Sunday Photo Funday

HIATUS

2011-03-27T22:05:00.000-07:00

hi·a·tus
[hahy-ey-tuhs]
–noun, plural -tus·es, -tus.
a break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action, etc.

Yep, it's break time for your fun shutter-bug duo. Though incredibly saddening, we defined hiatus for one specific reason, we will return. So before we go, let's have one last picture and statement.

Nicky is pregnant!

108: THE DUNES

2011-03-20T19:19:00.000-07:00

We headed to Oklahoma with the family today to check out the dunes of the Little Sahara. Neat to see but really only cool if you have a four wheeler or sand loving vehicle. We have nether. The kids had fun rolling in the sand and burying the dog while we shot SPF with a helpful idea from our BFF's here in Kansas, Richard and Jennifer. So at least we all got something out of the day!

We did a little photoshop magic and combined two shots to make this funny image of Chris struggling up a sandy hill while I stand at the top gorging myself on a large jug of water.

107: MEGAHEADS

2011-03-13T20:04:00.000-07:00

Today we watched the cartoon movie Megamind. If you haven't heard of it, I won't say anything that might ruin it for you, other than the main character has a huge head. With that in mind we decided to play around with the 10-22's distortion to "increase" the size of your gnarly heads. Nothing to over the top production wise, just good old fashion studio fun. What do you expect when you give two grown up kids a house full of photography toys?

Look upon our giant heads of doom and tremble!

106: SO TUFF

2011-03-06T18:45:00.000-08:00

The subject of today's post came from our some times unruly locks a top our heads. After a day of lying around watching movies and playing video games, our hair seemed to get more lively than it's humans that sit under it. With a little back lighting and some abstract close up angles we achieved what you see below. Happy lazy Sunday everyone!

105: SILHOUETTES IN THE PARK

2011-02-27T22:29:00.000-08:00

Today was a bit of a cop out because we actually shot these earlier in the week when it was nice. It was a good thing though due to the fact that it was my little brother Richard's birthday. Thus we stayed out late celebrating and kind of forgot about photo funday. For shame, I know. But at least we came through eventually! Besides, even if they were a posted at the last minute, we still think they are pretty cool and thought provoking.

104: MONKEY SEE

2011-02-20T18:57:00.000-08:00

Mother nature has started to shake off her sleepy head and bring us some darn warm weather. Chris and I love to run amok outside so we packed a lunch and headed to the Riverside park. After we watched other families playing with pets and children and scarfed down our Dillions salad bar lunch (which included stuffed grape leaves much to our great delight) we started wandering around the park and found these grand trees. Being grown up kids we monkeyed our way into the branches and enjoyed the view while the other shot.

103: DOODLE BREATH

2011-02-13T20:18:00.000-08:00

Nicky and I go together like pancakes and syrup, zombies and brains, salmon and manilla? Well you get the point. Anyways, we may be a perfect match and end up kicking ass on whatever we team up on, we don't always communicate in the other persons language effectively. Today we decided to show you, cartoon style!

Shot with two soft box strobes, facing each other while the subject was a few inches behind them. We drew our little sketches on a big pain of glass and held it in front of out faces. Whether I'm gabbing in dragon tongue or she's blabbing in fish speak, we always figure it out eventually.

102: MMM DONUTS

2011-02-06T20:10:00.000-08:00

We try not to over indulged too often and we tend to reach for the whole grain cereal for our breakfast fix more than anything. But on occasion we just don't care. Donuts are a favorite of ours. Jelly filled, creme filled, fruit filled, color frosted, nut covered, sprinkled, chocolate covered and good old glazed, we would love to stuff our faces with them all. Not much more to say than that, enjoy!

101: RED AND GREEN DREAMS

2011-01-30T19:13:00.000-08:00

Today's idea actually came pretty quickly too us. Keep it simple, no shooting outdoors since it's so freaking cold and do something semi-creative. So we went with using long exposures, kooky colors and just our upside down heads. Our environment, the living room hardwood floor. The red light came from the power button on the entertainment centers radio. The green light came from my daughter Alexandria's night light. Open up the shutter speed to four seconds, add some odd faces and bam... you got an interesting couple of pics! Kind of looks like some seventies sci-fi flick or cheesy old 3-d or maybe even like Jambi, the floating genie head from Pee-Wee's Playhouse!

100: CAT NAPPERS

2011-01-23T17:56:00.000-08:00

Today was truly a lazy Sunday. We spent the whole day in our pj's, watched movies, and (much to their delight) snuggled with our fuzzy room mates... Vixen and Moo Moo. These two tiny lionesses simply LOVE their mommy and daddy. It's not uncommon for at least one of them to be close by our sides where ever we roam in this house. Their personalities are very different but when it comes to showing their appreciation for keeping them as well kept kitties, they are both an ocean of emotion.

Moo Moo, the black and white cat, came to our back door step one day and has happily become a essential part to our family. She loves to give you "head love" (rubbing her face on your head) and then curl up in your lap while she squeaks and smiles with delight.

Vixen, the blue eyed Siamese, was adopted from a friend who could no longer care for her. She loves being under the covers and snuggling in your arms while you nap.

99: BOO

2011-01-16T18:58:00.000-08:00

We love scary stories. I remember once when Nicky and I were first dating, we drove way out at night to a remote, super creepy, old graveyard in her hometown just so we could read from a ghost book to one another. A hair-raising fable is only as good as the person relaying it though. What bone chilling tale would be complete without ghoulish voices, maniacal mannerisms and of course a horrendous face to go along with the big surprise ending! So be it hooked psychos, nightmarish apparitions or abominations that go bump in the shadows, these are terrifying faces to top off those tales o' terror.

98: THE COLLECTORS

2011-01-09T18:22:00.000-08:00

While picking up our cluttered house from the holiday madness this photo duo was amused by the variety of collections that they have accumulated over the years. From vintage cameras to gas mask, wine corks to clip-on earrings, we seem to surround ourselves with these odd personal assortments. It would be fun to show off some of our more unique supplies but practicality and mobily strongly came into play when choosing our items. The items that we have adorned ourselves with below were chosen only because of there "wear-ability". Chris' bandanas are a staple to any outfit in his wardrobe, and my scarves are a beloved addition to my cold weather attire.

97: BLACK AND WHITE CUTIES

2011-01-02T17:58:00.001-08:00

We are so ecstatic about a fresh new year that we wanted just some good ole' happy portraits. Nothing too fancy and all about how stoked we are. We crisped up the detail and brought out the richness in black and white. Here's to a new year of awesomeness.
Down with 2010, up with 2011!

96: KISSMAS

2010-12-26T17:56:00.000-08:00

Christmas this year was a bit different for Chris and I because we were here in Kansas with Chris' lovely family. While shooting family portraits to give as gifts we were over come with the love and warmth of blood relations. Thus, we captured this uber-cute image of us in an affectionate moment.

Bad matching outfits we know, but this is our cheers to corny love!

95: HYPNOTIC CELLS

2010-12-19T18:56:00.000-08:00

Nicky and I both got new cell phones recently. We have now joined the ranks of those who can play on the internet on their phones. Neither of us have hardly stopped playing with our new toys since we got them either. So we figured we would put them down briefly to at least pay homage to these mesmerizing devices here on SPF.

p.s. What do you think of the new Sunday Photo Funday header!?

94: ALL THE BUZZ

2010-12-12T18:02:00.000-08:00

Chris and I have a passion for our hair. It's a burden and a blessing sometimes because our idea of acceptable hair is not always concurrent with the rest of the population. But we have yet to be fired from a job or cause a mass riot for our styling trials. So here are two simple silhouetted images of our freshly maimed heads.

Side note: We don't strive to have similar hair cuts it just ends up that way from time to time.

93: I CAN HAZ PRESENTZ

2010-12-05T14:34:00.000-08:00

WE KNOW U HAZ PRESENTZ

WE CAN SEEZ DEM

WE R ALL UP N YOUR TREE RITE NOW

SO HAND OVER DE PRESENTZ OR WE NOM YOUR TREE

U HAVE BIN WARNED

92: LOVING SOLES

2010-11-28T19:10:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving weekend gave us four days to do nothing but eat and sleep. Of course we did more than just live the life of a cat, we shot these gritty images of our favorite shoes!

My green shoes are more than just in my preferred color. They are also loving hand-me-downs from my sis. Chris' black chucks also possess a story; they perhaps gave me the guts to talk to my handsome class mate instead of just flicking tiny wads of paper at him while he slept though yet another history of photography movie.

So I guess we are giving thanks to the little things that live in our life's that are products of time and love. They may be dirt, grass, and blood stained but their time worn tread encourage us that there are still good miles left in them.

