Missy Cochran Oregon Photographer

Okay, so I have some explaining to do. If any of you have seen our website in the last little bit, you will notice that we are making some changes. Melanie is deciding not to book any weddings or portrait sessions this year of for the next few years. You can still follow her blog which I have a link to on the right side of my blog, but it will be mostly personal work. “Why is Melanie slowing down?” You might ask. Well, it’s because she has two babies that want her attention and she wants to be an awesome mom. She is thinking about getting back into it all in a few years when her kids are in school. In the meantime, she is still planning to second shoot with me this summer whenever she can. It doesn’t look like they will be moving to Texas this year either so that means that she will probably be with me for most of my weddings–wah hoo!!

And now for some more explanation, When Mel and I were first starting artisan we spend a good little while trying to think of the perfect name. We thought we had the absolute best name ever, “Artisan Photographics.” Artisan because we consider ourselves to be very artistic and photographics because it isn’t just photography, we pride ourselves in our ability to process our work with photoshop and the best editing software to make it really stand out. It was a total bonus that it began with an A and would be at the top of every alphabetical directory. Life was perfect until…we realized that Artisan Photographics is about one of the most generic photography business names on the planet. We saw Artistique Photographie (nice people, bytheway), Artistic Photography, and even A Artistic Photography just to name a few–in Oregon alone!!

Inspired by photographers who personalize their online presence, I decided I wanted to do the same. Not only are we changing our name and our logo, but I intent to post a lot more blog entries that are personal. I know you all want to know what I eat when I am camping, but seriously, that is the stuff I may share. Everyone should know that I am not afraid to make silly faces, so you will probably see more of that as well. I want to post video and pics from my point and shoot–yes, I too use one of these amazing little devices.

We will be phasing out the old brand very slowly, it will probably take about a year before we have the logo completely swapped out, but it will be obsolete soon enough.

I just have to share these.  Mel took them while she was in Utah of Mike (our brother) and his fiance, Becca. Mel said they just wandered around for about 4 hours and stopped anywhere that looked interesting. Isn’t that cool? Mel took control of what they wore and everything. It’s a very Artisan style photoshoot.

I can’t get the fine art feel of “A Year of Mornings” out of my head!  It’s a slow January, as it always is.  I love this time of the year because I am caught up with the bulk of my work and I actually have time to read books.  I go crazy this time of year because there aren’t enough pictures to take of people.  Taking pictures of people is the best, but I am using some of this extra time to practice some more abstract concepts like those I found on New Years.  Below are some pictures I took this morning around my house.  It was so fun to experiment with photoshop and try some things I haven’t done before.  I want to do a little mini shoot every morning to keep my creative juices flowing and hopefully it will help me to add a bit more of a fine art flair to each photo session too.

It’s been a lovely New Years morning.  Jeff and I slept in, which was a great contrast to our 5:45am jaunts to the gym.  Although I went to bed early forgoing any festivies, Jeff stayed up past midnight ushering in the new year with Heroes V one of his favorite games.  While I let him sleep in even later than I did, I jumped online and ignored work for a little while to feed my intellect the substance of my motivation.  I have an account with google reader that allows me to blogstalk all my favorite people.  The past couple months I have been browsing quickly through and moving on as if it were a chore to be completed–not the mentality to have when looking for inspiration.  This slow, raining morning I took my time and read every blog.  One photographer I really like, had a link to some really cool fine art photography pieces and I fell in love with the concept.  Check it out!  Fine Art Story boards.  Anyway, I created one!  It’s very abstract but tells the story of a couple I took engagement pictures of buying salt water taffy at the Oregon Coast.  Here it is…

Cool, huh! So, they are a custom print size and if you want one from your photo session, they will be the same price as the print that matches the width. For example, a 14×7 (which is the correct aspect ratio for this print) would cost the same as a 11×14 print.

I just wanted to try out taking some pictures at this really cool apple tree by my house.  Mel donated her kids, my nephews, and Juliana, my sister opted to be a part of this outdoor extravaganza.  My brother, Marshal, and Mel, and I all took part in this session, so our pictures are all jumbled together.

This next little sequence is what happens when you give a toddler candy, sure it’s cute at first…

If you look on the blogroll, you will see a brand spankin new link called the “Modeling Ideas Blog”  I just made this blog because this winter, I want to do a lot of modeling photo shoots.  I have some many ideas I want to try out and I would like to be shooting two sessions a week during my slow season.  I want to let anyone here check it out and see if there are any ideas on there you could get excited about.  All modeling participants get a free session and two free 8×10s which is a $240 value.  If you want to submit yourself as a model, there are instructions on the blog if you read “About This Blog.”  I will be adding to the new blog regularly, so check back often

Max it Magazine is basically a cross between Mad Magazine and The New Yourker.  It’s meant to keep you entertained while riding the Max.  Though it’s hard to see, that is the Portland Max speeding by in the backgroud.  You can see the rest of the issue at this link

It’s issue 3 and you can download the PDF version

I just got a haircut this morning!  My father-in-law would ask, “What about all the other hairs?”  Anyway, I love it!  I have been wanting this type of cut for a while, but wasn’t ready to commit.  A couple weddings ago, I saw a guest at the wedding with the cutest hair, so I used my awesome 200mm zoom and snagged some paparazzi shots of her hair due.  Anyway, this is how my hair lady, Penny, was able to work it out for me.  I love it!!

Everyone, meet Brett (some of you may already know him).  He is my bother-in-law and he’s getting married.  Those of you who already know Brett, meet Jen (some of you may know her too).  They are uber cute together as you can see from the pics.  We had a great time driving around hillsboro and as you can see, I was on a field kick.  It was totally fun, they didn’t need very much direction, they just let the flirting flow!  I posted a ton of pics, so click the link at the bottom of this entry to see the rest.  Enjoy

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