Bailey Schurke dove headfirst into photography after her wedding.

While having her engagement and wedding photos taken, Schurke became intrigued by the process of documenting the special memories.

Working as a nurse, the idea of doing her own photography stayed on the back burner. Driving back from a vacation and having a lot of free time, Schurke decided to go for it.

A year later, Schurke is opening her own photography studio called Special Moments by Bailey, which is located at 500 Main Street in Coon Rapids. On Saturday, an open house and ribbon cutting ceremony will take place at the studio, going from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

For her photos, Schurke said she usually leans towards warmer and neutral colors. Saying she captures a little bit of everything, Schurke photographs pregnancies, families, senior portraits and weddings.

However, her favorite sessions are Fresh 48, where she takes photos of newborn babies within their first 48 hours after birth.

“You only have one chance to capture those right after the baby’s born in those 48 hours of life,” Schurke said. “These are very much capturing all those little details, the umbilical cord that’s still on, the baby’s fingers, all that fun stuff.”

In order to develop her skills further, Schurke said she reached out to another professional photographer Aryn Book, who is the owner of Peridot and Lace in Adel.

“She was all on board, this was her first time ever helping someone, so she was also super excited,” Schurke said. “So I got my camera, she helped decide which one to purchase, as well as what lens and all that good stuff.”

The studio used to be the space for Brown Bag & Co., a former home goods store. Around this time, Schurke was looking for a building, but hadn’t found anything she liked.

After noticing they were closing, Schurke reached out to move her photography business over.

On top of her photography business, Schurke continues to work as an OB nurse at the St. Anthony Birth Place.

“I love it, I wouldn’t change it,” Schurke said. “Some days do get long when I work night shifts, so that can definitely take a toll, but I love it. I love being a nurse, there’s just something about that process that I love.”

Being from Elk Horn and her husband being from Arcadia, the couple decided to live in Coon Rapids as a middle ground between their hometowns.

Her husband is Derek Schurke, who works at Outlaw Signs Graphics and Apparel in Carroll. Thanks to his profession, Schurke said he helped her design the front sign for Special Moments by Bailey.

Her parents are Molly Robertson and Terry Robertson of Elk Horn. Throughout the process, Schurke said her parents have been great in helping with the building, whether it’s for construction or painting.

“Whenever I need help, they’re not worried about driving the 40 or 45 minutes it takes to get up here, they’re just more than willing to be up here and help,” Schurke said.

For anyone looking to book a session with Schurke, she said they can message her Facebook account at Special Moments by Bailey, email specialmomentsbybailey@gmail.com or call 712-249-6733.

Sparwood Secondary student Vova Voronin is using photographs to capture the heart and essence of his community.

Voronin has launched a website called Beautiful Sparwood, where he compiles photographs of landscapes, wildlife, people and places that define the community. Browsing through the images, one can find pictures of majestic elk, brightly-coloured birds, misty mountains, and urban sights.

The grade 12 student moved to Sparwood a few years ago and he said the project has helped him integrate into the community and get to know his home a little better.

“I learned more about the community. It was very nice to work with different people, to know more people around town,” he said.

Voronin sourced the website pictures from a variety of local photographers in order to get diverse community representation. The picture submissions have inspired him to get out and explore Sparwood and discover places that were previously unknown to him.

“I want to extend my vision of the community, go around town and see more places that people are sending me. There’s so many beautiful places I haven’t seen yet,” he said.

Voronin said that when he moved to Sparwood, he searched the community up online and found the pictures didn’t do justice to the municipality, and weren’t as dynamic as they could be. This inspired him to start his project and compile photographs of Sparwood that would change the way it’s perceived in Google searches.

His vision dovetailed nicely with a school assignment that required students to take on a project that would help better the community, so it grew to be more than just a hobby.

Voronin’s teacher Stephen Larsen said his passion for the project is evident.

“He didn’t have any experience with any of the programs he was using. He didn’t have any connections around the community. He started from scratch and pulled off a major project,” Larsen said

Larsen has agreed to take ownership of the project after Voronin graduates, and work with the photography and media design students to continue contributing to the website.