91: THOUGHTS OF YOUTH

2010-11-21T17:00:00.000-08:00

Discovering new wonders on a daily basis. Adventures with siblings, relatives or friends. No cares, worries or stress. The only issue you had to deal with was what to dress your Barbie in or what G.I. Joe's were going to battle that day. It's no wonder that everyone looks so fondly on their childhood. It was freedom and joy absolute.

So in reflection of these things we decided to post snapshots from our childhood. Nicky (on the left) and her twin sister Traci posing with their treasure troll. Then I sporting my can't drive 55 shirt with a deviant grin sitting next to my cousin Sean. Oh the memories.

90: BEHIND THE GARAGE

2010-11-14T19:38:00.000-08:00

Wichita has surprised us with it's interesting alley ways, art work, and other awesome scenery. While trying to find free parking so we could go to the library down town, we discovered this boarded up, twin pillar-like, parking garage. Fighting the chill in the air we threw ourselves on the ground to find the best angles to capture the bulbous background. The resulting images we produced defiantly capture two different moods. Turning the photos monochromatic helped bring out the strong dark and light vertical lines that were created by weathered paint.

89: SMOKE UP JOHNNY

2010-11-07T16:42:00.000-08:00

We were doing some searching for a couch this weekend and one of our destinations was the mall. On our walk from JC Penny's to Dillard's we passed by the candy store. Of course the little kid in me kicked in and I demanded that we go peruse the sweets.

One of the things we found there at Candyopolis were the old school candy cigerettes. Yes, they probably help brainwash kids into taking up the real deal someday but they are so fun and yummy! We both used to love the hard stick kind that's in the cardboard box. But we found ones that we had never seen. Soft packs wrapped in cellophane and all! These weren't hard candy though but chocolate actually rolled in paper. So we snagged up a pack a piece. After which, we immediately got the idea to do some fake smoking ads with our tasty treats!

88: KILL OR BE KILLED ROUND 2

2010-10-31T09:22:00.000-07:00

Chris finally did it, he murdered me. Halloween wouldn't be right without something twisted from the photo-duo who LOVE Halloween. With one killing under our blog belts, Chris wanted a round two so he could show his murderous side.

I captured our suspect standing menacingly over the viewer, weapon still dripping with blood. Chris then began the process of preparing the body. With nails dirtied, vacant stare, blood splattered and trickling down from the struggle that had just ensued.

Hope your Halloween is just as disturbing!

Want to see when I murdered Chris? Check out the first Kill or be Killed.

87: PUMPKIN SLAYERS

2010-10-24T19:52:00.000-07:00

This is the lucky month that gets to hold the awesome holiday Halloween. One of it's old rituals, carving pumpkins, is something that we will always keep alive. You start by picking out your choice gourd-like squash then proceed with the gutting and mangling until it's sliced into an interesting image. Then you jam a lit object inside it's hollowed out remains to display the horrific design in front of your house. You then leave it there to rot and discard once it's putrid. Not to mention our household uses it's seeds and meat for tasty treats. If there are any aliens out there that descend from veggies, they would be truly appalled and probably wage war on us.

Now with that grotesque description in mind, here are a couple pretty pics of us showing off our own pumpkin butchering skills! Nicky with her wicked kitty and I with my skully face.

86: FALL GOODIES

2010-10-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

With Halloween almost here we jetted out to a pumpkin patch with the family to acquire pumpkins. Much to our delight this place also had tons of different goodies for us to use for our Sunday Funday duties.

The corn maze we found was fun to shoot in because of the heavy shadows and contrast between corn and blue sky. I feel like my simple clothes and blue accents helps draw your eye around the image. We also came upon a small pumpkin patch with this flesh colored beauty just waiting for us to immortalize in our blog. Wanting to make the pumpkin look as big as possible, Chris slithered on his belly behind it and I took a low angle to shoot. All shot with natural light and our beloved 10-22mm

85: H2O MY

2010-10-10T17:07:00.000-07:00

For some reason both of us were having a hell of a time making ideas work. We conjured up a few cool concepts a piece and all failed miserably. After noticing the reflections of the living room lights bouncing subtly off the hardwood floor, we came up with our fourth attempt. We wanted a little bit of clarity but without putting a lame mirror on the floor. A puddle would be way more interesting!

One soft box was used to pump up the light in the room. The camera couldn't focus so we had to roll manual on this one. Insert a stoic face and you have an awesome shot.

84: JACKETS WITH PERSONALITY

2010-10-03T18:36:00.000-07:00

Finally the weather has turned to chilly nights and cool days so that means Chris and I get to pull out our favorite jackets! My military inspired green coat was a clearance find from too many years ago. The color has faded and the seams are starting to wear, which makes for the perfect match to my mostly hole ridden attire. In short: I LOVE THIS JACKET. Chris's coat was a Ebay salvage. The patches that adorn it were painfully attached by yours truly. It's always a conversation starter where ever we venture and a tribute to his love of kick ass bands.

We wanted to kept the focus on the coats so we left out any neat-o backgrounds and funny faces that we oh so love. Shot with our Macro 50mm 2.8 and a single strobe.

83: UNDER THE BRIDGE

2010-09-26T18:22:00.000-07:00

First, we intended to play around over at the school near our house. But on the walk over the highway walkway, we decided this concrete bridge wasn't used up yet. You might remember us using it once before, swinging around like monkeys in post 68. Today's post is more about light, shadow and the beauty of the urban environment.

We shot all the way down the spirals but ended up using the underside for our final pics. Brings to mind the Red Hot Chili Peppers song Under The Bridge with our contemplative faces and concrete background beneath our freeway bridge. We love that song.

82: PUNK ROCK PUNCH

2010-09-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

We have been talking about doing a story telling shoot like this for over a year. We finally came up with a story that seemed easy enough to accomplish. Our first idea was to use was a balloon but when it came time to shoot we just simply didn't have a helium filled balloon hanging about... imagine that. What we did have was the ever coveted mic from our Rock Band X-Box game. The story told below could have very easily been pulled out of our many rock out sessions. Minus the physical violence. We tend to use pouting, taunting, or flat out thievery to be the one who gets to become the center stage star of our pretend band name Dikalotapus.

We placed the camera on a tripod and made a marker on the floor for us to stand on. We needed this so we could keep our bodies true to life since they were going to be sitting next to each-other as you see below. Simple lighting and fun poses created the rest!

81: KANOPOLIS STATE PARK

2010-09-12T12:00:00.000-07:00

This last weekend being Labor day weekend meant that most people got three days to play. So we thought it best to make the most of it by bailing on society and head to the hills for some camping. We chose this place due to a few random reviews online that made it stand apart from the standard semi-flat park wrapped around a watering hole.

Kanopolis State park was gorgeous and definitely didn't feel like the typical flat Kansas either. We crawled and explored some of the many sandstone canyons, small caves, rocky shore lines, winding trails and hidden back roads. These shots were from one such excursion into horse thief canyon. I, maintaining my mastery of nature and Nicky becoming one with it.

We cooked camp fire fajitas to stunning sunsets on the edge of our cliff next to the lake. The only drawback was the massive wind storm that came through the last day. It knocked down branches, turned the campfire into a hazard, blew our little tent down and kicked up one hell of a dust storm. We had to sleep in the truck or be blown away wrapped in our tiny tent! Regardless, it was a fantastic trip and definitely on our return vacation list.

80: ILLUMINATED FROM THE INSIDE

2010-09-05T12:00:00.000-07:00

We have out of town camping plans for the three day weekend and we almost forgot to get images ready for the auto-post (cool feature on this site) on Sunday. This shoot was really on the fly but I think we produced good shots. One naked strobe behind our heads, one black background, and one 50mm Macro lens were all the tricks and tools we used for this job. Short, simple and sweet!

On a side note: We hope our site helps others generate ideas or at least kill the monday blues! Thanks for coming back to humor us.

79: WARHOL FLAVORED WEIRDOS

2010-08-29T20:01:00.000-07:00

Today we tried out quite a few different ideas and none of them seemed to pan out. We finally just decided to take close up shots of our goofy expressions. What makes this entry unique is the post production work done in Photoshop. Going black and white, tweaking this and that, then altering the midtones into fruity colors. Thus we have a muttonheaded homage to good ole Andy Warhol.

As an added feature to this tale, these photos almost didn't make it to the computer. I actually dropped the compact flash card down a deep crack in the garage (turned gym) where we had shot these. I had to sit with chop sticks and tweezers for twenty minutes and carefully extract the card before it slipped all the way to the center of the earth. What a pain in the rump!

78: WAYWARD PAIR

2010-08-22T18:56:00.000-07:00

With today's post comes a well needed adventure. Chris surprised me with a quick road trip to the dirt back roads that Kansas seems to have an abundance of. We came across this stretch of road, and stopped to take the shoots. Of course not without first having a picnic dinner accompanied by two beers and blanket.

On a side note, this chair is a beloved piece to our living room and was handed down to us by Chris' father.

