MSP Home // Lyons' Den

Photographing feature stories for Mpls / St. Paul Home Magazine has been so much fun! These projects bring me into spaces that are beyond amazing and I always walk away a bit inspired by people's style! The March issue featured the home of Anna and Chris Lyon, who are an active part of the Minneapolis community. This shoot also landed the cover of the issue and I am so happy with the way the article turned out!

Zeus Jones // 3M Scotch Blue Painters Tape

A new campaign for 3m's Scotch blue painters tape has launched and I am super happy to be a part of this project. I worked with an extremely talented crew from zeus jones, capture film co. and lulu painting to bring some inspiration to those embarking on DIY home painting. The main goal of this project was to show how easy and approachable it is to pattern your own designs in home, while leaving the viewers with some great ideas and tips on how to technically make a project like this efficient and easy.

Capture Film Co. made some incredible videos and my job was to take some step-by-step photos to, you know, make instructions 'cool' and show the process in a way that is easy to follow.  Our team spent 3 days on location actually making, painting and creating all of these patterns and we had such a great time! the 3M website is currently featuring the videos + photos as part of their 2016 pattern forecast.

I know I say this all of the time, but a major part of what I love about my job is collaborating with other creatives. This crew was just one of the best and I'm so grateful to be a part of it!

Best New Chef // Food & Wine Magazine

 

The July issue of Food & Wine just hit the news stands and I am THRILLED to be a part of not one - but two! - features in this issue! The first is the exciting news of Chef Jim Christiansen being named one of the Best New Chefs of 2015! Jim is one of 10 amazing chefs from around the country to receive this honor and I couldn't be happier from him! I've had the pleasure of photographing Jim + the entire crew at his restaurant Heyday over the years and it has been so cool to see all of their growth and also how much of a team effort they all give!

For this story, we photographed the "Trend Setting Dishes" and I just love how it all turned out! Of course, we pulled this off with our own amazing crew - a big thank you to Liz Gardner for food styling and to Melissa Hesse for assisting this day! Food & Wine has been on my dream list for a long time and I am incredibly proud to begin this relationship with them! Make sure to check out the full July issue of Food & Wine to check out the full spread + see who all the Best New Chefs are! We'll be sharing more images from this shoot later this summer, but in the mean time, here are some behind-the-scene photos, too!

FARMERS MARKET // TEST SHOOT

 

Because some mornings you wake up and you just HAVE to make something. A quick trip to the farmers market was in order - and I was on a mission to find the prettiest colors and shapes that I could for the day. These are all so simple, but I'm pretty happy to have created today.

Food + Color // Test Shoot

I have always believed in test shoots. They are a way to collaborate and try our ideas, new ways of shooting and if we're lucky, a little portfolio building. I've been shooting a lot of food the last couple of years and they are some of my favorite assignments. I seem to connect with food and the culture around it so naturally, but I wanted to create a little something out of the box and new. I've had the idea of mono-chromatic food in my head for a while now. Like, what if we made food poster art? What if we photographed food in a modern, minimalist, graphic way?

I gathered some of my most talented friends and colleagues, Chef Jon Wipfli of The Minnesota Spoon, Creative Director Liz Gardner and my Editor Liz Hardt to join me and we simply had an afternoon of creating. It was fun, it was chill and I love the way these images turned out! Everyone gave their time and talents to this idea, and I am very grateful for that! Personally, test shoots like this fuel my creativity and make my work stronger and I think shoots like this are so necessary as artists. Check out the little series of Food + Color below, along with the behind-the-scene photos! 

BEHIND THE SCENES //


MSP Style Makers // September 2014

The month of September brings a new issue of MSP Magazine to the newsstands and I have been SO excited to share this for quite some time. I was asked to photograph the cover + feature story for the magazine and this turned out to be one of my most favorite projects of the year. In the magazine world, the 'September' issue is always usually centered around fashion and style. MSP chose to highlight real people, who influence the style in Minneapolis, for their issue this year. I must say - this was one room packed with powerful, successful and very creative individuals. Minneapolis always seems to constantly provide a city full of talent and I always feel so lucky that my job allows me to cross paths with many of these people. I often leave feeling very inspired. As for my crew, we pulled together our dream-team to make this happen! Special thanks to Flashlight Photo Rental, Romeny Chan and her crew for hair & makeup, Liz Gardner of MSP for art direction, design and styling,  Liz Hardt for post production and Ali Kaplan of MSP for writing the article. This issue is special, because the cover is not one - but two pages! It's a gatefold cover that highlights all of the talented people in the feature. As for the individual portraits inside the magazine, we wanted to show every person's style, so we asked them to come along with their own belongings to be styled. My job was then to capture everyone's personalities - in one frame. Below are the spreads that are published in the issue, along with some of the behind-the-scene photos from our shoot! (Special thanks to our interns, Hanna and Melissa for these!) Here's a list of our Style Makers for this article, they are people you will surely want to follow:

 Lisa Castro // Director of Design for Target

Keith Dorsett // Manager at Heimie's Haberdashery

Dahlia Brue // Owner of IDUN

Devin O'Brien // Co-founder of Search and State Clothing

Courtney Vincent // Associate Creative Director at Peterson Milla Hooks

Madelynn Furlong // Blogger of Wide Eyed Legless

Charley Brackney // Creative Director and Co-Founder of HAUS Salon

Lane Weinberg // Co-Founder and Designer of Kokoon clothing

Jim Smart // Owner of Smart Associates design firm

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