Denver Wedding and Portrait Photographer | Michele Schanker | 303.242.7268 » Lifestyle Photojournalistic Photography

Do you go to high school in Thornton, Broomfield, Lafayette, or Westminster? Are your going to be a senior next school year? If so, this is for you. Michele Schanker Photography is looking for reps for the class of 2013!

What is a senior rep?
Simply put, you are our voice. You help spread the word about Michele Schanker Photography.

How does it work?
Send us an email or a message on facebook and let us know that you want to participate. We’ll send you our application for enrollment in the program.

What do you get?
A free session
Custom rep cards with your photos
25% off of prints
Participation in our referral program
10 watermarked images to use on facebook

What is the senior referral program?
Refer your friends, and if they book with Michele Schanker Photography you are eligible for a referral prize.

For each friend that you refer that books with Michele Schanker Photography, you will receive a $20 Visa Gift Card. So refer 10 friends, and you get $200 in gift cards!

The amount of your gift card award will be determined by the number of your friends that are booked with Michele Schanker Photography by October 31 2012.

Who are we?
We are a contemporary photography studio. We shoot on location and love creative ideas, We have no problem putting a bulky chair in an alley way. We love unique. Is urban scenery your thing? Great, we love that. We will work with you to determine what makes you unique and make sure your location is unique as well.

As always, if you like our facebook page you will earn a $10 print credit for your session.

So if you follow my blog, you know that I recently packed up my husband and little man to go to Vegas for about a week. No we weren’t going to Vegas to stay up all night, party and gamble. Those days are over…we do have a little guy now! Instead we were going so that I could attend the WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) convention. I love going to this. There are over 10,000 photographers in Vegas and you can spend nearly all your time networking and going to classes. I truly believe you can become a much better photographer just by attending WPPI. I attended a class at 8am on a Wednesday. Trust me, with a baby this was a challenge to get to, but I was determined to go to this one. The class was very inspiring to me and one of the best I went to all week. The speaker was Susan Stripling. For those of you that don’t know her, she is an amazing photographer in New York! I was so inspired by her talk and couldn’t wait to get out and take some pictures and try new things. So on Thursday afternoon, we had some time before going to the airport. My parents were in Vegas with us, so we all walked up to the Bellagio. I had my dad take a picture of me, my husband, and our baby. Now it was 2pm and there is some pretty strong sun that time of day in Vegas. Normally I would avoid shooting at this time of day unless I had to. So I did what I knew best. I put us in the shade and blew out the background. Oh…what a picture of me…I look like I just got of a wind tunnel or something! LOL.

Then I wanted to get a photo of my parents with our little man. I thought back to the class I took and changed this up. I had my parents stand in front of the shade with the sun to their backs. Metered for them and made some slight adjustments. This is what I got!

The night before, I was sitting in the Venetian enjoying some gelato with my husband and this 3 piece ensemble came out to play music. I saw the spotlight behind them and thought, what another great time to try out a new technique. This is one of the pictures I got. I love the rim light on the lady’s hair, and the light on the other peoples faces.

Hope you enjoyed some of what I learned this week. I’ll leave you with one closing photo I took in the newer area of Vegas ( by the Aria).

Michele Schanker Photography is proud to announce its first Baby Model Search!!!

Yup we are looking for babies for photoshoots in the Denver metro area. If you have a baby under the age of 12 months (we’re not sticklers for the age thing…if you have a 14 month old that is fine to) and want to participate we want to hear from you. In exchange for your time, your session will be complimentary and you will receive a $50 print credit!

Michele Schanker Photography is an on location photography studio. You may be asking, what does that mean? On location means you determine the location. Since its currently winter time, for babies this 99% of the time means we will shoot at your home. But we love for you to be creative! Maybe your uncle owns a farm, and you would like to shoot there? Let us know. We will be more than happy to accommodate unique requests.

To reserve your model shoot please contact Michele Schanker Photography at michele@micheleschankerphotography.com or 303.242.7268. Feel free to email or call with any questions.

Like our facebook page and I’ll add an additional $10 to the print credit!
http://www.facebook.com/micheleschankerphotography

I love lifestyle photography and thought my son, Brayden, deserved some more blog love!

Enjoy these photos that I took when he was 4 weeks old.

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!

Today I wanted to add to my photography and photoshoot tips area of the blog by adding in some tips for newborn shoots.

Our little guy is now 5 weeks old and I have to say I’ve taken my fair share of photos of him. During this process I have learned a lot that I would like to share.

1. Make sure the rooms the shoot will be taking place in are nice and warm. A portable heater works great. This will guarantee a happier baby. If I am doing your photos I will be bringing one with me.

Do you want naked baby photos? If you want the sleepy naked photos there are several things to do to make this go smoothly.

2. Feed them so that they can get into a deep sleep. The deep sleep is what works best for posing their cute little bodies. So try and figure out what works best to get your baby to this point so you’ll be prepared the day of the shoot. You can tell when they are in this deep sleep, since their arms will become pretty limp.

3. Take off their clothes before they fall asleep and wrap them in a blanket. This way we won’t disturb their sleep to take their clothes off.

4. The sleepy photos work best in the first three weeks of their life, so plan your shoot accordingly.

5. Think about things that you own that you would like to incorporate. These could be special blankets, baskets, wooden bowls, etc…

6. Have a few outfits picked out for the rest if the photoshoot.

7. Be prepared that a newborn shoot will take a while due to feedings,  diaper changes, etc.. I would allow 2-3 hours.

8. Scout out the rooms in your house for lots of light, I shoot natural light, so once I arrive I will help determine the best places to shoot the photos.

9. Make sure you pick up clutter. I not only like to do photos of the baby but photos with the family as well. These could be dad feeding the baby a bottle, everyone hanging out on the bed, mom holding the baby, etc… So remove anything that you would not want in the background of your photos, i.e the pile of laundry sitting in the corner of the bedroom.

10. As a parent, be prepared to work some. You may need to soothe the baby from time to time or help get their attention.