77: OUR CREEPY OLD GARAGE

2010-08-15T20:37:00.000-07:00

Since we moved into our place here in Wichita, we have been wanting to use the garage for something creepy. It's dilapidated, dingy and when the light shines through all the cracks and yellowed window it looks like something out of a slasher horror film. You know the one. The serial killer is a seemingly innocent looking and quiet guy. But secretly and slowly he works through the neighborhood hacking up everyone. Using his neighbors for gumbo and mixing the powder from the victims ground up bones into cute cement animal statues.

*ahem*

So anyways! We only used the fluorescent light from the garage to back light each of us. Nicky stood me behind the discolored and sullied window where I held a large blunt object over my head. I in turn just used Nicky's naturally creepy silhouette (tee hee) and the decrepit doorway to create my eerie image.

76: BREW CREW

2010-08-08T22:31:00.000-07:00

We wanted to do a tribute to the one thing that seems to glow and beckon to us from within the ice box. Good ole' BEER. To create the awesome light of amber beer we simply put a strobe behind all our bottles while still in the fridge. One light at a 45 degree angle bounced off a white kitchen door for fill light. And then just two goofy looking kids.

I would like to think that we have pretty good taste in beer. Plus we make sure that we always try new ones and never keep any of the "Big Three" beer companies in our fridge.

75: TOGETHER WE STAND, DIVIDED WE WERE SHOT

2010-08-01T17:52:00.000-07:00

We only posted one image a piece as usual but today it's comprised of multiple shots. Let me explain... Using the tripod and a single strobe, we shot the other turning in a half circle five times. Then we simply cropped and spliced a fifth of each pic into a collage. As a result, it makes an average styled picture kinda artsy!

74: FEET-URE PRESENTATION

2010-07-25T18:35:00.000-07:00

On these blistering summer days sometimes the only thing you can do is stay inside and watch a movie. Good thing we have a Palace Theater where the movies are only $2.50! With a loved one by your side, all the world is grand!

Shot with our 50D with a 10-22 lens with a whole helping of love. Keep cool!

73: JEEPERS PEEPERS

2010-07-18T17:27:00.000-07:00

Today's episode started with a few "on location" ideas but eventually evolved into something simpler and at home. This was also nice because then we didn't even have to take our lazy butts anywhere.

We had been itching to do another close up body part theme. Thus requiring a bit of anatomy that was interesting to look at in detail, not too gross (much to my dismay) and of course PG-13. Most obvious choice... the eyeball!

72: THE FOUR DEUCES

2010-07-11T19:23:00.000-07:00

This Sunday's post came from a murder mystery that we and our family participated in. The stage was set for gambling, smoking and drinking?! Not in the 1920's, so we had to dodge the fuzz and snake down to the secret location of the speakeasy "The Four Deuces". The night was abuzz with gangsters, loose women, and murder! Guess who the murderer was for the night... innocent ol' me! We had a blast!

We wanted capture the old-time feel with some old-town appeal, so we headed to downtown Wichita. After getting our fair share of odd looks (and one complement on my costume) We got these dandies you see below.

My dress and jewelry were on loan from Jennifer's lovely grandma who was quite the snazzy dresser in her time and also my size! Can you say score? Chris on the other hand owned all his stuff already.

71: SPARKLE MAGIC

2010-07-04T21:00:00.000-07:00

Today, as you know, is the fourth of July. I personally love this holiday because it signifies our big "kiss our hiney" to the rest of the world and that we are doing our own thing from here on out. That and the fact that you get to blow up sparkly, loud and flashy things and not get arrested.

So in honor of the fourth, we decided to play around with fireworks in front of the camera. We went back and forth trying different apertures with multiple fireworks until we came upon these two gems. Nicky looking cute and me looking... well, like I'm going to blow my face off.

70: BLAZED

2010-06-27T17:46:00.000-07:00

The weather in Kansas has been Predator vs. Schwarzenegger kind of hot, where they find the men without their skins. So we decided to sit in this heat and shoot!

We both laid on the hot concrete to get that lager than life look and also t0 get our sun bursts in the correct spots. 10-22 with bounced sunlight off the storm window of the front door for fill light. Now its time for a nice cold one!

69: FRUITY PEBBLES

2010-06-20T20:51:00.000-07:00

We stewed over something to fit a Father's Day theme for a while. But everything we came up with was kinda lame or too close to what we did for Mother's Day. So we just decided to wing it in the studio. Shot with awkward faces and a nice white background. Then in the standard Photoshop final processing we decided to toy with the color balance. The final product kinda reminded us of Fruity Pebbles. Well that and we are a couple of interesting fruits ourselves.

68: URBAN PLAYGROUND

2010-06-13T06:37:00.000-07:00

Our blog has been missing environmental shots of our new city. So the wayward twosome went and played outside. This cross walk is a few blocks from our house. We had been eyeballing it ever since we moved in. The sun was rapidly descending and we were hopped up on love and excitement from our find. So we kept the shot simple and used the Cannon 10-22 and a speedlight to fill in where the sun couldn't.

I think Chris will agree, this was a lot of fun!

67: MIRROR MIRROR ON THE WALL

2010-06-06T17:59:00.000-07:00

Today's idea seems relatively simple, shoot into a mirror and catch as many duplicates of the person as possible. Problem is, to see (or photograph) all those duplicates, you have to shoot directly into the mirror. Thus you catch not only your subject but yourself and the camera. Just like all those crappy social networking profile photos shot in the bathroom mirror, it's all about the angles.

So we stood our big mirror on the easel in front of the tall skinny mirror, while the subject stood in the middle. The shooter had to stand over the big mirror and angle themselves out of the shot as best as possible. All being lit with one soft box.

Question is, are we real or are we their reflection?

66: PACKED FOR THE OZARKS

2010-05-30T13:35:00.000-07:00

Hello friends, we are actually in the Ozarks for a short retreat! But since we are still unfaltering in our duty to our blog, we used the cool tools on this site to post from afar with the dated post feature. So this was shot in our backyard on Wednesday!

Chris chose not to mow to aid in the creation of a forest background. The rest was throw together at the last minute, because that seems to be our creative process. On a side note, being stuffed into a tiny backpack and then worn by your boyfriend results in uncontrollable laughter.

Proceed with caution.

65: DO YOU SMELL SOMETHING BURNING?

2010-05-23T21:59:00.000-07:00

Nicky thought it would be fun if we worked smoke into the pics this time since we are working with a controlled studio environment again. This wasn't as easy as it seemed because the smoke didn't want to cooperate. Not to mention the sage bundles and incense wrap things Nicky had wouldn't stay lit for more than ten seconds at a time. Then we had to get enough intense light just the right way coupled with a nice black background to make the smoke stand out without blowing out our skin. What a fiasco! But in the end it came together pretty decently.

64: HAIR AFFAIR

2010-05-16T10:26:00.000-07:00

Every now and then Chris and I get the uncontrollable urge to drastically change something on our bodies be it piercing, tattooing, shaving or coloring. This week we were both bitten by the hair bug. I shaved the hawk back for Chris and got myself deeply involved with a box of hair lightener. As we always say "it's only hair", it will grow back or out.

To make this more than just another head shot we turned each other around and photographed the back of our heads. One light and a reflector is all we used for this.

63: MOTHER'S DAY PLAY

2010-05-09T21:09:00.000-07:00

We did a photo tribute today to honor those poor women that bore, raised and unconditionally loved us. I'm in fact talking about our moms. In the picture in picture style, you can see us a bit younger next to our siblings and our mothers. Shot with two Smith Victor bulbs and the 50mm. We love you!

62: THE POD PEOPLE

2010-05-02T19:59:00.000-07:00

With great anticipation Chris and I would like to present you all with... ta-da, the empty pods that we transported our goods in! Why are we so excited you ask? Well, because it means that we rented a house and moved all our effects in! Yes the photo duo is back in action with all the props and goodies that we always have hanging around.

We dug out our best digs to contrast our gritty, used environment (including a pair of cowboy boots that I just love on Chris, yee-haw)! The pods allowed our one light set to bounce all over and give us the illuminated photo's. Our trusty 10-22 gave us enough room to shoot each-other full body, and our amazing outfits allowed us to, um be fabulous! Hope you appreciate our efforts!

61: WOODY WOOD PANEL

2010-04-25T21:09:00.000-07:00

My brother Richard has this 1970's style, fake wood paneling in the main part of his basement that he freaking hates. Where he sees ugliness though, we see opportunity. A chance to show our more sensitive sides in that high school grad photo kinda way. Take a peep at these heart melting pair of photos and I dare you not to swoon.

60: 2010: A PHOTO ODYSSEY

2010-04-18T20:07:00.000-07:00

As with most of our SPF's in Wichita, we have been rushed to finish and short on equipment and ideas. So to keep with this theme we came up with our idea in a minute and a half... seriously!

