I’ve just got done with finishing a bunch of photographs for a coffee table book that I’m creating for some new clients.  They came into our photography studio here in Seattle recently during one of our photography promotions.   These were a few of my favorites of Dad and Son from the book that I liked a lot and thought I would post this morning.

It feels like only yesterday when little Noah last came into our photography studio in Seattle and it was so much fun hanging out with him and his lovely Mum Jenny this week.  The last time we saw him was back in May and the little guy is already 4 months old now and growing quickly - he’s such a happy baby boy and so alive with energy.  Jenny is an avid photographer herself and has been taking lots of photo’s of Noah and his Dad, but friends and family are complaining that there aren’t enough photographs of her so I thought I would post a few quick previews of her and Noah this morning before starting my day.   

Happy weekend everyone!

I finally got around to creating a new page on the ever so popular Facebook site for our photography studio here in Seattle.  We have been experimenting with Facebook advertising for a while now with some interesting results. 

If you use Facebook go ahead and add yourself as a fan for our new page.  I’m going to start to rollout some promotions and other news and events via this new page.  Click on the ‘Find us on Facebook’ graphic below to check out our new page.  

Last week we had the pleasure of having a very cool high school senior, Lexi in the studio for some graduation photographs.  She, like many graduated earlier this summer and is hanging out in Seattle before heading out to college in California.  We used our photography studio here in Seattle as our base for outfit changes but all of the photographs were taken outside in and around the city. 

We also got to work with another talented artist, Christine Cherbonnier an excellent makeup artist.  I should be able to post some previews of the fun session with Lexi later this week, but in the meantime some candid outtakes as Christine did her thing.

Such an exciting time for them and their friends & family and its only a couple of weeks away.  As part of the preparation I arranged some time to visit them in their lovely house and get to know them a little better as they participated in one of their favorite activities - cooking dinner. 

It was a completely fun evening as I to watch them interact, taking a bunch of photographs of them making dinner and I got to enjoy a lovely dinner too.  What a great evening I say!  A few of the many previews here. 

Yesterday I got to spend a fun couple of hours with twin girls who came into our photography studio here in Seattle for their six months photographs.   The first year is such an amazing time with so much growth and it still surprises me how quickly babies grow in their first 18 months.  Luckily for me I get to capture that which is a whole lot of fun. 

Seeing as summer is here in Seattle (at last!) we wanted to create some light and airy photographs that were fun and captured the energy that the girls have.  Mum brought along lots of colorful outfits and the girls were in just great form.  The girls are in the crawl phase right now and not yet sitting up so I thought it would be perfect to having them laying down on a special mirror that I have for photographs.  We placed them together, gave them a few minutes and crawl they did.  This is one of many proofs that I’m excited to show Mum & Dad.

I loved this photograph so much that I decided that I would make a large print of it.  When you come into our photography studio you will see lots of pieces of art hanging from the wall and I’m always refreshing the art to show some of our latest projects and I thought this would be a perfect example of something fun and summer for the wall.  I just finished the first phase of our artisan process, click on the thumbnail below to see a quick video of the print in its earlier stages.  I just love it and think it’s going to make a great addition to our walls.

Technorati Tags: Photography, Phil Holden, Photography Studios Seattle, Twins, Newborn Photography, Seattle, Canvas Photographs

We’ve been advertising in ParentMap, the fun and informative magazine for parents for a while now, pretty much ever since we first opened our photography studio here in Seattle last year.  This year we have tried a number of ad variants using this mirror photograph. 

This is our latest creative which I’m very happy with it; simple, different, thoughtful and hopefully memorable.  This has been running for the last two months in the magazine that goes out to many parents in the Seattle and surrounding area.  If you are a ParentMap reader and come into the studio don’t forget to mention that your saw our ad. 

Last week I was working a fun evening event, but boy was it warm.  Towards the end of the evening I managed to sit down and rest and have a glass of wine.  This shot was taken by either Amy or Heather who I was chatting to at the time (sorry, can’t remember who) but one of them grabbed the camera and fired off a couple of shots.   Its funny to see me on the other end of the camera for a change!

