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!!!

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.

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…