Stacey Bode Photography

Woo hoo!  John and Nancy’s fabulous wedding is featured in the current issue of Atlanta Weddings.  They had such an unforgettably beautiful day, and I’m so happy that lots of other folks will get to see a sample of the coolness.

Here are the covers of the magazine…

…and here’s Nancy and John!

Yesterday I had an absolute blast hanging with the ladies of Kiss The Bride, a company started by the fabulous Pam Jones.  KTB is like a cool match-maker for couples and photographers.  They hook brides and grooms up with the right package and the right shooter.  Win-win!

They held their first workshop yesterday at the gorgeous Roswell Mill Club, and I’m so flattered that they had me come chat to the group about branding and packaging.  Y’all know I luvs me some crafty packaging, and I’m thrilled to help other photographers figure out cool ways to present their work without breaking the bank.  Yay!  The way they ran the workshop was really awesome.  They had several of the KTB photographers talk about something they’re super at (graphic design, fashion photography, album design, etc).  How great is that?  I’m glad I got to sit in on a few of the presentations.

I also have to mention my new favorite phrase used by Katie, which was, “Live, Laugh, Photograph”.  Love that!

Here are the lovely ladies of Kiss The Bride!

I’m sorry, Pam.  You know I had to post this.  You are just too dang cute.

I’m not sure what this pose is that we’re doing.  I’m gonna call it the “golly gee”.

The KTB ladies know how to work it!

Thanks so much KTB for having me out for all the photo fun!

Yay, my art board collage samples arrived!  I love adding new pretty things to my happy place.  I spend SO much time in my office, that it practically has to explode with joyful stuff.  Not only do there have to be lovely things to look at, but often there will be some swell music playing, which leads to spontaneous dance parties with my dog.  By “dance party”, what I mean is “me doing ridiculous moves while my confused pup tries to knock me over with his giant head”.  Guys do the same thing to me at clubs.

I can’t wait to shoot Tom + Julia’s wedding in a few weeks!!!  In the meantime, I’ll keep drooling over their engagement pics.

Here’s one corner of office bliss!

Maybe some day I’ll get around to taking and posting pics of the rest of my space, and maybe even a video of how Fletch reacts to my move-busin’.

I probably invest more than I should in studio samples.  I can’t help it.  There are always cool, new things to offer, and I like for my clients to be able to see and touch items.  It’s so much more “ooh!….aah!” that way.  I blame years of grade school show-and-tell.  I think my weirdest show-and-tell was in the 6th grade when I brought in the components to mix and mold a candle holder out of epoxy.  My contributions were usually less “show” and more “experiment”.  I think the epoxy fumes got everyone in the room pretty high.  You’re welcome!  Mrs. Quail was not impressed.

So yesterday I ordered a couple collage art boards.  They are photos fused to thin, smooth boards that come ready to hang.  They look very sleek and modern, and don’t need framing.  I got one collage as a 12 x 12, and the other as an 8 x 8.  I thought it would be nice to have one for couples and one for families.  I used pics from my recent shoots with Tom and Julia’s engagement, and Alden and Elliott’s family portraits.  Yay!  What’s cool too is that the colors and design elements are customizable.

Even though I took the photos and plugged them in, I can not take credit for this awesome design.  I purchased it from the creative folks at Design Aglow.  Love them!

I’ll take some photos when my samples arrive, and post them so you can see how they turn out.  Then, I’ll find a way to make candle holders out of them.

I have a few more Cheeky Lamb boudoir shoots to post over the next few days.  Woo hoo!  In the meantime, here’s a preview of Lisa’s shoot, and the card design I put together so that she’ll have something fun to give her hubby on Valentine’s Day.  She’s a wonderful, gorgeous lady, and I can’t wait to show you more of her pics.

I have to give a shout-out to the ever-awesome MCP Actions, who not only sell really cool tools for photographers, but there’s also an occasional free-bee.  They recently offered this sweet, modern card design by the Photographer Cafe.  Totally diggin’ it!  I love people who share.

