy

Casia — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:42:13 +0000

This is our second edition to our new segment called ‘finders keepers’! See our 1st post…HERE! So we’ve been slacking a bit in the blog world and we do apologize but this one makes up for our time away. Eric & I were first introduced to the lovely overwhelming but delightful world of Etsy a few months back by our good friend Erin Durband. One might ask ‘where the heck have you been living if you haven’t know about Etsy???!!!‘. Yes this is true. We probably have heard in numerous conversations through passing about the site that buys and sells all things homemade but really never explore it. And that’s a bummer. Cause we sure as hell are exploring it NOW!!! And honestly we’re addicted…BOTH OF US!!! Ha. It’s consuming and if you don’t have a few hours to grace the pages please wait until you do. The artists that are showcased are AH-mazing. The talent that is on this site is beyond extraordinary. We can’t believe what some people come up with and envision. Their creativity makes us so jealous that we wanna pull out a thread n’ needle like now. Though we can only do a slight hem to a pant leg…LOL. That’s about it. Oh and maybe a button here & there. Please check out the site if you haven’t already….you won’t be disappointed.

So a few weeks ago we finally made an account with Etsy as buyers (maybe sellers one day). And all because we found these two bad boys. And they’re too cool it’s bad! Oh you can be envious…it’s ok. A while back we sketched out an art wall for our newly painted production office with the means to create a 3×3 grid wall of vintage cameras encased in plexieglass sq boxes from CB2 (that’s a hint to our next finders keepers segment). We also knew that we wanted to collect vintage cameras that we’re completely different from each other in style, look and film formats. And in working condition to boot!!! Not only would they be pretty*** but they would be put to work. We already have about half our collection started and just had to grab these two gems up.

. Argus C3

. This was the first mass produced 35mm rangefinder from 1939-1966

. It’s nicknamed ‘the brick’ because of its size and weight

. General camera model has black leather veneer but this was professionally replaced with Mahogany wood (GORGEOUS) and in excellent condition!!!

. Seller: ROTE

. Polaroid Land Camera Model 80A

. Production years 1957-1959

. Original retail value $72.75

. It’s nicknamed the ‘highlander’

. Measures 7 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ deep & when open the depth is 6″ and in excellent condition

. The Polariod 80A was the camera used by Mary Moorman when she captured the famous photograph of JFK’s assasination seconds after the fatal shot.

. Seller: The Cottage Cheese

. Images courtsey of Esty sellers Rote & The Cottage Cheese

purple nickel studio is on MOD PHX

Casia — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:45:05 +0000

We’ve teamed up with the amazing-ly brillant Alison King, founder of Modern Phoenix Neighborhood Network!!! They are the internet’s only comprehensive clearing house of information and preservation advocacy for Modernism across Arizona. Their network features articles, photographs, a forum, a yearly home tour which is fabulous…we haven’t missed a year and finally an endless source of professionals who explore all things modern within their craft. We can’t get enough of this network and now have a link on the site so that their modern creative users can find us…the modern hip photographers. It’s a win win. Click on the image to see for yourself. The 6th annual midcentury home tour in Paradise Gardens is coming up in April too and you don’t wanna miss it. We’ll be there so make sure to say Hi. Architecture + design + photography is totally our thing if you haven’t noticed by now and we find HUGE inspiration by going on the tours. Not only for our own home but within our photography biz as well. We have known the King’s for about 2 years now and even had the opportunity to photograph them in their element. It was sooooo FUN! Don’t remember their session?…check it out…HERE.

If you’ve found us through our new link on MOD PHX feel free to leave a comment below and say ‘hello’…we really enjoy chatting with new ’soon to be’ friends!

come on . join in

Casia — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 02:51:27 +0000

We LOVE LOVE LOVE ‘IntoTheDarkroom‘!!! Seriously! We use their slideshow program + proofing system and couldn’t be HAPPIER with the outcome. We can customize it all to fit our style + brand. For those photographers out there that have not checked out ITDR you must click on the image and go NOW to check out all their goodness. It’s LOADED. Eric & I can’t wait for the day when we can do a full on custom web project with these lovely folks. And their customer service is FABULOUSO…which is a huge huge huge thing to us. They’re also located in Phoenix! How cool is that?. Literally two hours away from us in Tucson. We met part of the team Anthony and Ann Marie @ their Imaging USA booth last year…they were sooooo sweet, friendly and totally know their stuff for web-land. But duh…that’s what they do! Can’t wait to see them again @ WPPI in March. It’s gonna ROCK. Eric & I have never been but are so EXCITED. We’ve already got our party roadmap trickd’ out for Vegas. I’ll post more on this later.

finders keepers . a new segment

Casia — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:25:00 +0000

Yep that’s what I told Eric I’m gonna call it! ‘FINDERS KEEPERS‘… a new segment brought to you by the letter ‘F‘. Ok maybe just brought to you by the Fletchers…that’s us silly. I came up with the idea a few weeks ago. As we were chit-chatting about something (which I can’t remember at this very moment) I think I randomly blurted ‘I want to blog more about things we find!!!’. ‘What kind of things?’, Eric asked. ‘Oh I don’t know…ahhhh….nothing too specific‘, I responded quietly. But then I pretty much took that back and screamed ‘COOL THINGS…ya know anything MODERN + CREATIVE that we would wanna get or do or buy in a HEARTBEAT!!!…DUH!. And yes I say ‘duh’…a lot. Maybe tooooo much?. Any how, this is how the topic arose…which is the case for most things within our crazy circle. Complete and utter randomness. That’s how I like it!

