52 Portraits, No. 25

I met Barry at a coffee shop in Rapid City, SD. He was standing behind me in line, and I commented on liking the feather in his hat. In an Australian accent, he told me it was from Wyoming, and that he was visiting the western US, and traveling for a few weeks. A few minutes later we made this photo in the parking lot. Pulling a page from Avedon's "American West" series, I shot the image in open shade with natural light, using a piece of poster board taped to the side of the coffee shop for my background. This is probably one of my favorites from the series so far.

52 Portraits, No. 24

Happy Birthday to my Beautiful wife! She encourages and supports me faithfully, which in turn enables so much of my work and creativity to happen. You can read my little note to her, paired with this post on my instagram, but I am very proud to have her as my wife, and to finally include her in this project. Love you!

52 Portraits, No. 23

Admittedly, I am behind on posting this project on the blog... primarily due to having been traveling/camping the past two weeks, and trying to not spend a ton of time on my computer. Regardless, I photographed my friend Shanon, who is an incredible floral designer & entrepreneur for the project a couple weeks ago. We spent almost a week with Shanon and her husband, Austin, at their home in Northern Idaho, and had a blast... pictures from that to come. Shout out to my wife for doing the hair and styling!

52 Portraits, No. 21

Bearded, buff, tattoo artist, and dapper dresser.... basically the All American Hipster. 

52 Portraits, No. 20

Ben has been around since I first attempted to make a full time living at photography. We were roommates together in Denver, and I will never forget the adventures we had. Both of us moved out there on a whim without really knowing each other, and it is a season of my life that has really shaped me into who I am today, both creatively and personally. We have seen each other at our best and worse, been on awkward double dates together, and both tried out for Ninja warrior together... (seriously, scroll back through my facebook videos!)

52 Portraits, No. 19

Super thankful for my friendship with guy. He is a top notch photographer, and I love all of our conversations. It's great to have someone to be vulnerable with, and to challenge each other. I've also photographed all of the portraits from this series in his studio. Thanks Shane!  

52 Portraits, No. 18

Seeing as today is Mother's Day, I had to include my mom in this project. She has supported me through every crazy idea I have had... from my long haired, punk rock guitar days, to dropping out of college to travel across the country, to starting my own business and getting married, she has been believed in me the whole time. Thanks mom! Much love, and I wouldn't be who I am without you.

52 Portraits, No. 17

Ive added a new assistant to the SLP team, and thought I would intro him via the 52 Portraits project... Everyone, meet Jack! He is headed to film school in the fall, but will be working with me in the mean time. He's been a huge help so far, and its nice having another trust worth set of hands around when things get hectic. 

52 Portraits, No. 16

Tim, pre hair cut. Someone once told him he could be a Hollister model... or so he says. Sorry for the late posting. Its been a pretty hectic couple of weeks, and just realized I hadnt been posting these!

52 Portraits, No. 15

Of course I would include my dog in this project (Not sure how he beat my wife!). He's a pretty good dude, and got a weeks worth of snacks to make this picture happen. Thanks for not peeing on the seamless paper buddy.

52 Portraits, No. 13

Brittany is literally always smiling, and its pretty infectious. She's a great producer, and when things get chaotic, you can always count on her to be positive and keeping things moving forward. Aside from being an awesome producer, she has created her own fashion line called 22|44 you should check out. Thanks for being part of the project Brit! 

52 Portraits, No. 12

John is the owner and biologist behind Alluvian, a skin care company that makes its products largely from ocean based ingredients like seaweed, salts, and other minerals. He is currently in the process of building a new site and asked me to do some photography for it - ranging from product/still life sets to some lifestyle and portrait scenes. I love working with people that believe in and are passionate about what they are doing, and John is no exception. After we got done shooting last week, I asked if he would mind lathering up in front of the camera with some of his shave cream for a portrait.

52 Portraits, No. 11

My Uncle Ned is this weeks subject for the 52 Portraits project. We spent a lot of family get togethers jamming in his basement on one of the coolest guitar collections you could imagine. A couple of years ago he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. Instead of letting it define his future in a negative way, he has decided to use it as a tool to both strengthen others with Parkinson's, and educate people on the topic. A series of events led him to join a program called Rock Steady Boxing, where boxing is used a tool to literally fight back against Parkinson’s. You can read more about the boxing program, and my Uncle’s story here.

52 Portraits, No 9

Dan is a co owner of my favorite coffee shops, and over the past several years of going there on a near daily basis, we have become pretty good friends. Dan has always had a pretty cool beard or mustache combination, so I thought it would be fun to include him in the project. We shared a couple beers, chatted about our favorite taco places, and came out with this image.  

52 Portraits, No. 8

"You know that huge fish hanging on the wall in your basement?"

"Yeah..."

"Think about the moment you landed that thing."

"You know I caught a bigger one once, but I let it go... man it was huge."

-My Grandpa

52 Portraits, No. 6

I admire John immensely. There are few people on this earth who selflessly care about others at the capacity that he does. He is in amazing leader, father, grandfather, mentor, and pastor, that always has a newfound energy and passion for every person he meets or talks with. Thanks for letting me photograph you!

52 Portraits, No. 5

My friends daughter 'Fluff' has had big hair as long as I have known her. Ive always thought it would be fun to shoot a portrait of her, framed by her own hair, and this project gave me the perfect reason to. 

52 Portraits, No. 4

Mike has become such a good friend and mentor to me over the past couple of years, so I knew I needed to photograph him for this project. I don't think I know anyone who can simultaneously work so hard while also leading an awesome family the way that he does.  If man cards were a real thing, your face would probably be on them Mike.

52 Portraits, No. 3

"I can't be serious very well."

"Thats ok, this is just about showing off who you are."

"What should I do?"

"Why don't you look over at your husband..."

Kacy Lehman, for week number 3 of my 52 Portraits project.

52 Portraits, No. 2

For my second portrait of this series, I thought my friend Lizzy would be great a subject. She had never been photographed in a studio situation before, so it was fun to direct her and work together to get an image we both really liked. We shot for about 15 minutes, and ended up with the image below that I really loved.  Thanks Lizzy!