Hey photographers, family and friends…Go ahead enter yourself or a fellow photog buddy for the next Rangefinder Magazine Competitions.  We did! Click on the image below for more details.  Unsung Heroes ends tomorrow so hurry up.  Good luck EVERYONE!

Take 1.  Yep that’s right.  We couldn’t get it in one session.  Why?…you ask.  First let me tell you how difficult it is to capture images of ‘us’ together in the same shot.  Especially when we’re the one’s photographing & modeling!  It’s really challenging to accomplish our free flowing style when you have to put the camera on a stick…LOL! We normally don’t use a tripod due to it’s straight forward uniformity and angle limitation (unless that’s the look we’re going for).  And it sort of was since we BOTH we’re in FRONT of the camera.  We simply wanted to grab a few silly shots that we could combine together in a grid…hence the tripod.  But boy did the weather knock us down almost immediatly.  Sometimes the weather here in Tucson, Arizona is known to change without a notice…this is rare though and tends to only happen during the ‘Monsoon‘ season where storm clouds form and short microbursts of rain happen.  It was a typical hot blazin’ sunny summer day but then the clouds seemed to appear & roll in very quickly and so did the over powering wind. It was almost something out of a movie.  No joke.  So we called it ‘quits’. After all we were on top of a 5 story parking garage @ the UofA witnessing the lightning.  Ekkkk.  You can see the monsoon clouds reflecting in Eric’s sunglasses…a cool happy accident I must say!

Stay tuned for take 2…coming shortly!

Yep that’s right!  Our first official editorial shoot!!!  And can you believe it was with Desert Living Magazine.  Never thought in a million years that we would collaborate for such a well established inspirational company.  For those of you who have been living under a rock Desert Living presents a fantastic mixture of architecture, interior design, fashion, yummy dining, and tons of personality within its pages.  We have dreamt of the day & never imagined it would come so soon.   When Art Director Velaine Jolle first contacted us we were beyond words.  All we could muster up was ‘for rrrreal?!’.  She pitched an idea that we had never explored before…photograph two signature dishes and a portrait of the chef.  I instantly had butterflies.  I’ve never photographed food before let alone a chef.  ’Could Eric & I accomplish this?!’ Hellzzzz YEAH!!!!! (this is what exploded in my mind as I was re-asuring myself…it kinda worked).  

I then quickly responded back to the delightfully nice Velaine and explained our unique style…just so things were clear.  With much relief this is why she contacted us.  They were looking for something completely different and non-traditional.  That’s….US!!!   It was actually nice to reveal that we don’t own any fancy snazzy $$$ lighting for interior images and would like to experiment beyond the typical food shot (meaning nothing would be pristine).  Instead it would all randomly be placed in its raw natural state.  Once we heard about the already amazing interior light and materials used within the architecture of the space we knew it would ROCK.  

The shoot took place @ the modern-ly cozy Bourbon Steak in Scottsdale, Arizona where Chef Sean Griffin whips up his flavorful simplistic creations.  The restaurant is supremely constructed of large steel window boxes that let in the most clean crisp pure light. They’re HUGE…I think at one time I was practically laying inside one.  The interior decor is also brillantly perfect.  Remember those coasters I posted a few weeks ago? Yeah…from there!  Oh and they have the coolest concrete textured walls.  A perfect place for Chef Sean’s photograph.

Thank you again Velaine & David for such an AH-mazing opportunity!  And Chef Sean for trusting us!

Some of you photogs out there might be asking yourselves…’How the heck did they get such a cool gig?!’ Well…it all starts with a little yet big thing called ‘word of mouth.’ We’ve all heard of it & know just how important it is. The ingeniously whitty ‘Kings‘ who run one of the coolest companies out there Modern Phoenix: The Neighborhood Network referrred us to David Tyda Editor-In-Chief!  Once he saw the artwork we created with the King’s recent me2 family portrait session he gave us a chance.  REALLY…that’s how!  It’s that little leap of faith that we hold so close to us. We are honestly grateful!

To subscribe to Desert Living Magazine…click HERE!  You know you wanna!

FINALLY…it’s arrived!!! I just can’t tell ya how badly we wanted an update to our intro page…and we GOT IT!!! For those of you who might be a little lost on exactly what that is it’s the page that comes up before entering the actual website also known as a ’splash page’ in the technical world. Now our clients (soon to be friends) and photog/design peeps can stay in contact with us easier and vis versa.  We’ve added a link to join our fan club (where you’ll receive newsletters & cool happenings via email) and a purple nickel facebook fan page too!!! Ohh and now my mom can easily tell the difference between our website & our blog by a click of a button…LOL. YIPPIE!

I also must mention that all this deliciousness was cooked up by the fabulously patient graphic designer Renee Rist owner of Ribbons of Red. When it comes to our branding Eric & I are quite picky.  We strive on setting the tone of who we are from the very beginning and Renee totally stayed with us.   Showing our personalities to new & returning vistors is HUGE.  Since Eric tends to design on paper and in Photoshop we knew we had to hire a web designer to help us in the cyber la la land. The whole coding and html thing just blows our minds and we get lost quite quickly.  So in all…hire a designer who can help your visions come to life!!!  Your brain will reward you.  Thank you Renee!!!

OMG…we can hardly stand it…in 24 hours Purple Nickel Studio is gonna be on ‘blogtalkradio‘ with Kristen Kalp our lovely witty host from ‘totallyradactions‘!!!  Eric & I are sooooooo EXCITED and would LOVE for all our peeps to listen in.  This is HUGE FOR US!!!  The interview will be ‘live’ over phone lines on Friday (tomorrow) @ 10am Mountain/Arizona Time…so mark it down in your iPhones, Blackberry’s, and MAC calendars…or a post-it works well too!  No need to worry if you miss it…after the interview it will also be available online for listeners to download incase you couldn’t tap in to all the goodness.  Click on the image below to check out the site. Thanks again for all your AH-MAZING cheering and we can’t wait to chat it up with Kristen!!!  We would also LOVE to answer some questions during the interview from our friends…so don’t be shy! If we’re not able to get to all of them totally drop us line and we’ll gladly respond back.  If you have any questions right now that you can think of…please leave a comment down below and we’ll do our bestest to cover it in the interview and on our blog afterwards!!!  It can be about anything…

FABULOUS TIMES ARE DEFINITELY HAPPENING IN PURPLE NICKEL LAND…WE ARE DEEPLY APPRECIATIVE & GRATEFUL FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT!

The count down is on…