The Chamber of Commerce has been sharing the link to Voronin’s website to help garner interest and source more photographs, and it will provide Sparwood Secondary School with funding to help grow the site.

Voronin and Larsen said they’ve got a lot of submissions, but what they’re currently missing is pictures of people and local sports.

“There’s a lot of happy people doing fun things around the community and it’s not currently represented in photographs online and even in the photographs that we’ve been getting so far,” said Larsen.

To submit a photo, e-mail beautifulsparwood@gmail.com

Follow the project online at www.beautifulsparwood.com or on Instagram @beautiful_sparwood.

Another week, another fun photography challenge! Are you ready to put your photography skills to the test and refill your creative juices? Now on the 17th week of their 52-week Photo Challenge, the folks of SlickPic want us to look up, within and around stunning Architecture.

In this challenge, the task is to capture all the interesting lines, shapes, and details of eye-catching buildings and similar structures. Whether new or old architecture, this is your chance to showcase their exteriors and reveal their stunning interiors. Let your eye for detail and composition skills shine in this challenge! Whether it’s something you’ve already learned or a technique you want to perfect, this is surely a great activity for you!

To help inspire you, why not check out our architectural photography archive for tips, tricks, ideas and inspiration? For starters, we suggest reading Getting creative with rural architecture photography, Revealing colorful geometric details in architecture, and Seven tips to photograph architectural exteriors. In case you’re just joining, we also encourage you to check out the full info on the 52-week Challenge.

Photography challenge details

• Submissions will be accepted until the end of the day on April 28, 2024. So, if you’re in the mood to flex your creative muscles, there’s still plenty of time to make something nice!
• Submit 3 images by clicking this link
• Please submit images in JPEG format and uploading photos that are at least 2500 on the long side is recommended for the highest quality.

Once you submit your photos, you can review them here: https://52weekchallenge.slickpic.com

As always, you can ask your friends to join the challenge as well by clicking on the Share button for the album and inviting them to join in. Of course, you can also encourage them to Like and Comment on your submissions!

Submit your Architecture photos now!

Lead ImageDalen is wearing a top in silk SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO SS24. Stylist’s own thong and hold-upsPhotography by Momo Okabe, Styling by Raphael Hirsch

A look from the Travis County Jail as students and others arrested at the pro-Palestine rally on the UT campus are being released. One of those arrested was a FOX 7 Austin photographer who has been released from jail.

If you’re a photographer who works on locations often, then you know how annoying white balance issues can be. Well, the Lightroom Presets that we’ve made have that in mind. We encourage you to start out at either 3200K or 5600K, apply our presets, and then work from there. We’re pretty sure that they’ll give photographers whatever they need. This article gives you visual examples of all 20 presets in our Photojournalism Presets Pack, as applied to various portraits we’ve taken over the years. And if you want, you can purchase them right here at our store.

The Phoblographer has a large database of portraits that we’ve shot over the years. So we’ve tested these presets on Canon, Nikon, Sony, Leica, Panasonic Lumix, Olympus, OM System, and Fujifilm RAW files. No matter what camera you own, you’re probably going to like these Lightroom presets.

Why Buy These Lightroom Presets

A total of 20 different presets make up our first Presets Pack. Ten of these are color-based and the remaining 10 are focused on black and white results. We developed these to ensure the results don’t overlap between presets, and keeping in mind that they are meant to help you edit with ease. Some of these are Adaptive presets, meaning they scan your photos for faces and skies and skilfully apply edit masks only to those areas. They were developed by us on Adobe Lightroom Classic and you can even adjust the intensity of the presets using the Amount slider in the Develop module

For those of you who’d like to use these presets on the go, we have good news for you. You can even upload these presets to Adobe Lightroom (formerly known as Lightroom Mobile), to be able to use them on your mobile devices.

Color Presets

Use the sliders below to see the effects of each preset on the portrait.

