Commercial
A couple of weeks ago, I was in NYC on a little business and did a quick test shoot with this handsome man. Here are a few of my favorite images!
Special thanks to Vision Management Group for hooking me up with Michael!
Enjoy and have a great weekend!
Wooo Hoooo!
I'm super pumped that our first round of leave-behinds have arrived!! We are currently stuffing the envelopes, printing out our address labels - this production is in full swing!
For those of you who do not know, a leave behind is a little sample of our work that is sent out to potential clients, usually in postcard form. It's best to keep these as simple possible, so when they arrive in the mail, my potential-client can clearly understand who I am, what my style is like and (hopefully) keep the card around for future hire!
A couple of tips to keep in mind, when designing a Leave Behind:
1) Keep it Simple - don't waste anyone's time by being too gimmick-y
2) Think about your mailing presentation - We will be sending all of our cards out in clear mailers, so people simply have to look at them. And I'm not going to lie, they look killer in their envelope.
3) Brand yourself accordingly - It's super important for my future clients to get to know ME, just as much as my work. Therefore, all of our cards will have my face on them, as well as the work!
We're about to begin pounding the pavement over here and I feel like SO much of our work this last year has been gearing up for this moment! I'm so excited to get my work in front of new people and get feedback...the good and the bad! This is one exciting journey!
Last week I photographed a super-cool fashion shoot for the March issue of Metro Magazine! The concept is SO much fun, I can't wait for you all to see the final product this spring!
We shot a Orbit Studios, which is an oh-so-lovely studio space! I fell in love with the giant sweep there and just HAD to use it for this shoot!
Special thanks to Louisa for taking these behind-the-scene photos from our day! If you want to see more, head on over to Fashion Editor, Mary O'Regan's blog!
As always, I couldn't have pulled off this magic if it wasn't for the help of one AMAZING crew:
Styling // Erick DeLeon of Modern Day Dapper
Makeup // Fatima Olive
Talent // Tom Sellwood, Wehmann & Orlando, Vision
Assistants // Louisa Podlich, Brandon Werth, Collin Hughes
Publication // Metro Magazine
Location // Orbit Studios
And we couldn't help but have a little fun on the side....
The latest issue of Metro Magazine is fresh on the news stands and I am SUPER excited about this issue!
This month's issue includes the 2010 Keeper Awards, which is an award given out by Metro to 7 amazing artists in our city! I've photographed this article for the past 3 years and we have always done in-studio portraits for this. When I was invited to shoot it again, I wanted to switch it up! Sometimes I think that we are bombarded by fancy, over produced shoots, whenever we look in a magazine. I wanted to give the readers a break from all of that and offer them some amazing, honest imagery! All of these portraits were photographed on location and using the existing natural light that we had! I am beyond excited to share this with all of you, because I am super proud of this year's spread! I also wanted to give the readers a stronger sense of exactly who these people are!
Make sure to pick up your copy, which also features some yummy breakfast on the cover (breakfast is my personal favorite food!) Check out all of the amazing artists who are the current Keepers of Minneapolis!
Congratulations to all of the wonderful people who I met while shooting this! You made this an AMAZING feature!
I am beyond happy with this latest test shoot! Testing is all about allowing yourself the freedom to create! I absolutely love film and wanted to go back to the basics. I wanted to create a menswear spread that was clean and authentic, without compromising quality and, of course, style! Erick DeLeon styled the shoot, and I had my heart set on using attire from BlackBlue. I absolutely LOVE this store. The vibe, the selection, the clientele - everything about it is beautiful and I just had to have them be a part of it! Lucky for me, they agreed and some pure magic happened!
This shoot was so refreshing for me, because it was truly so simple! In studio, all natural light, and since we photographed it with film, there wasn't any post production! The process was just about as inspiring to me as the final images!
CREDITS//
Photographs: Eliesa Johnson
Attire: BlackBlue
Styling: Erick DeLeon
Talent: Jason of Ignite Models
Hair/Makeup: Margo Gordon
Film Development: Richard Photo Lab
Woo Hoo!!! We just wrapped up THE most inspiring test shoot!