How did we achieve this space aged, zero gravity look? We used the 50mm 1.8, put our Smith Victor light in the front loading washing machine, and hung our heads inside! Simple as that. Chris was happy with his very first shot of me, so total time on this was less than thirty minutes!

59: DISCO DISCO

2010-04-11T19:47:00.000-07:00

For todays photo experiment we ended up borrowing a new toy from Gillian, my brothers three year old daughter. It kind of looks like a light saber but with a disco ball on one end with LED's that flash red, green and blue at different speeds. When she got it, I knew right away that we just had to use it for a shoot in some way, shape or form. So off to the dark basement we scooted and had a disco shutterbug fiasco!

58: EGG-CENTRIC BEHAVIOR

2010-04-04T21:07:00.000-07:00

The Easter Bunny was good to us this year and provided lots of colorful eggs to shoot with and then eat.Anyways, since we are still dewlling in the basement, we are a little short on space and studio goodies. So we sampled an old idea, used a green t-shirt, some easter "grass" and a few eggs to provide our second SPF Easter shoot! Shot with one Smith Victor strobe light with a white umbrella, the Canon 10-22mm and that's about it. Hoppy Easter.

57: INFRARED EQUALS NEUTRAL DENSITY

2010-03-28T19:19:00.000-07:00

Some time ago, Nicky dabbled around with shooting with an infrared filter strapped onto her digital camera. But she hasn't given it a whirl for eons and she felt like rehashing it. So what better time than on our Funday!

We started by rolling around in a grass covered ditch whilst gazing into the sun. Problem was, we were blinded by the light which was annoying and made us squint. Grumbling, we packed it all up and went inside. To our good fortune though, we discovered downstairs a nice beam of light coming in that we could use to highlight just our faces in a cool way.

After reviewing all that we shot, we noticed they didn't look very infrared. It kind of looked like we had used a neutral density filter instead. In layman's terms, a neutral density filter makes photos look dark and artsy even in super sunny environments.

56: INK SPOTS

2010-03-21T21:59:00.000-07:00

It's was the last minute and Chris just realized that we didn't have anything shot for today! So to keep it simple, we grabbed our 50mm Macro lens and shot something that we both had at least one of... tattoo's.

Fun facts:
Chris's ink was inspired by a faux red heart tattoo that he sported for a day. He's dying to get another. My tattoo hurt like hell and I doubt I'll get another one. Well... maybe.

55: FAST FOOD FORAGERS

2010-03-14T19:08:00.000-07:00

This is week two of us squatting in my brothers basement. Thus, we don't have our full on studio. But don't fret! We can turn any room into a temporary, semi-pro, set up! We just tossed one flash on a stand and the other on the floor facing up from behind each of us. All positioned in front of one of the nacho cheese colored walls in the aforementioned basement. Then came the theme.

We were lazy this day and didn't want to cook. So what do typical, modern, consumerist, Americans unlike us do in times of hunger when the kitchen seems less fun than a trip to the proctologist? Hit the drive thru! A sack full of veggie burgers and greasy fries and an Oreo shake to wash it all down with was just what we needed.

Before we dove in to our unhealthy feasts though, we decided to use them as props. We both played around in front of the camera with fries, burgers and our shake. We danced, smiled and even stuffed our faces until we just couldn't hold back our ravenous appetites.

Now if our happy faces don't make you want to go clog your arteries with junk food, I don't know what will!

54: BUG'S EYE VIEW

2010-03-07T21:18:00.000-08:00

Our first week in Wichita hasn’t been an easy time for this wayward duo. Our first night we had an unfortunate run in with some trigger-happy, pepper spray holstered, country bar locals (we now know that cold water or milk are best to kill the burning sensation). Allergies have suddenly also developed in my body along with a 48-hour, fever filled, flu. Chris had his fist interview (that went great… hopefully) but upon leaving he had his last ride in his car because he promptly wrecked it, completely. Finally, this weekend seemed promising until my car busted a seal and released important fluids onto the pavement while driving back from the a blustery day at the park which means yet more car issues.

Now, car-less, job-less, technically homeless (since we are only temporarily crashing at Chris’s brothers house) and a little dumbfounded, we tentatively wade into the thought of next week. Truth be told, we are kind of pissed off but are still forging forward with a fun idea for this weeks post. We decided to split ourselves into pieces to show that we may be broken but we still have a sense of humor about it all!

Richard and Jennifer (Chris’s brother and sister in law) have an amazingly cool shower curtain that was far too neat-o to NOT shoot. After a few rounds of shooting inside and outside the shower we settled on the images below. We used the Canon 10-22mm lens with our handy third party flash to give it a more finished look.

53: KANSAS BOUND

2010-02-28T21:44:00.001-08:00

Our days of living in Virginia have come to an end, for now at least. But a new chapter has started in Kansas! But before that could start we had to make one hell of a haul to get there. Twenty two hours of a haul actually. We crated up the majority of our goods in metal pods and crammed all the essentials (camera equipment, computer, doughnuts, etc.) into both our cars. We then proceeded to head to the Midwest. I carried both cats, dubbing me the "Catty Wagon" and Nicky rode with the Guinea pig thus earning her the name "Pig Wheeler".

It wasn't all fun and games though, that's for sure. Snow covered mountain roads, moronic drivers, pissed off and screaming cats and sometimes white out conditions were just a few of the fun things we had to deal with. But the closer we got to our destination, the better the conditions and trip got. So we figured once we crossed into Kansas that we should pull over and take pictures to immortalize this event forever.

52: ANNIVERSARY FLOWERS

2010-02-21T19:45:00.000-08:00

We started today with one idea and went out to shoot it but it just wasn't working like we had hoped. So we gave up and retreated to our apartment to eat, nap, then think of new ideas. Nicky had gotten this lovely bouquet of flowers from her friend Jill as a going away present since we are leaving Virginia next week. We thought they were so lovely that we needed to immortalize them!

Nicky went first but wasn't feeling what she shot so I took the reigns to give her time to think. I knew exactly what I wanted to do, stick one in her mouth. I tried other arrangements around her pretty head but just the simple pretty flower blooming out of her mouth was perfect. I think the softness of her hair and surroundings due to the shallow depth of field from the 50mm and her sparkling eyes really just made the shot.

Then Nicky snagged up the camera and gave it another go. She placed multiple flowers, loose petals and a few different types of blooms on and around me until she finally just settled on the one flower look as well. Sometimes less really is more!

In case you haven't guessed what the title of this post is related to, this is totally Sunday Photo Funday's one year anniversary! Fifty two freaking weeks of shooting one another. We can't believe we made it this far, are still are able to consistently come up with new ideas and continue to enjoy this. That and I can't believe we haven't strangled one another in the studio either. Here's to many more years!

51: HEARTSY FARTSY

2010-02-14T16:58:00.001-08:00

So it is the day for love, and who better to show off their love than your beloved funky photographers! This Sunday wasn't any different from the rest because Chris and I always reserve this day of the week for two things: taking pictures and loving each other. But why not shoot for the national theme? So we chose a small prop and let our natural affection towards each other work for the photo. We also shot only one image to signify our undivided love... or maybe its was our desire to spend more time with each other rather than editing!

We wanted to achieve a silhouette of our profiles. So the easiest way for us to achieve this was to shoot ourselves in front of a soft box using only the modeling light to illuminate.

Now back to loving!

50: RING FLASH ATTACK

2010-02-07T11:40:00.000-08:00

Friday, one of our friends (Jessica J.) brought over her fun Alien Bee Ringflash to play with. Even though we never did end up using it that night, she did leave it in our care to goof around with. So we decided why not dedicate an SPF to it! The cool (and obvious) thing about ring lights is they put that neat little circle in your eyes. They are great for head shots and make your face and eyes really pop with lots of sometimes painfully grotesque detail.

Nicky first wanted me to don my eye patch. But as she snapped away she realized that the images didn't really stand out. Surprisingly, the one she dug the most was a plain and simple face shot. Then again, when my freaky mug is in discussion it's far from plain and simple.

For Nicky, I knew I wanted some bright lipstick. Seeing as she had post-shower, wild and curly, freshly air dried hair, I wanted to make her look kinda crazy. Add in a lipstick mistake and a nutty sneer and you got yourself a feral little minx.

49: SNOW BUNNIES

2010-01-31T15:04:00.000-08:00

This Sunday's shoot had to be done outside since we had a wonderful snow filled weekend. Instead of just standing in a winter white environment, we decide to have each other jump around to catch some mid air action.

Chris shot first. He loved the way the snow stuck to these bushes and provided a cool "frame" for me to hop around in.

I was enticed by the icicles hanging from the roof of this very plain wall. After encouraging Chris a few times, since apparently he's not much of a jumper, I got this shot.

48: FIERCE FLARE

2010-01-24T16:29:00.000-08:00

As usual, we waited until early evening to really start tossing around ideas for todays post. I mentioned that we should do some "glam hamming" in front of the camera with lots of lens flare for that vogue look. Nicky was down for it so we bounced off to our wardrobes to look ultra dazzling.

