Work gets in the way!

I've had a crazy work week and thus my reasons for being MIA this week. All my body wants is food and sleep...thanks for still being my friend! Tomorrows Friday..yay!! Looking forward to reconnecting next week :)

Instagram Week

Happy Friday to you all as we round up the first full work week of the new year! Did it treat you well? I sure hope so!  I find that the key to my best and productive work weeks have been by making time to move my body at the end of most days.  Even if I can't haul it to the gym, an impromptu dance party in my living room always get the blood and energy flowing just as well!  Plus I notice that exercise, in whatever form that may take, almost always guarentees a beautiful night sleep! Cheers to more productive weeks ahead and deep sleep too! Before I head out to start the weekend here are a few Instagram shots that made up my week.
xoxo,
~Liz

6 Ways to Keep Blogging...

1. If you take public transportation to work everyday, use that time to think, sketch, write, and or plan shots to photograph for your next post. Carry a purse size notebook, use your notes app on your iPhone, iPad, and use it wherever you go.  You never know when a brilliant idea will strike!

2. If its possible schedule an afternoon of photography to add to posts in the making.  For example if you know you want to post a book review and photograph what your wearing for your night out next week, why not schedule to photograph all to photo stories in one afternoon. That way when you finish the writing portion of your post, you can quickly pull out your photographs and edit them into your post.  I find this saves a lot of time and really motivates me to post more when I have good photographs for a few posts already ready to complete my photo story for a post. 

3. Make it an enjoyable habit to photograph daily outings, events, and everything in between. Start thinking of these snapshots of daily life as creative inspiration for future posts.

4. Schedule posts over the weekend. This has worked really well for me in the past. Set aside a Sat/Sun morning to write, photograph, and schedule posts for the coming week ahead. I know your weekend time is precious, so really commit yourself to editing posts you'll be proud to publish.

5. If you have a Google email account (and are away from your home computer for most of the day, like me)

start writing future posts in Goggle docs.  When you finish them, you can just cut and paste them into your blog when you return home from the office later in the evening. 

6. Blog during lunch.  I don't really do this much (because I love to socialize with my lunch ladies) but when I have something so exciting to share with you that it can't wait until night, I happily eat at my desk and blog away! 

Those are just some blog tips that continue to work for me while I commute to and from the city everyday to my job as a commercial photographer/stylist . Do you have any advise or tips that have worked for you as a blogger and 9 to 5 er? I'm not going to dismiss those who stay at home to raise there families either! I give you mama's lots of credit because your job's are probably just beginning when 5pm rolls around.  I'd sure love to know how you manage to keep it all in balance too!!

Photo Styling Tips

 

A while back I posted about how in the recent months I've been given the opportunity to style for some clients of ours at work.  As many of you know I work as a commercial photographer for a large printing company.  Our photography dept shoots for an arrange of commercial clients that sell clothing, food, medical supplies, and housewares just to name a few.  My managers decided to take me up on my offer to start styling part time after they saw my apartment on Apartment Therapy posted a few months ago. So today I thought I'd share with you 2 different type of styling tips for 2 different types of photography (room and product)  I've worked on these this week alongside one of our best photographers Mark.  He is so much fun to work with and a lighting genius to say the least!  I'd like to note that these are just my opinions/suggestions about prop styling and I hope that they give you something to think about for your next photo shoot.  I'd love to answer (as best as I can) any other questions you might have too on the subject of styling and photography.  Take care!

In the Work Kitchen

For the past few weeks I've been helping out at work in the styling arena!  Our photo producer has seen me in action over the last several months and now seems relieved every time she hands a project over to me, having full confidence that I can style shoots and get the art directors approval. Which makes me happy at the end of a long day!  Here are a few kitchen shots we did last week.  I had fun shopping for all the baked goodies I used to prop the donut and cake pop makers. Yum!

