MSP Weddings | 2019 Spring / Summer Issue!

January 09, 2019 in Editorial, Fashion

We’re kicking off the year 2019 with a fantastic new cover + feature for the MSP Weddings Spring / Summer issue! We collaborated with the amazing team at Mpls / St Paul magazine for this fun spread that just screams spring! Girl Friday created the super-fun backdrop and the space at Studio 125 provided the perfect environment for this bridal shoot. Our goal was to create some gorgeous images that focused both on showing personality and a breath of fresh air to inspire brides! We also had a dream team for this project. Big thanks to the following people for working on this to make magic:

Editor: Emily Sefton

Art Direction: Michael Norseng

Styling: Madeline Nachbar

Hair & Makeup: Miki Mori from Wehmann

Talent: Isabella from Moore Talent

Flowers: Spruce Flowers and Events

Backdrop: Girl Friday

Studio: Studio 125

Photo Assistant: Melissa Hesse

Brightwater Clothing & Gear | 2019 Look Book

December 17, 2018 in Editorial, Fashion

Last March I hopped in a car and drove up to Ely Lake, MN with a bunch of friends to photograph a project for Bill Damberg and his store, Brightwater Clothing. Brightwater is a fantastically curated store in Excelsior, Minnesota and for this shoot, we travelled to Bill’s family cabin to set the scene. This shoot was magic and here’s why - to be honest, there wasn’t a lot of production. There wasn’t a lot of thought, but there was intention. The idea was simple - lets get some rad people together and they can all do what they enjoy best. Lets document a brilliant day on the lake and see what happens.

What happened was one of the most organic and beautiful shoots I had all year and I’m so happy to say that the 2018 / 2019 Winter Look Book for Brightwater is now live! Below are some of my favorite spreads and some fun behind the scenes!

LOVEe

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BEHIND THE SCENES//

Mpls / St. Paul Magazine | Best New Restaurants!

December 06, 2018 in Editorial

The December issue of Minneapolis / St. Paul Magazine is on newsstands now and y’all should run and get it! We’re so happy to have another cover for this publication and the issue features the Best New Restaurants of 2018! For this story, we divided and conquered the restaurants with the magazine’s talented photographer, Caitlin Abrams. We were given Colita, Popol Vuh and Eastside to photograph and I love how the images turned out!

This year’s list is pretty wonderful! Below are the pages that feature our work and there is so much more to this story in the magazine! Big thanks to Marco Zappia, Morgan Lent, Daniel Del Prado, José Alarcon and Jamie Malone for being our amazing subjects!

LOVEe

2018 PDN TASTE AWARDS | THREE TIME WINNER!

November 26, 2018 in LOVEe, For The Pro's, Commercial, Editorial

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We’ve got some very exciting news that we’ve been waiting to share! The results of the 2018 PDN Magazine Taste Awards have been released, and together, with myself and The Restaurant Project, we won not one, not two, but THREE awards this year! Of the five categories, we swept three of them, including: Editorial, Commercial, and Personal Work.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Taste Awards, they are sponsored by PDN Magazine, which is an industry standard in the photography world. The photography industry is a pretty nerdy group of people and we don’t have ‘Grammy’ or ‘Oscar’ awards. What we do have is the Taste Awards. This is a global competition and awards given to a select few photographers around the world. The panel of judges are professional Photo Editors, Designers, Photographers, and Art Directors from publications such as Cherry Bombe and Food & Wine Magazine.

We have had the honor of winning awards in the Commercial and Editorial categories for the last two years. However, to sweep three of the five categories this year is simply overwhelming. We’re so proud of the work we create on a daily basis for our clients and it’s a true honor to be among the best food photographers in the world!

Below are some of the winning images!

LOVEe

Print The Love Benefit | Artist Talk with Eliesa Johnson

September 10, 2018 in For The Pro's, Editorial

I'm super excited to be the keynote speaker for Print The Love's 2018 benefit. If you're not familiar with the organization, I'd love to introduce you. Print The Love is a non profit that serves the world with instant photographs. They focus on celebrating the value and dignity of individuals in under-resourced communities through the gift of a photograph. Obviously, the mission of this organization resonates with me, because it is what I practice on a daily basis. I greatly believe that a photograph captures a valuable moment in time. I also believe that photographs are one of our most prized possessions that we have in life. Print the Love gives the gift of photography and moments to those who otherwise would not have access to ever having their lives documented - how cool is that?