My first idea was lots of bright colors with dressy yet over the top attire. But Nicky doesn't have much in the way of super chic and stylish garb. Not that she doesn't have rad clothes she just doesn't do the club wear thing. But I rummaged through her closet until I found the perfect top. Nicky struck a fab pose and shot the camera some attitude. She would drive those paparazzi wild!

I on the other hand had lots of things to choose from in the way of dressy threads. But I figured a simple black button up over grey would match better with what I had shot Nicky in. So I shined and slicked the hawk then slipped into my shades. Gotta look cool and protect my pretty blues from all those flash bulbs!

47: WRAPPED IN SOMETHING BILLOWY

2010-01-17T16:52:00.000-08:00

With our departure from Norfolk rapidly approaching we unfortunately are starting to feel a little pressure from the details of it all. So what better a subject than those air filled pillows that we are to wrap out precious goods in?

Like many props that we have used, we discovered that bubble wrap is not that captivating! So with several variations on lighting and use of the pop-able packing product we settled on a glowing bubble tunnel. By sandwiching our cylinder of plastic between two soft boxes we achieved these bright and fluffy photos. We decided on wearing hoodies to hide our hideous hair from a late night and late morning!

46: LET'S DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN

2010-01-10T17:24:00.000-08:00

I tried to convince Nicky that we should use the wide angle lens as close to our faces as possible so we look all distorted and weird. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to work for two reasons. One, I have a fat head and it's already distorted so you couldn't tell much of a difference. Second, because Nicky was not going to let me put a warped version of her online. But I couldn't give up on using the wide angle lens that easy.

We tried some light painting with a long shutter and that wasn't as cool as we had hoped. But we kept right on rolling with that technique and tried some interesting blurring of our faces. Eventually we tried focusing on our faces for about 5 seconds then zooming in slowly for the last 3 or so. It really gave a feeling of action or even like we were warping through time! We both instantly fell in love with how it looked. Thus, Nicky tossed on her blue wig and I donned the blonde one. I mean if you're planning on traveling through time, you better look freaking fabulous!

45: SHINY NEW YEAR

2010-01-03T17:04:00.000-08:00

We have made it to a new year a little worse for wear but a million times more rockin' than last year! After bringing in our new year right with awesome friends and a party that didn't end until we hit our front door at 8AM! We just didn't want the party to stop! So we dressed up again and spent a humorous and annoying hour getting these fun shots.

Chris and I figured out our simple one light and one reflector set up and then dove into what turned out to be very challenging subject to capture. Since we are each others assistant, the shootie was forced to throw the tinsel and then pose as it, not so gracefully, fell all over us. To make matters even more interesting we could only get about 2 out of every 5 shots properly lit since our strobes couldn't keep up the the 50D. So we ended up shooting our fare share of duds before all the elements came together in a pleasing image.

I chose this photo because it was sharp on his face and I loved how the bulk of the silver mess just frames his face and body.

Chris had a particularly difficult time getting a photo of me where I wasn't looking at all the pretty shiny ribbons! But he really loved this one because he said I look so cute, innocent and playful.

Looks like we are starting off 2010 with a BANG!

44: CHRISTMAS LOOT

2009-12-27T15:13:00.000-08:00

Now Nicky, nor myself, are very much into the consumer aspect of Christmas. But when we do get something we are definitely grateful. So we thought we would show off our gift glee by making them the subject of this Sunday! Since the main objects that we were both presenting were red, we figured we would make the background the same color as well. We fought a couple different ways of making the background red by sheet and even by colored light before eventually settling on this one.

I went first and wore my hand made "Mmm... brains" apron that Nicky's super sweet sister and mother made for me! I decided to go topless since that's typically how I cook anyways. Don't judge, it's casual in my kitchen! Grey matter soufflé anyone?

Next up, Nicky donned her new classy, flapper-style, cinnabar necklace which also came from her sissy-poo. To top it off, the No Doubt shirt she's wearing was also from Traci.

So this post is almost a tribute to gifts from that terrific twin, "T" to the "raci". Way to go!

43: VIRIDESCENT WARMTH

2009-12-20T18:22:00.000-08:00

With the wacky winter weather finally turning to a tiny tidbit of snow, we had to don our cozy warm digs for our Sunday adventures today. It actually wasn't a very adventurey day but it did inspire us to use our stocking caps and scarves as our theme today.

We wanted to have "warm" lighting to complement our motif. After wrestling with our lights for a few minuets we finally got the soft box lights NOT go off, so that we could use the 3200K modeling lamps to light each-other. Then we used our Smith Victor strobe to light the green back ground.

The strobe on the background was blowing out the green. So we used a few layers of white tissue paper and a rubber-band to give us the perfect diffusion! We set the aperture at 2.8 for a perfectly soft background, paired with very selective focus to keep our eyes sharp. The perfect combination of super techie, low budget and cute face creativity!

42: THE MODERN PROMETHEUS

2009-12-13T17:28:00.000-08:00

This week we were not as dead set on any idea in particular. Thus we were not prepared or had a high production like last week. I in particular did not have a good ending to this week which I know highly contributed. But we are steadfast in our resolve and will never falter in our pursuit of fun with photos every dang Sunday!

I had proposed the concept of sliding our photos side by side in a freakish and mongoloid, yet unified version of ourselves. We live our whirlwind lives together, create in tandem and share our love, so why not stitch our visage into one?

First off, for each shot of one another, we tried to duplicate the light. But once we got them on the Mac, that's when all the issues floated to the digital surface. With skin tones not matching, our heads being so utterly unalike in size and shape, facial objects residing in different locations and in varying sizes, it was clear we are quite disparate. We started by making them black and white and tweaking the tones, it all came down to proper cropping. After all was said and done, laid side by side and uploaded online, we feel like it came out quite nice... for an abomination.

Mary Shelley be damned!

41: SOME GOOD STORIES COME FROM BAD DECISIONS

2009-12-06T16:32:00.000-08:00

Chris and I put a great amount of thought and time into our outfits, hair, and makeup for this shoot. The idea was conceived on one of many late night bad movie-fests that Chris and I revel in. We had preconceived ideas of why this pair was all glammed out for their mug shot. But I have decided to let you, the viewer, come up with your own conclusion.

Our lighting set up was simple, two soft box lights at 45 degree angles set on us which produced minimal shadows and an even light. Most of our work this time was in props and wardrobe. The height marker was a creation of Chris as well as the numbered cards.

I slipped into my "floozy top" I found at a thrift store. Then it took great pains to rat and funk up my hair and mess my make-up just right.

Chris spent a few days periodically pouring coffee or beer down the front of his white shirt for an "all night with too much to drink" look. It also was good timing that he had just gone through some major surgery and was still pretty swollen and had nice pink puffy scars. I think it really makes you wonder what in the hell kind of naughty things these two were up to!

We're making our mama's proud!

40: WE LIKEY BIKEY

2009-11-29T15:50:00.000-08:00

Nicky had heard from a friend that the Newport News Park rented cruiser style bicycles! So off we went to go play outside on this fine weathered fall afternoon. We snagged a couple of pedal-driven vehicles, got our cycling abilities back then we hit the trails. It was decided upon not to endanger one of our SLR's since we hadn't ridden bikes in quite some time. So we just brought along our handy dandy, yet still quite awesome, point and shoot camera. Nicky adjusted the exposure value settings to under expose the photos a bit since it was so bright out. These photos were actually shot while we were both riding! You can't say we don't risk life, limb and camera to capture the fun. Till next week!

39: TOON T-SHIRT ENVY

2009-11-22T17:55:00.000-08:00

Today's post is all about our t-shirts. Though Chris and I are well past the age of cartoon clad bed sheets and matching jammies, we still have a love for our favorite cartoon characters. We kept the shots simple (bad hair and all) and let the accessories steal center stage.

Chris knows his Ninja Turtles. He can tell you who wore what colored eye mask and which weapon they each used, and on and on. Thus he would, as a grown man, have a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle shirt... and it's green! A few bands cut from a thrift shop kids red shirt find themselves placed in the proper spots and he was set for the shoot, Raphael style. We figured out an advantage to having a small studio with white walls. You can bounce light off any wall and get a pretty glowing light reflecting on the subject. This was a three light set up and we used the Canon 50mm 1.8 so we could keep the t-shirts close to the viewer.

Alice in Wonderland is one of my favorite movies. The toothy grin was a left over from another shoot and was an easy match to the shirt.

38: SO WHITE THAT WHITE PEOPLE CALL THEM WHITEY

2009-11-15T12:15:00.000-08:00

Typically, we have awesome stories or cool new shooting techniques we like to try out on you folks. But this week I had major surgery to my face, mouth and throat so I'm keeping it kinda short. We actually shot these before I went under the knife during the week. We weren't sure how well I would be healed, if I would be up to shooting or if I would even be alive! But as it was my turn to write and I did in fact write this on Sunday, I am alive and healing. As far as details on the shoot, we simply donned some hats and shot these with as much light as we could muster in our meager little studio. We wanted to blow them out but still have detail and some color. Enjoy!