Monday Thoughts

A beautiful and inspiring quote to jumpstart your Monday!  Check out the rest of Pretty Zoo's quote series.  They're amazing and eye catching to boot!  This was true for me for the last 2 weeks.  For those of you who don't know I work as a commercial photographer for a photo studio.  And the last several weeks (because our in house photo stylist's) were on vacation my bosses gave me the opportunity to style several environment shots for one of our newest and busiest clients. I worked with one of our most talented and easy going photographers, which helped to make the weeks go by even smoother . I had so much fun styling these shoots and did them with surprising ease and confidence.  With the help and encouragement from another fellow friend, these past few weeks have really made me consider other career options besides photography.  For the past (almost) 6 years commercial photography has been my safe comfortable cushion.  In other words my safety.  I don't know if it's because I am approaching my 30th birthday at the end of this year but I've been feeling more and more like I need a change of pace and I find myself seeking new challenges that my day to day work no longer offers me.  I'm not at all ungrateful for anything that this safety has given me over the past few years but I'll soon be ready to make a leap and do something that's scary and new and exciting. 

Exploring Chicago in the Fall

Earlier this week I had one of those days where I kept saying to myself (in my head of course) "I can't believe I'm getting paid to do this!" And the assignment for work was taking dramatic angled photos of buildings downtown and textures of the city as well. I first started out by walking around my hood (Bucktown) and then I hopped on the blue line and headed towards downtown. I walked all afternoon to scout my shots and in the end I feel really good about what I'm bringing back to the work table next week. I've posted just some of my findings to share with you. I've also just posted more of my photos over on my flickr stream too. Enjoy :)

Friday frolic

Pretty Organized print

Happy Friday everyone, and boy am I glad it is! I've been swamped at work with a new client to blame. Which explains my lack of posts these last few weeks, sigh. I mostly post during work hours, when I get a quite moment to myself. There has been stylists, photographers, and new assistants that I've been busily working alongside. Aside from working together towards the same goal, keeping busy makes the day fly by too :) I'm off to enjoy an outdoor movie in the park (A Never Ending Story, in fact) with great company, cold beers, and a tasty falafel sandwich in hand! Cheers to you!

Studio Tour

We just got the news early this morning at work that the people from American Eagle are stopping by for a tour of our photo studio this afternoon...eeekkk! I've been preparing all morning, finding samples of our last clothing client we had Justice. It was fun going through the racks and racks of photo samples and I miss the steadiness of work we had when I was shooting for them everyday. Below are some style guides my team of stylists and I put together for them. Wish me luck on my presentation to try to get more stylish accounts like AE.

On the March

I can't believe we are already in the beginnings of March! Which means that Spring is right around the corner ;) This morning I could almost feel the warmth developing. I think the sunshine and wool cap played a part, but I can tell by the sounds of the birds singing in the morning that warmer days are not far away!
I had fun playing around during a Walgreens Easter photo shoot a few weeks ago with these gals from Lily's Talent. They were a bit shy at first, but as soon as we brought out the Easter baskets full of sweets and treats and cranked the tunes, I had a great time capturing them having fun. We were rocking out to Hanna Montana and Selena Gomez (apparently these two ladies are not friends in real life- goes the rumor mill)! You learn so much from hanging out with two 7 year olds for an afternoon!

{ 9-5 Project }

Here's a sneak peak of what I've been working on for the past few days at work. The client is Premier Designs jewelry. A quick behind the scenes look from the camera's perspective. Here's what my shots look like minus cropping and before they head to prepress for retouching.

{All Jeweled Out}

I've been working with our Art Director Beth on these jewelry shots for the past few days in hopes of getting more work for the studio. Happy Monday you all! Stay warm.

{ 9-5 Project }

Hello. I've been chained to my desk today coming up with concepts and a design for the layout for one of our newest studio clients, Kmart! We are working on creating a fresh new look for there shoe division. I had fun looking through all the piles of shoe samples they sent to the photo studio last week. So many shoes...only two feet. ;) Hope you are all having a great Tuesday!

{ Style Guides }

As part of my 9-5 photography job I've created these style guides to use as a reference for our photographers, stylists, and clients. But instead of putting items together, I decided to jazz it up and create outfits, paired with all sorts of cute accessories and photo frames (my fave). These style guides were created for a girl's clothing brand called Justice. As one of our studios newest clients, I am heading up the project as lead photographer and photo art director! I couldn't be more excited about working with such talented stylists and production team!

{ Photos by EV }