Black And White

These are available for purchase right now. You can buy the color or monochrome sets separately or buy both of them together at a discount. Visit our online store to buy them.

Ah yes, the perpetual ‘get it right in camera or fix it in post‘ debate that drives photographers a bit crazy. These days, there are myriad ways of creating an impactful image, particularly with all the new AI processing tools we have. But which way is correct?

In this video, Scott from Tin House Studio explains his take on the whole argument. Of course, he is approaching it from the lens (pun intended) of a commercial photographer. This of course, will be a different point of view from say a photojournalist or fine art photographer. But none-the-less, his approach is worth listening to.

Scott explains that high-end commercial shoots often have a lot of money riding on them and generally involve big teams of people on set. This can lead to a lot of pressure to get everything right.

Efficiency

Scott says efficiency is key for product shoots. Each hour represents a significant investment on the client’s part.

Sure, getting the perfect shot straight out of the camera is ideal, but what if there’s uncertainty about background colour or minor blemishes on the product? In such cases, it might be more economical to shoot on a neutral background and address any issues during post-production.

Similarly, when shooting moving images at high frame rates, every second of footage counts. While it’s tempting to aim for flawlessness in-camera, some imperfections, like dust particles, are more efficiently dealt with in post-production than during the shoot itself. This, of course, is not the same for a video shoot. You are absolutely going to remove any dust spots in real life first.

Maximising versatility

However, it doesn’t just boil down to what is most cost and time-efficient. It’s also about maximizing creativity and versatility. In today’s commercial landscape, clients often demand flexibility. They may require images to be cropped, composited, or repurposed in ways that weren’t initially anticipated. This is where shooting with high-resolution cameras and keeping post-processing options open becomes invaluable.

It’s the end goal that matters

In the end, what matters most is not how you achieve the final image but the impact it leaves on viewers. Whether it’s a flawless product shot or a breathtaking landscape, the journey to get there is secondary to the emotional response it evokes.

So, the next time you find yourself torn between getting it right in camera and fixing it in post, remember this: there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Embrace the flexibility that modern photography offers, and let your creativity guide you, whether you’re shooting for profit or pleasure.

British photographer Frank Lebon’s first publication, One Blood, is an affectionate, vivid portrait of friends and family that takes blood as subject and metaphor

April 25, 2024

AD PRO’s business workshops connect members with industry leaders to answer your hard-pressed questions in a real-time Q&A format. AD PRO members can register below for the Photo Finish: How to Nail Your Project Photography session, hosted on May 23 at 1:00 pm ET.

Producing project photography is one the largest line items in a design firm’s budget. If you’re going to invest that much, you want to produce the best work. That means picking the best team of creatives to bring the project to life in photos, having a well-planned run-of-show on shoot day, and so much more.

Make the most of your project photography shoots with Photo Finish: How to Nail Your Project Photography, a one-hour virtual workshop on May 23 at 1:00 pm ET. Join AD Global Visuals Director Michael Shome will sit down with industry-leading photographer Douglas Friedman and AD go-to interior stylist Dorcia Kelley to share the ins and outs of working with interior stylists and photographers, how to get your photography contracts in tip-top shape, the logistics of shoot day, and more. This event is open exclusively to AD PRO members.

AD Global Visuals Director Michael Shome

Photo: Gabrielle Langdon

Photographer Douglas Friedman

Interior stylist Dorcia Kelley

Photography courtesy Dorcia Kelley

“Sometimes I can see colors around people,” my sister told me a few weeks ago.

“Really?” I asked. “What colors am I?”

“Red and magenta,” she replied.

Although it feels to some like a new-age idea, the concept of auras—that we each have an energy field around us that translates into colors— has been present in many cultures dating back centuries.

Even if you can’t see colors around people, you can probably feel their energy. We all, after all, have our own unique auras. To find out more about mine, and to test my sister’s guess, I visited Color of Our Energy, a photo studio in Seattle near the intersection of Belltown, Lower Queen Anne, and Interbay that practices aura photography. Inside the bright white space, photographer Alex Lee guided me through the quick process.