37: AGENTS MACABRE AND CLYDESDALE

2009-11-08T17:42:00.000-08:00

Today started very early or very late, depending on how you look at it. Chris and I (along with about 30 other cars!) had an unfortunate run in with a large piece of metal on I-264 late last night. After our attack was over, we grinded to the shoulder only to discovered that we had two mangled tires. We called the gecko calvary and then retired to our fallen steed where we waited for the auto ambulance to come to our rescue. What's the point of this rambling story? We were out a car today (and quite possibly longer) and had to hoof it today. So an adventure was born.

The paragraph below is a short recap of what our secret agent alter egos Macabre (Chris) and Clydesdale (Me... um, Nicky) achieved today.

We had a few missions to accomplish for the day and all of which done undercover in our "civilian" attire. One being to obtain an LED flash light for an upcoming assignment. A quick trip to Radio Shack gave us the green light to proceed to our next objective, but not before a quick and random (I normally don't drink) stop to the package store. Taking our handfuls of mini plastic bottles of spirits, (bought for a mere $4.50!) we dashed to the railroad tracks, down the side of an bridge embankment and then a quick sprint across Hampton Boulevard to where we arrived at our final objective. But it's so secret we can't even tell you where it is! The following images were captured during critical points in our mission today. We each had our own photographic undertakings that we wanted to obtain on this Sunday Photo Funday. It was just a happy accident that we both preferred the leafy versions of all the images each of us shot.

I snapped this photo while we were taking critical calculations of light intensity through different hair disguises. Agent Macabre has the most beautiful eyes in this image... I mean the mathematics were beautiful! I keep all my work professional at all times mind you!!!!

I, Agent Clydesdale, was checking a booby trap at the above mentioned secret location captured here. The leaf color gave us the perfect vivid serenity for our enemies to fall into a false sense of security. Then they will fall one by one!

P.S. Thank you for humoring us.

36: PECULIAR PAIR OF PHOTOS

2009-11-01T19:49:00.000-08:00

So you might have been anticipating some really cool, high production, twisted shoot this week since it's the day after Halloween. Well I hate to burst your bubble, but we decided to keep it simple. Yesterday we spent all day helping some friends run a haunted hallway thing, so we really didn't have the time (or patience) to do something extravagant. But we figured we should still make it semi-creepy. We decided not to shoot the whole face so as to make it more awkward along with odd angles, low light and interesting white balance settings as well. Both of us took turns hopping in the tub partially clothed and shooting one another to bring you a peculiar set of photos.

35: THAT'S FEE-BISS NOT FOE-BUS

2009-10-25T13:21:00.000-07:00

The weather had magically transformed back into winter and we were anxious to bundle up and roll out. So today we took a short trip over the bridge and through the tunnel to the cute town of Phoebus, VA. We found a pavilion with this interesting brick patterned stage. The photo's below express our childish joy of our little discovery for the day.

We chose a higher vantage point to use as much of the sprawling pattern as possible. That and we just love being where we're not supposed to be and getting away with it! Chris wanted me to pose as cute as possible so knowing that my trusty Canon F1 gives me giggling delight he made me use it as a prop. Adding in a little external flash bounced off the celling and we got a lot of life and richness out of a rather drab, chilling and blustery day.

I took to our chosen perch second and tired to mimic Chris's shot using his coat as the prop.

34: GYPSIES

2009-10-18T18:52:00.000-07:00

I had found this large, crazy colored, canvas zodiac at the thrift store (for six freaking bucks!) some time ago. We hung it in the living room but every time I saw it I really wanted to incorporate it into one of our Sunday sessions. Nicky is damn near a gypsy (I promise, she's not one of those mystical kooks) so she already had all the peculiar gear, interesting jewelry, miscellaneous trinkets and spiritual tools stashed away. So why not toss it all into our creative cauldron and see what kind of photo concoction we come up with!

I geared up in some off the wall attire that I thought kind of fit the theme. Out of all her goodies, I totally snagged her deck of tarot cards for my props. Funny thing was though, the first card I pulled was death. Now some people might have fretted, but I instead laughed. You might be asking yourself why I chuckled at such an ominous omen. Because I, my friends, don't fear the reaper.

Then it was her turn to dress up as a gypsy, tramp and thief. Where as my getup was tougher to piece together, Nicky had hers at the ready. She was actually a gypsy two years ago for Halloween! I rummaged through her drawer of weird objects and strange witch like relics and settled on the sage stick. It was tough photographing the smoke but after some angling and playing with the light I faintly got it. No need to over do it, right? At the end of it all and after inhaling that mystical smoke, I indeed think our spirits were quite cleansed.

33: PHOTOBOOTH

2009-10-11T17:16:00.001-07:00

This sunday we once again decided to break our own rules; One photo containing both of us, reproduced by one of us, edited by the other one of us. *gasp* Say it's not so Toto! This twist in the bend started with an unusual choice for us, the mall!

Like the ravenous zombies of "Dawn of the Dead" we meandered to the mall. Chris was in dire need of some better fitting pants so that he could sport his collection of punk suspenders. We began cursing our lack in judgement as we passed the miles of shiny signs that demand our time and money until we came across a photo booth. A few minutes of snuggling and cute faces and we left the mall shortly after feeling satisfied with our only purchase of 4, 2 x 2 inch, $3 pictures.

We don't have a scanner so we had to take a photograph of these pictures to get an electronic file of them. Not as easy a task as it seems. First, the paper was glossy so we had to use just the modeling lights with two soft-boxes to keep the glare to a minimum. Second, we had to be directly over top of the photo's so there was minimal distortion, which created more shadows... Ahhhh! But we're smart and stubborn so, we won!

32: SOFTEE COFFEE

2009-10-04T11:14:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that Nicky and I are coffee lovers. Oh how that delicious java gives you that wonderful pep in your step. So in honor of how keen we are on this beautiful brown bean's yummy run off, we decided to commemorate it with this week's post.

We both shot for quite a while because frankly, it was just a boring concept. We knew we wanted a shallow depth of field but the light was not cooperating either. Eventually, some up close and personal photos fit the bill. After I toyed with the softness in photoshop it all kind of all fell into place. I think it really shows that velvety smooth happiness (with a hint of cracked out nuttiness) you get when snuggling with a cup of joe on a lazy Sunday.

31: THE RINGS OF GOTHAM

2009-09-27T19:02:00.000-07:00

For the past week we have been watching the first season of Batman: The Animated Series. I was never a big fanatic about the show but Chris has always been. After we started the episodes, come to find out, this cartoon really rocks! It's dark, clever and it's got great stories. How much better can it get?

So for this week we took a trip to the costume store and got a Batman mask (much to the boyish delight of Chris). Chris made the two rings below for me this past spring. They went perfect with our idea for the shallow depth of field project we had been toying with for a few weeks. Believe it or not, we had the rest of the props laying around the house.

Chris shot first and for once we got our lighting right on the first go! We used two strobe lights with umbrellas bounced off the backdrop behind the camera so that our bodies would be shadowed a bit. Chris tucked my hair and ears behind the mask and presto! He got the hero for my villain!

I had to do a little more prep for Chris. We painted his face and hand white and hair and eyebrows green. I made sure to position his hand so that it covered most of his beard. I mean who ever heard of a fuzzy Joker?

30: BRILLO BOX

2009-09-20T18:53:00.000-07:00

Rich colors, wide angle lenses, aged backgrounds and a couple of fun lovin' photo butterflies, all amounts to some solid outdoor images. We were mindful of our backgrounds and wanted to have them add to our shots. Not so much in the way a barn and some straw would add to a cowpoke or a wooden ship and a burning village would to a viking. This was more to just slightly add to the poses we were striking.

I shot Nicky first and I wanted to use her patented "I'm classy because my hand is under my chin" look. Though this usually only comes out when she has had a bit too much to drink, I thought it would look quite nice with this regal background. Do you like her crown?

Nicky also shot me in front of the same gate that I shot her, but she wasn't feeling it. So as we were ambling away we stumbled across this old, stark white, picket fence. She sat me down in front of it and had me flex the guns. In her head, I some what symbolized the fence with my pointy head and solid frame. I kind of think she was stretching a bit.

In case you're baking your noodle over where in the hell we got this name from, it was totally random. Ha ha!

29: FIRECRACKERS

2009-09-13T18:22:00.000-07:00

On our trip way up north, we found something that is unheard of in Virginia where we live. As I turned the corner down an old familiar road, Chris's eyes lit up. With his hands and face pressed against the window of the car, he yelled "FIREWORKS WAREHOUSE!". For those of us squatting in VA, we have no firework stores, huts, shanties, super stories, shoppes and of course, warehouses. We pulled in and after Chris composed himself, we took a few shots in front of the building using their really colorful and awesomely painted signs.