So ‘FINDERS KEEPERS’ starts now…

PetEgo : Relentless Italian Style

Has a good ring to it doesn’t it?. So I give all the credit to Eric for finding this one! I’ll be doing another post this week about how he stumbled across the site. Honestly it’s a tough subject to write about at this time and deserves it’s very own post. Which I am still formulating the words. Those who are close to us know what I mean.

Ok so without further ado’…

:: These are just a few of our favorite items we’ve added to our wish list. Click on the images to experience PetEgo…you know you wanna! We would also LOVE to hear about your ‘finder keeper‘ item, idea, project…and hey if we’re droolin’ over it too we just might post it + give LOVE right back at cha!!! Please put your find in the comments below.

greenray tees . sneak peek . flipside

Casia — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 01:52:18 +0000

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…

puddy . me2 . tucson photographer

Casia — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 04:27:17 +0000

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.

fall leaves . iPhone camera

Casia — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:00:55 +0000

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…

puddy . sneak peek . me2 tucson photographer

Casia — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:53:30 +0000

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!!!

fletchers . just for fun

Casia — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 23:53:13 +0000

We found some unopened polaroid film circa 2006 in one of our wedding storage containers in September! So we decided to do a mini shoot with what was left. There was no plan. We just did whatever came to mind. It became one of our favorite afternoons together!

Po.lar.oid {poh-luh-roid}

1. a brand of material for producing polarized light from unpolarized light by dichroism, consisting typically of a stretched sheet of colorless plastic treated with an iodine solution so as to have long, thin, parallel chains of polymeric molecules containing conductive iodine atoms. it is used widely in optical and lighting devices to reduce glare.
2. also called Polaroid Camera, Polaroid Land Camera. the first brand of instant camera, developed by Edwin H. Land and markedted since 1948.
3. also called Polaroid print. a print made by such a camera.

rasmussen . me2 . tucson photographer

Casia — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:52:16 +0000

This is the Rasmussen’s second time around with Purple Nickel Studio and we couldn’t be more HAPPY. I can remember the first day that Michelle and I were introduced by our good friend Dave Harvey (another fabulous photog who is CrAzY good with architectural shots). The two of them planned a ‘just for fun’ shoot with a few model/friends and Dave invited me to tag along. I accepted of course. DUH! But I would have never ever met these two artists without having attended a PHX children’s workshop back in 2007. I <3 WORKSHOPS…they’re the bestest!!! Michelle forced…yes forced Dave (her business partner at the time) to attend so he could broaden his photography horizons. Once him and I both started chattin’ it up we soon realized we were the only photographers there from Tucson. We clicked (no pun intended)! From that point on our friendships strenghtened, our photography knowledge exploded and weekly advice was accepted graciously. LOVE IT!!!

So when Michelle asked us to photograph her family again we of course said YES! Their first session took place almost a year and a half ago and her boys sure have changed. It’s Ah-mazing how they have grown. Now they asked us quirky questions, set up their own poses, and eagierly wanting to hold our hands as we crossed the streets. Awwwwwwww. It’s was incredible. Since Michelle knows first hand how important it is to give an artist creative freedom…she did just that. I think her exact words were ‘we want our session purple nickel style!’. Sounds kinda naughty doesn’t it?. MEOW* Ha!!! We LOVE you guys so much and are so honored to have you in our lives! Thanks for such an awesome session and so glad the weather gods had our backs…it stormed I mean STOOORMED just hours before our morning session.

“Casia and Eric…Thank you SO much for doing such an awesome job on our me2 session- we had so much fun getting all decked out 80’s-Purple Nickel style for our shoot! Being a professional photographer myself, I am SO grateful to be on the other side of the camera with my family each year- being able to enjoy the experience together is priceless and we look forward to enjoying these images and memories of our time together. So awesome that we were able to do it while Farmor (grandma) was here again too from Sweden! Thanks again- you guys rock! And roll! YaY!.”

-The R Fam

*Here’s some behind the scenes goodness…plus I believe my brown plaid ‘rocketdog’ shoes have retired. I’ve done every shoot in them since purple nickel was born. They have brought me AMAZING LUCK! Now I just need to find some funky new bold hip comfortable cute fashionable non-squeaky puddle-stompin sidewalkin urban chic jean-lovin SHOES! Help…