I recently got to photograph a cool extended family when they came into our photography studio here in Seattle.  It was quite the family group with brothers, sisters, in-laws and then two very young cousins.  It was wonderful to watch these two young ones enjoying time with their parents and checking the ‘other one’ out. 

All in all very cute, here they are with their Dad’s exploring each other.  Lots more from the session, just a few previews here. 

It reassuring to me in this world of electronic games & gadgets how the simplest things are still often the best for young children.  Take these three core ingredients - sun, water jets and grass and see what happens!  

These fun photographs were taken recently and I think it represents many peoples memories of childhood fun in the summer time.  The two brothers were having so much fun and its great to see them both interacting around the water jets. I also think that Mum and Dad (along with the photographer!) were just as happy to get outside and play in the sun after Seattle’s long winter.  The kids went through two sets of T Shirts, but its all good as its summer and they dry quickly outside.  I put together a quick photo slide show set to music so you can see the complete set of photographs of the boys having a blast!.  Just click on the triangle below to view it.  

A little while ago I got a call from a lady who wanted to have some unique photographs of her two teenagers taken as a surprise gift for Father’s Day.  When I spoke to her before our session I asked if there was something that had special meaning that they could bring and she immediately suggested their instruments as they were both musicians.  That’s perfect was my reaction.  

The great thing about working with teenagers is that they are typically more willing and able to experiment on creative concepts with you. That’s what these guys were like and it was so much fun - we started out by taking individual photographs of them.  Then I asked them to get together and I started taking shots of them both, but I just wasn’t feeling it in our original spot and it wasn’t working for me.  So after a quick break I asked them to move locations and I had them sat in front of our brick wall in our photography studio in Seattle.  I placed two wooden boxes in-between them to provide a little separation.  Next came their hound and after laying down a blanket he was so excited to be part of the shot. I felt like this was shaping up nicely but it needed something else so I grabbed a couple of hats. One I gave to Kaitlin and the other I turned upside down and placed in front of Kaleb and placed a couple of dollar bills and coins in it.  It’s a little hard to see on this small web version, but the fact that the cap has a label with the words ‘New York’ really adds to it.

So I present two young street musicians earning some extra cash playing their instruments! 

Once the setup was done I fired off quite a few frames with different expressions and looks.   After reviewing all the frames the one above was the final selection and it makes a lovely photograph.   The choice for the presentation was a wrapped canvas photograph which really enhances the print with the lovely colors and textures.  Unfortunately the small web image above doesn’t do that justice so I put together this quick video below so you can see the lovely canvas photograph and how its wrapped around the side to create a three dimensional piece of art.   Just click on the triangle in the center of the thumbnail below.  

I hope the Dad likes it because I sure do.

On a day when most folks in the USA get the day off, making a nice long weekend this year I wanted to write a quick note to wish everyone a happy July 4th!    I’m planning a small gathering this evening with friends where we are going to hang on the deck and watch the fireworks over Seattle.  Well that’s assuming that someone bought their fireworks a long time ago! 

Hope everyone has a fun & safe day.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been working to put together another video to introduce new clients to our services and our approach to photography.  This short video starts out with yours truly in one of our main shooting spaces here in our photography studio here in Seattle. After a quick slide show of photographs it then moves into our presentation room with me talking about our approach to printing and how we create original pieces of art which is one of our main areas of focus.  The up-beat music is by Seth Hartman.  Click on the thumbnail below to play the video.

A fun little project.  This video is currently running as one of the Videoad’s on crosscut.com  I’m hoping to include more video’s over the coming months as its such a good way to give folks a feel for what we do here in our photography studio. 

There is always something special about working with a long fast lens. Because you can step backwards and be completely away from the subjects it enables you to get some really candid photographs without them being conscious that you are there, working with your camera. 

These were taking in a home so everyone was all relaxed and enjoying quality new daughter time.  I decided to develop these in an ‘old fashioned’ almost sepia tone that I thought was perfect to highlight the lovely soft window light that was present in the right hand side of the frame.  It really helps to create a timeless feel to the photographs and enhances the soft mood of them.  

Of course, we can’t forget Dad can we.  Not only an adoring father but a cool Australian guy as well!