One thing we struggled with was keeping our shadows off the background. We wanted each other close enough to the sign so that it would make the biggest impact. To remedy this, we used the off camera flash at 45 degrees angled up and to the left. It was completely overcast and later in the day so we were able to capture the rich colors. Thus producing super neat-o images!

After Chris had tried to shoot me in front of a giant "Fireworks" marquee, he looked toward the painted illustrations on the building. I liked the bull in this cartoon and thought the red would look really vibrant. One awesome bull sign, a sexy tough guy look and you get instant pop!

After looking at the various of other firework brand signs, Chris settled on this one because it seemed the most feminine and kicked the most ass.

28: BA BA BALLOONS

2009-09-06T21:11:00.001-07:00

Officially we are past the Sunday marker (again) but as I always say, the next day doesn't start until I go to bed and wake up. Reason why we're late is because we're in Indiana visiting Nicky's family. But even on our "vacation" we still make sure to post. Gotta feed the SPF beast!

While here, we were able to celebrate Paxton's (Nicky's twin sister's little boy) second birthday. So after the party, we had plenty of amusing props to play with. I had drawn random cartoon characters on all of his balloons and thought they would be fun to use for this weeks post. So we each took turns plopping down and shooting one another surrounded by them. Have fun!

27: KILL OR BE KILLED

2009-08-30T17:37:00.000-07:00

Today's post was inspired by the genre of movies that Chris and I tend to watch the most... horror movies! We wanted to show cause and effect if one of us took it upon themselves to twist into the role of a serial killer. But there could only be one marvelous murder. Who would it be? Chris flat out volunteered to be the corpse. Not like him, but away we went!

As this shot progressed it got more and more dirty. I wanted him to have a well worn, been dead awhile, and drug around kind of look. So, in came the water grass and mud!

Chris also had quite a progression of dirtiness to get this final shot. Fake blood has a mind of it's own especially when it's fresh out of the body, err, I mean bottle!

26: NEVER TOO OLD TO SWING

2009-08-23T20:29:00.000-07:00

On our journey this week, we were out and about playing... shocking I know. Off we ambled with gear over to the little park a few blacks from our pad. This seemed like a great time to do some low light, longer exposure shots that showed motion. Which meant into the swings we climbed!

We decided fate by a round of paper rock scissors and I got to shoot the Nickster first. I snapped quite a few but just was feeling any of them so I cocked my hat sideways ('cuz that's what all those damn kids are doing these days right?) and jumped in the saddle instead. Ain't I cute!? *gag*

So after her snapping me and digging her deeds I gave it another shot. I think the fact that it was almost night was what really made me love this round. That and... well look at that face, can you tell she likes the playground? It really made me smile.

25: WIDE ANGLE WILLIAMSBURG WIENERS

2009-08-16T16:50:00.000-07:00

The weather today had been whispering from the windows and trying to seduce us outside since we had woken at the crack of, well... noon! "To the Aveo!" Chris shouted as we gathered our gear and tried to set a destination for the day. Unfortunately, everyone and their mama was heading the same direction we were. So we ended up sitting in traffic for around 30 minute to an hour rocking our faces off to the ipod until we found an exit. We forged our own way to Williamsburg where we had a quick adventure walking the streets of colonial Williamsburg. There we found a lonely bull who just wanted to pose for a few photo's and get some head rubs. Hum... now what. Oh yah, our photo for the day! We wanted to play with the distortion that the Canon 10-22mm gives us so we shot horizontal and found an expansive background.

Chris got a cute curious shot of me with my arms playfully spread back and away from me to emphasize the wideness of the lens. Pop it with the flash and you get a little more of the "pro wow" look.

Chris is not the cutesy type. So to still incorporate the same idea as Chris's shot of me, I went for an image that kind of mimicked and made fun of his shot.

24: GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE, NINJAS DO.

2009-08-09T23:46:00.000-07:00

There are few things in life that rival the coolness of the ninja. As a child, my little brother and I would (for lack of having real ninja masks) use t-shirts wrapped around our heads. Once we donned these mock masks, it was on! Stealth missions, flying fists of doom and countless battles would then ensue. And when todays brainstorming session came around I figured I would slip in the idea and Nicky actually went for it. Thus we were transformed into assassins. So I wouldn't recommend pissing us off. It's never a good idea to mess with a ninja. Know why?

A) They don't show up on radars.
B) They don't sleep, they wait.
C) They can kill you with their bare freaking hands, son!

23: COLOR KUNG FU

2009-08-02T22:27:00.000-07:00

Color was the theme for today's shoot. Well also our best color kung fu fighting stance too I suppose! Yes, we rock. DO NOT DENY IT! Anyways, we increased our chances with odd color by changing the "picture style" to a custom setting in the camera first and then taking it to the extreme with a little help in Photoshop.

Chris is a mean mugging, serious, get down to some butting kicking, kind of color kung fu fighter. Look at the intensity in his face and his "gnarly" bracelet that lets you know he's going to mop the floor with you and then go watch Point Break while doing his best Keanu.

Nicky on the other hand uses the pointy cat like finger spread and pissy face color kung fu style that is also popular with indoor cats. Pop up and pounce is this girly's moto!

22: GENDER BENDER

2009-07-26T14:47:00.000-07:00

Today was a real scorcher outside so we really didn't want to shoot out in the heat. Thus we stuck to tossing around ideas that could be done in our studio. There was talk of capturing motion and even ninjas but in the end we went with... well, cross dressing. We decided to use these creepy, partially see through, man/woman masks to really complete our transformations.

Nicky ripped apart her chest of drawers to find me a dress that I could squeeze into and still look halfway decent. Of course we didn't want to show my manly chest hair but an undershirt would have been tacky, hello! So we solved that problem with a lacy shawl. Next, on went the girlie mask and sun hat. To tie it all together and really bring out my southern belle look, she had me hold a pretty little fan. Boy, would Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs have been proud.

Then it was my turn to wrap Nicky in dude wear. I figured I should make her look classy since I was so elegant in my set. That's only fair, right? So on went the slacks, button up shirt, suspenders and my Michael Jackson Moonwalker hat. After some pinning and clamping of extra material behind her and the rolling up of baggy sleeves, she started to really look like a boy! Scary thing is, it kinda reminds me of my little brother. Oh god, where's my therapist!

So after some desaturating and vignetting, we had a final product of man becomes girl and woman becomes boy! All I can say to try and save some of my dwindling male pride after this is that in ancient mythology even Thor had to dress like a broad at one point to get his magic hammer back. So there!

21: THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE BATHROOM

2009-07-19T22:56:00.001-07:00

It's past midnight and I am just starting to write! But some times we have to slack otherwise we would never know how hard we can work, right? Any ways this was an idea Chris has been pitching for a while now. It just happened to be the right idea at the right time.

We used the 10-22mm and one studio light, this is the creepiness we got. Good night.

20: FOOL'S GOLD

2009-07-12T19:58:00.000-07:00

For us, Sunday is the day of the lazy. Unfortunately, where there is loafing there is typically procrastination. Thus we waited until the last minute to decide what in the blue blazes we were going to do. But hey, why break our tradition? Seems to have worked so far!

Nicky had been wanting to do something with "snoots" for a while and direct the light into one spot. Now this wasn't as dead on as we had hoped but I still think it worked well with the gold reflector background we used.

All this light made everything really bright and the reflector gave everything a warm golden glow. So Nicky put me in a light shirt and a lighter hat so nothing was too stark.

I didn't want to use the same hat or some corn ball mask this time. So I just ran with Nicky's new hair cut. I gave it a bit of a slick and it helped shine the light well and give more notice to her intense expression.

19: TOE AND BEARD LOVE

2009-07-05T19:07:00.000-07:00

Because of the national birthday we all share every year; the 4th of July, Chris and I had a whole 2 day weekend off. This only happens once in a blue moon (oh I love that ice-cream) so we chose to run our-self's raged with fireworks, friends, and fantastic alone time.

These shots are the parts of each-others bodies that we really enjoy giving love to. Yes, roll your eyes and gag at the ultimate cuteness that appears to be our everyday life. I'm as shocked as you people because three years ago I would have joined in the spitting! But as it seems love is all you need: Enter stage left... beard and toes!

So Chris has always loved my toes. It's not creepy or weird he just thinks their very cute. He wanted my electric orange polish to mach the background and to fill the frame with precise focus. So the 50 compact macro f2.8 was just the lens for the job. You must be careful with this lens because it's very picky about focusing!

Chris has grown this amazing beard. It's super soft and I love when he tickles me with it. Get your mind out of the gutter! I used the same background and tried to back light the hair a bit to show off the texture and bulk of it.