In thinking about what to talk about for this evening, I landed on "The Power and Purpose of an Image". It will be a reflection upon creating images that have moment and the impact they can have on a community. This will be a great talk for artists who are professional photographers, as well as those who are hobbyists. All are welcome and I hope everyone can walk away a little inspired.

Proceeds from the evening will go towards Print the Love's work around the world as their team heads to Cambodia on November 1st! I look forward to seeing y'all there!

Buy your tickets!

Nordic Ware | Bake from Scratch Magazine

August 20, 2018 in Editorial

*Portrait of Dotty Dalquist in her home kitchen for Bake From Scratch Magazine*

One of my favorite editorial stories from this summer has hit the news stands! Bake from Scratch Magazine wrote an incredible article about Dotty Dalquist of Nordic Ware. You know the classic bundt pan? Dotty and her husband Dave created this baking staple in 1950. Dotty is now 92 years old and still the matriarch of both her family and the company. I had the pleasure of hearing her tell the stories of how they built their business, raised their family and brought over 400 products to people's kitchens that sell out still to this day! There is so much knowledge, inspiration, nurturing and hard work that has gone into making Nordic Ware what it is today and I loved being a part of sharing this story with the world! If you get the chance - definitely pick up the September / October issue for a full read!

Behind The Scenes//

Kelly Janke | Food Stylist

April 11, 2018 in Editorial

I first met Kelly this past year on one of her trips home to Minneapolis. Kelly is a wildly talented food stylist on ABC's The Chew and she wanted to start building her own personal brand, in addition to the work she does for TV. I was honored when she asked me to photograph this for her and as we began to talk, her energy just started to shine through.

Kelly is playful, fun and truly loves food. She also understands how to make basically anything look and taste beautiful, so photographing her food wasn't hard at all. She did want to bring a minimalist theme + color theory to the shoot, only focusing on a grey and white color scheme so the food can shine through. I love the way these all turned out! You can check out more of Kelly's work on her new site!

LOVEe

Behind The Scenes

The Bold North

January 18, 2018 in Editorial

*February 2018 Issue of Food & Wine Magazine*

The Bold North. It's a mission and a movement that people in Minneapolis have been embracing for years and is now at the forefront of our culture - largely due to the 2018 Super Bowl being hosted in our city this year and also to Eric and Andrew Dayton's agenda to Keep the North Cold and help fight climate change. In fact, there is more pride than ever to be from the North and embrace it.

Last year, I was on assignment for Food and Wine Magazine to document the culture of Minneapolis and St. Paul during the winter. This covered outdoor dinners, some of our best chefs, cozy moments inside and all the activities in the great outdoors. This story was also written by one of my favorite writers who hails from Minnesota, Julia Heffelfinger! It was such a fun collaboration and it's so great to see the feature come out a year later!

Below are some of my favorite unpublished images from this assignment! There is just so much depth to the Twin Cities and I want to share it all!

Mpls / St. Paul Magazine | Best of Restaurants 2017

August 16, 2017 in Editorial

We were so proud to be a part of Minneapolis / St. Paul Magazine's Best of Restaurants issue this year! 2017 brought some new names and old favorites to this list and it was so much fun to photograph. We also captured some fun human elements to this story that I think are pretty special. A big thanks to the following restaurants for inviting us in: Young Joni, Restaurant ALMA, Terzo, India Spice House, Lucia's and Travail Kitchen & Amusements.

This post includes some images from the feature and also some unpublished images that I just adore. Seriously - the deconstructed Bibim Grain Salad from Young Joni - how cool is that? Enjoy!

Mpls / St. Paul Magazine | North Awards Feature

June 13, 2017 in Editorial

This past January, I photographed some portraits for Mpls / St. Paul Magazine's Made in the North story. It featured stories and profiles on the makers behind some of our favorite handcrafted food and products!

What I love about photographing stories like this is learning so much about the people behind the goods. There is so much thought, time and intention behind each of these businesses - it's inspiring. For this article we meet Tim Shore of Shoreboards, Jim Sannerud of J. Sannerud Studios, Mike Phillips of Red Table Meat Co. and Danielle Sakry of Danielle Sakry handbags.

Below are some of my favorite images from this feature - and you can read all about it here.