It starts by entering a dome-like structure, where Lee’s Aura Camera 6000 resides. The technology for this camera was developed in the 1970s and hasn’t changed since. I sit down on a black bench, then place my hands atop two blue boxes with metal sensors corresponding to various points in the fingers and palm. Lee says to think of them as meridian points, like in acupuncture—each point is connected to a different part of the body and determines where the colors pop up in a photo.

“The hand sensors are picking up vibrational frequencies,” he explains. “We have electricity in our bodies, so we have some electrical output, and that translates to a color assignment based on the frequency of chakras. What’s going to be on your picture is whatever signals you’re outputting.” Lee takes just a moment to set up, snaps the double-exposure shot, and then we wait for my Polaroid to develop.

As it takes shape, Lee explains what to look for in the photo. On the right side is the energy that’s coming in. Above the head is the energy you’re currently experiencing. And on the left side of the photo is the energy you’re putting out into the world. A band of color stretching above like an arch corresponds to something you’re holding in high esteem or working toward integrating into your life. Color by the throat is related to vocalizing, and color by the chest is what’s coming from the heart space. These latter two don’t show up as often.

Lee hands me a card with a handful of adjectives for each color, but he says I’ll be getting a link to a more in-depth explanation within 30 minutes of the appointment. In the meantime, we talk about the hue. Although everyone’s photos are open to their own interpretation, he likes to let people know what colors he sees, as some customers may be confused about the difference between indigo and purple, for example.

Lee transitioned from a career in public accounting to photography in 2019. In the time since, he’s discovered people get an aura photo for all kinds of reasons. Some want a cool profile picture or an unusual save-the-date, while others have questions on their mind. “Maybe they’re going through something and they’re looking for some clarity,” he says. “They’ve previously gone to a tarot card reading or a psychic, and now they’re looking for a physical medium for whatever reason.”

As my image develops, there’s a bright red halo that stretches from my right to left side, and above that, a band of magenta. Somehow, my sister was spot on. (“How did you know?” I called and asked. “Because I just saw it,” she said. Helpful.)

According to the page of information I received after the appointment, red is correlated with the root chakra and is about creating tangible change and forward momentum. Good news for the interpretation: I am very much a go-getter, and red would surprise approximately zero people in my life. The magenta band above signifies acting on intuition or creating from inner awareness. It’s typically seen in auras when we’re focused on prioritizing our own needs.

While these colors match up pretty well to how I feel, it could definitely be argued that the descriptions are just all-encompassing enough to apply to everyone, à la newspaper horoscopes.

I’m a logical person, but thanks to my woo-woo sister, I’ve learned a lot about methods of spiritual introspection, like birth charts, tarot cards, and aura photographs. One thing I’ve come to understand is that even if you’re skeptical, these can still be useful tools for self-awareness. What might be more important than whether Jupiter is in your ninth house or you pull the Queen of Cups is how you react to it. If I see new-beginnings red in my photograph and think of a relationship starting, that’s probably what’s foremost in my thoughts. If instead a career goal I’m working toward springs to mind, perhaps that’s where I should focus my attention. The interpretation leads the way.

When I saw that magenta band, it told me I needed to trust my gut on something I was hoping to ignore. I already knew this in my subconscious, but the aura photo brought it to the forefront for me. If I didn’t have anything like that going on in my life at the time, I likely would’ve keyed in on another element of the color—maybe I would’ve homed in on the rebellious, nonconformist notes to take a risk I’d been contemplating.

Lee says he’s taken enough photographs of himself now that he can tell what they’ll look like before they’re even developed. Auras can change over time, and his does to some extent—but he’s in tune enough with his energy now to know if he’ll be, say, orange or yellow on a particular day. 

Can a camera really capture your aura? I don’t know for sure. I think of it kind of like a mood ring. The scientific accuracy is debatable, but it’s a lot of fun. It can be illuminating, if that’s what you want—or just a cool new profile pic.