Task: bring a noir feel to a portrait with the Minneapolis skyline. Solution: off-camera flash to create moody shadows and allow me to stop down on my camera for a darker sky and background. Also vital to this portrait – the right clients. Thanks, Tonya & Emem!

• Minneapolis Skyline {Tricia & Cody}
• Minneapolis Skyline wedding {Lynn & Olivier} wedding

The Guthrie theater can be dark – so dark that even at ISO 3200, there is just not enough light for detail. So, this image is actually a composite of two images – one with Emem holding the flash directed at Tonya, and the second with the situations reversed. I can’t lie – got this idea from a post by Ryan Brenizer, perhaps the worlds most innovative photographer, and added it to my bag of tools – and was finally given the opportunity to use it.

• Guthrie Theater Wedding & Vics Restaurant Minneapolis {Molly & Matt}
• Architectural Engagement at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis {Molly & Matt}

I recently had a lot of fun on a personal project with Peace Coffee, shooting a series of cinemagraphs (basically fine detail animated GIFs) for a story on Heavy Table. I learned a lot about coffee and short video production from this project. For this image, I wanted to capture the dripping of the espresso machine as a subtle movement. I shot about 45 frames, but narrowed it down to around 20 that flowed together in a pretty seamless drip. This is the final cinemagraph and the supporting frames from the piece.

• The turning coffee wheel – anatomy of a cinemagraph
• Bull Run Coffee Minneapolis

I love the Guthrie theater – it is a world class location for theater, and I admire their commitment to keeping the common spaces public, even as it becomes a more well known place. Because I usually shoot there several times a year, I make it a rule to always find a new way to shoot when I am there. It can be easy with locations like this to find something that works and repeat it again and again. That would be a disservice to my clients, and, it would also be boring to me! I loved the pop of color that Emem & Tonya brought to this lounge space.

• Fire pit noir {high school senior}
• Film Noir portrait session {Minneapolis}

• Minneapolis Skyline {Tricia & Cody}
• My Photo up in Mississippi Market Co-op

• Senior Portraits on Train Tracks Minneapolis
• Fire pit noir {high school senior}

It is important to me to be surrounded by colleagues the share my love of weddings, and to be associated with other wedding professionals who are creative and spirited. In a creative field like mine, it is very easy to critique things – my own photography, fellow wedding photographers, the wedding profession – but it is much harder to build something new. Which is why I am so proud of the Independent Wedding Association, and the creative people who are a part of it with me.

Join us as we celebrate in the Independent Wedding Fair, Sunday November 14 at the Varsity Theater.

• Indyspire: The Independent Wedding Fair
• Why I participate in the Independent Wedding Fair

• Minneapolis skyline engagement with Mississippi river {Tricia & Cody}
• Ever forward – Minneapolis Skyline

Ceremony & Reception: Calhoun Beach Club
Catering: Mintahoe

• Calhoun Beach Club Wedding with dramatic weather {Andrea & Doug} preview
• Minneapolis palm trees at Calhoun Beach Club {Mallory & Benji} preview

• Minneapolis wedding with French accents {Lynn & Olivier}
• Minneapolis skyline engagement with Mississippi river {Tricia & Cody}