For a few weeks, I’ve been hinting about a new facet to my photo biz that I’ve been working on.  I’m so daggum excited to finally have officially begun my new division of Stacey Bode Photography!  It’s called Cheeky Lamb, and it’s a slightly left-of-center take on boudoir photography, disguised as a way for me to get knee-deep in my shameless love of portrait photography.  Oooh, here’s the logo….

My approach to boudoir photography is about mood and sensuality, not just boobs and butts.  Don’t get me wrong, I think nude photography can be really beautiful.  Howevah…..whenever I see a stunning photo that has naked action bits, that’s immediately where my eyes go.  Can’t help it.  We’re all drawn to anything we’ve been taught is taboo.  As a photographer-slash-control freak, I want the viewer’s eyes to go exactly where I want them to go, which is typically the face.  Hey, the face is naked, right?  This is not to say that I’m against taking nude images.  I’ve done it in the past, and would gladly include those types of images if someone requested them.  I don’t want the significant others of my clients asking if it would have killed me to include just one naked photo.

My goal is to make anyone in front of my camera feel relaxed, special, and phenomenally gorgeous.  With that said, allow me to introduce you to the very first cheeky lamb.

Tara completely embodies the spirit behind this whole idea.  She’s fun, sassy, and bravely vulnerable.  I suppose it also doesn’t hurt that she’s a natural beauty as well.  If Tara is in a room full of people, the probability that you will be looking at her is very high.  I’m sure there’s a mathematical equation for this.  Let’s call it The Tara Theorem.  You can’t argue with math.

We had a blast playing dress-up, listening to music, eating junk food, and taking lots of photos.  Woo hoo!  Tara, you totally rocked the face off this shoot.

Here are some of the fruits of our saucy labor….

Tara easily picked up on the mood of these shots.  It’s rare when a photo turns out exactly how I imagine it in my head, but these are like someone stuck a USB port into my brain and hit the print button.

Enter, the jackalope.  We heart the jackalope.  We fear the jackalope.  We don’t recommend touching the jackalope with your bare hands.

Here are a couple “behind the scenes” shots.  This one I took using the reflection in the TV.  Can you tell which one is me and which one is Tara?  Hint, I’m the one who looks like a scuba diver.

Here’s Tara chillin’, with the ever fabulous Robin sayin’ hello.  Y’all hear a lot about Robin on my blog.  We second shoot with each other all the time, have weekly doggie play dates, and eat bagels together often.  She was such a huge help throughout the shoot.  She reads my mind before I do, and makes fun of me whenever possible.  “Hey Stacey, I think this shot needs to be more creepy”.  Did I mention she’s also the queen of sarcasm?

Tara may have the perfect profile.  Kinda not fair.

I adore this next series because it really demonstrates the light side of Tara’s personality.

In the words of the late, great Robert Palmer….”It’s closer to the truth to say you can’t get enough, you know you’re gonna have to face it, you’re addicted to love”.

Tara, thank you so much for being ridiculously awesome, patient and willing.  This actually isn’t the end to Tara’s photos.  We had a second shoot that day with our pal Perry, and they wanted a “tandem” session.  Their duo shoot and Perry’s images are coming soon….hooray!

Two things I love to do are learning, and scratching items off my list of goals.  I was able to do both last week when I finally attended the One Light Workshop taught by Zack Arias.  He’s based right here in Atlanta and is well-known beyond our southern borders for his lighting chops.  I had gotten to a place with my photography where I felt very comfortable with natural light and bouncing my hot-shoe flash when available light wasn’t so available.  Photography is probably the only part of my life where comfort makes me uncomfortable.  It’s so cool to me that I’ll never know everything about photography in my lifetime.  So, when I get too relaxed in my ability, I immediately want to know what’s next.

I’ve had an irrational aversion to what I’d call “studio lighting” for years.  I figured it was time to tackle that fear, and experience something new.  I wasn’t sure if off-camera flash techniques would fit my typical shooting style which involves a lot of moving around, but thought I’d be happy to learn about it even if I rarely use it.  I’ll try to condense my ramblings here by saying that I have already incorporated the workshop info into a wedding last weekend, and an all-day portrait shoot yesterday (which I can’t WAIT to post!).

