Our latest test shoot was SO much fun last week! I'm just giddy with excitement to show you all the outcome of this shoot!
In the mean time, here are some behind-the-scene photos for you!
Enjoy!
So, I have some super sweet news! I'm super happy to announce that one of my photographs will be a part of an amazing exhibition, called Women as Photographer, here in Minneapolis! The show is all about women photographers, documenting women! This was an International call, so photographers from all over the world were able to submit! I'm excited to be one of the women chosen - we are from 14 countries and 25 US States, which, I personally think is super cool!
The image of mine that was chosen is very near and dear to my heart! I took the photograph with my Holga camera, in Bend, Oregon, during my annual 'girls trip' with my Marfa Ladies. All of these women are absolutely incredible and our trips are meant to be a true relaxing adventure for us all! Our group of ladies are from all around the country, so these trips are one of the only times during the year that we really get to hang out with each other in person! I absolutely love this image, because it was late at night and we were ALL piled up on a bed, just talking about nothing. It was a moment when we truly all let our hair down. It was warm and cozy and everything you imagine when you think of a slumber party - complete with the girl talk! All of us women who go on these trips are strong, successful, inspiring, amazing individuals, so they fact that THIS image got chosen for this exhibition means quite a bit!
The show will be up March 11th - April 17th at the Minneapolis Photo Center, make sure to stop by and check it out!
The organization has also published a book of all the work in the exhibition (which I have previewed and it is AWESOME!)! This exhibit book is a 9”x9”, 123 page bound book, skillfully printed on 100 lb Chorus Art Silk paper, with each photographer featured on their own page, and retail for $39.95. If you would like to purchase a book, please e-mail me at // eliesa@eliesajohnson.com!
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!
This morning I stumbled upon a world of new fashion blogs that I had never seen before! I found some of these to be super inspiring and refreshing and thought I would share!
Enjoy!
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!
We've been searching for the perfect roll of film for my next test shoot! Here are some out takes from a test roll we shot in the studio! I think it is super interesting to notice the color change, depending on what we are wearing and how the camera picks up certain tones in some shots and not in others! I am SUPER pumped for this next shoot - it's coming together beautifully and I can not wait to share it with you all!
These images were photographed with Fuji Pro 160S and we used a Canon FT QL 35mm camera!
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!