18: UMBRELLA CORPORATION

2009-06-28T20:53:00.000-07:00

Bet you thought this was going to be about zombies from the title didn't you? Well I hate to burst your bubble, but this weeks shoot is actually about umbrellas.

Nicky thought of the idea to use one as kind of a background for me and I just so happen to have a gigantoid black one! So she had me put on my new Greek fisherman's cap and slip into my artsy, pseudo rebellious blazer. This was a two light setup in our studio with one at about forty five degrees to my right (or your left as you now look at the picture) and the other one behind the umbrella. The rosy glow coming through was from a pink background about a foot behind the rear light.

I didn't want to just stick Nicky with the same outfit, light setup or even the same umbrella. So after staring at the studio lights for a bit I was struck by an idea. This is about umbrellas but who said they have to be the kind that are for the rain? I grabbed one of the white studio flash versions and stuck it in her hand. I sort of went for that Russian old maid look for her attire. Makes you feel like they could be an eastern european couple! I would have loved to actually made water run over her umbrella but who want's a slippery studio? In the end it's almost like she's sticking her hand out and checking for light.

17: EERIE VENETIAN MASKS

2009-06-21T20:45:00.000-07:00

This creepy shoot was inspired by three different ideas that we came up with while driving back to the studio: silhouette's, painting with light, and masks. They just so happened to all came together in an interesting way. It's also super helpful when you have tons of fun props laying around the house!

I had to struggle with the length of the nose on this mask so the pose was necessary to fit it in the frame. I enjoy how it looks like he's peeking in from the shadows and not all the detail of his face is lit.

Chris discovered the cool effect of having a small flash light illuminating the gold detail on the mask. It made me reshoot to mimic his results. He liked the stark shape of my body against the red. The background is lit by hot lights about a foot or so away from us. The only other light is from the little flash light so we were able to keep the body silhouetted

16: COPY CAT

2009-06-14T18:11:00.000-07:00

It has been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But we think that's kinda lame and lacking of vision. So in a mild attempt to fart in the general direction of that statement and of hornswagglers that would do such a thing, we decided to "rip off" one another. Each of us cloned one another's style, lighting, editing, attitude and even color scheme... or lack there of that is.

So children, the moral of the story is if everyone copied everyone else, the world would be a drab place indeed.

15: A SQUAW AND HER BUCKAROO

2009-06-07T19:54:00.000-07:00

Chris and I try a lot of different hairstyles on a regular basis. This Sunday's post was inspired by just such a hairstyle experiment, braids.

We decided to come back into the studio and work with some props. The odd braids that I woven my hair into this morning sent us into the wild west, the land of cowboys and indians.

To me, this was a time of men who were gun toten', tobacco smokin', no shit takin', sex pots! I skipped over a handful of really great shots of Chris until I came to the one below. I stuck with this one solely for the expression on his face. It makes me think of Clint Eastwood looking off into the horizon for signs of the law coming round the bend!

Chris made me put on a few accessories from my closet and bam! Instant indian. After my second attempt at shooting, Chris wanted to try a more somber approach to mimic the mood of my image.

After all was said and done, we thought a quick change of the images to sepia tone would be even more fitting to that era.

14: GOLDEN GILDED GRASS OF GIDDINESS

2009-05-31T19:35:00.000-07:00

We started off our day by enjoying a long and lazy morning well into the afternoon. Unfortunately it couldn't last as the chores, errands and of course this silly fresh photo blog that you now enjoy began to weigh heavy on our sluggish brains. We just decided to wing it and take a random drive and see where we ended up. We also brought along the studio strobes to try out something different.

Nicky had some vision to use a field of tall grass for todays scenario. Thus, we scoured from deep Portsmouth to the edges of Chesapeake looking for her perfect untamed lot. And at long last we settled for the one below.

So we tossed up all the equipment and funny thing was we totally didn't use any of the studio stuff. Nicky ended up using the hot shoe flash and our large gold reflector. I sat in the golden grass we had discovered as she snapped away while I playing with bugs and chewing the foliage.

By the time I was handed the camera we were pretty hot, bug bitten and just about done with this shoot. After a bit of coaxing and directing, up popped that beautiful smile. I turned off the flash and just relied on the overbearing sun and that big gold reflector to really bring out the warmth in this shot. Now that's one pretty little brown eyed monkey!

13: SWAMP THINGS

2009-05-24T22:24:00.000-07:00

This weekend was my birthday camping weekend. So we packed up our gear and drove to North Carolina. We spent 2 full days out there and had a amazing time finding ways to entertain each other. Knowing we had to shoot Sunday, we made sure to pack the camera, flash, and reflector... well sort of.

We were leaving mid day Sunday so we took these shots while we were on our way out of the woods to go home. As I began shooting Chris we realized that the batteries in the flash were on their last leg. No problem, we'll use the reflector and reflection off the water. Well we would have but that's sitting in the studio at home. So this is shot with on camera flash (pop-up flash) with flash compensation at -2

Chris was full of some kind of mason jar liquor that had floaties and that's the way it COMES. So he really wanted to get a shower and a nap. Nuf said! :)

Chris had a tuff time finding a more interesting background for me. So after I hung dangerously close to gator territory he got this shot with the fun green confetti water.

12: DIABOLICAL FIENDS

2009-05-17T18:58:00.000-07:00

It is known that there could be no light without darkness, no right without wrong, no good without bad. With that in mind, it was time to show off our eeeeevil sides. Yes, that's evil spelled with five "e's" to emphasize just how sinister we are!

Nicky had been wanting to use my eye patch and hat along with our cat Vixen's patented evil sneer all in one shoot for some time. She sat me in my fancy shmancy office chair and I donned my suit. She stuck one light behind my right shoulder for the rim light and the other towards the front left of me. Once she had the two light set up to her liking, it was time for Vixen to get her contemptuous look on. This was easy not only because she's a great model and loves the camera but also because she really is quite a maniacal little creature. Tremble before us worms!

I, on the other hand, had to come up with my concept on the fly. I thought back to the old black and white silent picture era when bad guys wore black top hats and had creepy facial hair. Thus poor Nicky was forced to suppress her cutesy girl side and play the role of a dastardly dude. Now I don't have a collection of fake moustaches (I need to work on that!) so I penciled one in with her eyeliner. For that extra creep factor I used one strobe about three feet above her head to achieve the deep shadows for her to lurk in.

So draw the shutters, lock your doors and hide your valuables because evil is afoot! Muahahahaha!!!

11: TV PEOPLE

2009-05-10T19:21:00.000-07:00

The only reason we got up before 2pm today was the suggestion of breakfast at some place that would cook it and clean it up. Oh and coffee; bottomless, delicious coffee! Mmmmmm... coffee.

Then home for a nap, walking for food stuffs, picking up a few movies and we were ready to find the idea for the day.

As we watched static on the TV a blue glow fell on us and Chris was struck with the idea for a background... the TV. The fist thing to go in our "traditional" style of Sunday Photo Funday images was the orientation. Horizontal just worked better for what we were shooting. So we figured to break our own mold and go with an entirely new look.

This idea came to me quickly and with a few de-cluttering maneuvers, we positioned the hot lights to illuminate the wall only. The rest was finding the right shutter speed to get the best "snow" and getting Chris in the right pose, and there you go! TV man wants to play.

Chris went for a macro approach after he saw the snow reflected in my eyes. With my head against the glass he had me stair off into TV heaven. The Canon 50mm 2.5 Compact Macro lens is what we both used but Chris used it's super macro capabilities and shot just my eye with the fuzz as a backdrop.

10: EYE LIKE BRIGHT COLORS

2009-05-03T21:02:00.000-07:00

Before I get into the fun filled adventure for today, let me first acknowledge the fact that I know this post was dropped after midnight. Now technically that makes it Monday, but not in my twisted little head. My day doesn't end until I go to sleep or pass out. So there!

On this Sunday we decided to head towards the beach front for something different and also to avoid the rain that was pounding Norfolk. I suggested Sandbridge since it's nice, neither of us had been there in eons and has way less goobers ambling about. After we had driven way out and parked we went for a leisurely stroll along the beach toting along our cameras. My first thought was to shoot with the awesome storm clouds and dunes behind each of us. But those same clouds decided they were camera shy and peed all over us. Off to the car we fled and just as we were leaving the beach area the sun popped out and dried up all the rain. On our way home we noticed how cool the colors of a lot of the buildings were and decided to use those as a background instead. I suggested using only the eyes and tops of our heads thus you have what you see below.

I shot Nicky first with this pretty blue surf shop behind her dome. She may be a pretty little thing but look at those beady eyes... she looks guilty of something to me!

After that we walked over to this real estate office next door that had these great yellow shutters and was similarly cool colored like the surf shop. So I bugged out my creepy eyes, tossed up the inquisitive eyebrow and Nicky pushed the button!