It was honestly, one of the simplest shoots I have ever put together. It all began when Ignite, which is an amazing agency in town, sent me over a photo of a new guy they had just signed on. This model had no experience - which is honestly some of my most favorite subjects to work with. Simply, because they have no idea what they are doing yet and they also don't have a pre-conceived-notion of what a model is 'suppose' to do. This particular model had the most amazing freckles, and I dreamed up this winter fashion spread all around his look!
Erick, once again, worked his magic on the styling and my current FAVORITE store for menswear, Black Blue lent us all of our amazing looks!!
The photographs were shot with all film cameras. We used both a 35mm camera - the Canon FT-QL and a Medium Format 500C Hasselblad (which, for the record, is like a little slice of heaven to look through that viewfinder!)
Our film was: Velvia 100F Fujichrome and Fuji Pro 400H
The best part about this shoot for me, and probably the reason it was so inspiring was just how simple it was! We didn't need to worry about downloading cards or even looking at the camera! It was just me, a window full of natural light, one model and an amazing camera! That, my friends, is what it is all about!
Well, I have some exciting news!
For the first time ever, I entered the AdFed Awards - and I WON!!!
AdFed MN is a non-profit professional trade association serving the local advertising community including agencies, advertisers, suppliers and students. Each year, they host a big awards show, that is basically the Academy Awards of the local ad world! Advertisers, Agencies, Designers, and Photographers from all around submit work in several different categories. These categories range from everything from Guerrilla Marketing Campaigns to Billboard ads!
I entered in two of the Photography categories this year and here is how I placed:
Photography - Self Promotion - Campaign
Title: The Modern Day Man
Award: SILVER!!!
Photography - Editorial - Campaign
Title: Fine Lines
Award: Merit
I am BEYOND thrilled that The Modern Day Man shoot took the Silver honor!! This was a test shoot for my portfolio and to be honest - I didn't expect to place at all! I was more entering this competition for the experience and exposure to just be critiqued and judged, so I am SO excited about actually winning! I also love that this was something that I dreamed up and worked with an amazing team to create - and that it is good enough to be award winning! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make the awards show, so I'm don't fully understand what this winning thing means, but I do know that my work gets published in a book that is distributed among the Advertising community!
I've posted images from both shoots below - enjoy!
The Fine Lines Shoot for Metro Magazine also received a Merit award in the Editorial Campaign Category!
It's done! It's finally done! I am SUPER stoked about how the images from my last test shoot turned out!
The concept was somewhere in between a Dolce & Gabbana ad campaign and the Drug, Sex, and Rock-n-Roll attitude! I wanted to have this juxtaposition of a trashy environment, mixed with classy attire. I wanted it fashionable, yet gritty. Polished, yet messy. Refined, yet questionable! I was super lucky to, once again, work with an AMAZING team! A. Michele Boutique let us use their gorgeous pieces to style all of the models! Seriously, this boutique had absolutely everything we needed to pull the shoot together and I really, really appreciate local shops who are willing to collaborate with us on these test shoots! Collaboration is what this is all about! Now, onto the sexy car...I was coming into the studio a few weeks prior to this shoot and my friend, Betty - who is an amazing jewelry designer, drove by in this beauty of a ride! I literally chased her down and was like...BETTY! I MUST USE YOUR CAR!!! It fit perfectly in the setting and was the perfect pop of color to tie in the whole shoot!
CREDIT//
Photography // Eliesa Johnson
Production // Chelsey Paul
Hair // Micah Savage
Makeup // Margo Gordon
Talent // Kristina & Elle – Ignite Models, Ewalt & Siddiqee – Vision Management
Assistants // Jonny Bennett, Louisa Podlich
Post Production // Liz Hardt
Clothing // A Michele Boutique
Car // Betty Jager
The beauty of testing is that anything can happen! While getting ready for the MOTO Shoot, which I know you are all DYING to see and will be released in the very near future, I took some images to simply warm everyone up to the camera! There is something about these images that I am totally digging, so I decided to actually use them for my portfolio!! With every series of images that I put together, I like to compile a story, in editorial form. This series is titled Renegade Romance, for, I think, a pretty obvious reason!
CREDIT//
Photography // Eliesa Johnson
Production // Chelsey Paul
Hair // Micah Savage
Makeup // Margo Gordon
Talent // Kristina & Elle - Ignite Models, Ewalt & Siddiqee - Vision Management
Assistants // Jonny Bennett, Louisa Podlich
Post Production // Liz Hardt
Clothing // A Michele Boutique