I really wish I was flexible enough to kick my own butt, because I should not have waited this long to take the workshop.  Worth.  Every.  Penny.

We were lucky to have two wonderful models for the day.  Here is a musician named Garrett looking very cool (and not just because it was freakin’ COLD out).  I often like the look of a blown-out bright sky in photos, but Zack showed us how to light the subject and keep the sky details in tact.  Sweet.

This is the lovely Rosanna, who I’m hoping didn’t catch pneumonia after posing in the freezing wetness for us.

Next up was some indoor lighting…

Later in the evening (did I mention the workshop lasted 17 hours?!), we were split into groups and kicked out of the nest.  Here’s me attempting to fly while taking pics of fellow photographer Linda, who could totally have a back-up career as a supermodel!

Sadly, I had to abandon my group when I was lured away by the sounds of loud Justin Timberlake music blaring from the studio.  So I followed the beats to one of the other groups who was playing around with a red curtain and spotlight effect.  Yay!

Here I am welcoming guests to my show.  This pic was taken by a sweet photographer from Ohio named Dallas.

The next day, I wanted to make sure I grasped what we had gone over (since my brain was set to “zombie” by the time I got home).  I took this pic of Matty, which I think is swell.  Hooray!

Please stay tuned, since I have some posts coming up that could mean big things for the future of my biz.  I’m ridiculously excited to share them with you!

I am really excited about some big things coming up.  I think 2010 is going to be huge, and I keep feeling that there will be a wave of positive change.  Anyone else gettin’ this vibe from 2010?  Don’t get me wrong, this was a great year.  My gut is just telling me that gems of goodness are on the way.  No, I am not drunk, and I have not been smoking the ficus tree.

One plan that’s in the works is a new project I’m working on with the lovely Robin Nathan.  Can’t tell you what just yet, but here’s a clue…

Stay tuned…

Kip and Katie are two fabulous, patient, and photogenic models-slash-volunteers!  They are a super-cool engaged couple who are friends of Christa’s.  I’ve been mentoring Christa for (wow, how long has it been Christa?….) I think about two years now.  She wanted to do a bit of a lighting workshop, and Kip and Katie were kind enough to lend us their time and their gorgeous faces.  Thanks so much you two!  I asked Christa if she wanted to work with indoor or outdoor lighting, and we ended up doing a little of both.  Woo hoo!  Since I don’t do a lot of indoor engagement shoots, we had to pick a place that would be cool yet challenging.  What better place than Paris on Ponce?  It’s eclectic, quirky, fun, and full of spaces with all sorts of lighting variety.  Everything from bright lights, to really low light, to disco balls!  Great place to practice some techniques.  The folks who run Paris on Ponce were nice enough to allow us to briefly invade their magical space.  Thanks George and Judi!

Here are some of the shots I snapped while working with Christa on her flash and camera settings.  I hope she got some useful info out of our workshop.  I feel like on the day of our shoot, my head was in a million places.  At least I remembered to take my lens cap off.  So, at minimum I taught Christa to always remove the lens cap.  Very important and useful info I’m passing on.  Ground-breaking, really.

Here’s Christa doing her thing!  Sorry I didn’t get a better pic of her in action.

We got a little time in The Moulin Rouge Room.  My favorite part of shooting in there is bouncing my flash off the disco ball to get that spotted light effect.  Yay!

Then we took it outside where there was more cool stuff and some very dreamy natural light.

MANY, many thanks to our wonderful models Katie and Kip, and congratulations on your engagement!

I’m so excited that Weddings Unveiled has featured Evita + Michael’s incredible wedding in their Fall 2009 magazine and on their blog.  Woo hoo!  If you’d like to see the full blog post, click HERE.

Their day-after shoot was also featured on a really cool site called Rock n’ Roll Bride!  To check that post out, click HERE.

It’s so cool to see other folks recognizing how awesome these two are!