Fine Art images with Swaggs

Swaggs and the little black dress Part II
Here's a sampling of what you'll find on this site. If you're looking for a particular type of post, use the Quick Menu or Search at the top of the screen. Enjoy.

Jake Bohstedt Morrill

We're both a bit older and a lot balder, but it was great to see and catch up with the reverend Jake Bohstedt Morrill. Of course, he wasn't the reverend to me back in elementary school. He was the platinum blonde kamikaze on roller skates at my third grade birthday party - and he wasn't the reverend when we graduated from Bearden High School together 25 years ago - but he is now, and he's also an extraordinary writer. The reverend Jake Bohstedt Morrill holds a BA from Texas, an MFA from Iowa, and his Masters of Divinity from Harvard - and he puts all of those to good use as a minister at The Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church. I've been following his posts and writing for a while now, and am always impressed with his steady, thoughtful message, and that's why I was incredibly happy when Jake wrote to me a few weeks ago and asked if I could help him create some head shots and portraits he could use in conjunction with his writing and speaking engagements. I think we did well, but I'll let you be the judge.

Lifestyle Model, Leslie Fox

This past Friday, I had the pleasure of working with local lifestyle model, Leslie Fox. What a fun time we had working with Makeup Artist, Stephen Mee and roaming around downtown building her agency portfolio. Here are some of my favorite images from our session. I think they remind us all that you don't need to be under 25 to get some fabulous images.

Born this Way Body Arts

Monday night I dragged a car full of equipment across town. It's not often I get a shoot start time of 8pm, but I can tell you it was well worth it. It was an absolute joy to shoot a commercial set at Born this Way Body Arts (off of Middlebrook Pike in West Knoxville). I cannot thank owners April Thomas and Bryan Thomas enough for having me and going all out for a great commercial set. I want to also thank staff members Mariella Buddle, Emily Walker, and Tyler McClure for being such good sports and doing whatever I asked. I walked in with a distinct vision of what I wanted to get out of the location and the staff, and boy did they all deliver. Let me say a special thanks to Payton Poteet for doing makeup for the lovely ladies of Born this Way (and for powdering down a shiny Bryan), and last but not least, thank you, Noel Zitawi for styling all that great hair. If you're in the market for a tattoo or piercing, I cannot recommend Born this Way Body Arts enough. Here are some of my favorite images from our set.

Senior Session with Stephanie

It was my distinct pleasure to shoot a Fall Senior Session with Seymour High School senior, Stephanie Elford. Her mother, Sue accompanied and assisted in the session at the a park on the river, and we got some great images. Thank you both for being just awesome to work with. Here are a few of my favorite images.

Model, Shelby Lindsey

I had the pleasure of working with local model, Shelby Lindsey for the third time this past week. Such a beautiful young woman - and it was an absolute honor to be able to shoot some senior photos for her and her family during our session. Here are my favorites from our session.

John Wilbanks

25 years ago, I graduated from Bearden High School in Knoxville, TN (Class of 1990), and there have been some huge success stories from my class. One of those stories belongs to John Wilbanks, whom I am still happy to call my friend. John Wilbanks is the Chief Commons Officer at Sage Bionetworks and a Senior Fellow at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and at FasterCures. He runs the Consent to Research Project. He speaks 60-80 times a year around the world (there's a fabulous Ted Talk out there featuring John), and he was in need of some new promotional portraits. So, a few weeks ago while John was in town, we roamed around downtown Knoxville and got him what he needed. If you want to learn more about John, you can read about him here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wilbanks. Here are some of my favorite images from our session.

It’s been a while, but Morgan is back

After a couple of year hiatus from modeling, I had the opportunity to shoot with the fabulous Morgan Brooke McCarty this past week. We did a full commercial fashion portfolio session in Downtown Knoxville. The results, as always, were stunning. Here are my favorites from our set.

RaySearch Laboratories at Provision Center for Proton Therapy

Earlier this year, I was hired by RaySearch Laboratories, a Swedish company whose equipment/software is used at the Provision Center for Proton Therapy in Knoxville. They needed me to create images at Proton Therapy to accompany their annual report. Apparently, annual reports are a much bigger deal in Sweden than they are here in the states. It was incredible to see the equipment, meet the staff and work with the Swedish team. Here are some of my favorites from that commercial session.

Monster Tower

Last week I had a blast working with the folks from Monster Tower, a company that sells boat towers and accessories. We met before down and put 5 boats on the water, including the chase boat. I want to give special thanks to Steve, Amanda, and especially Brandon of Monster Tower for getting me exactly what I needed to make this a great shoot. Here are some of my favorite images from this shoot.

FNA

Over the last couple of weeks, I've had the pleasure of working with the FNA Group, Inc. creating some very straightforward catalog images of large commercial pressure washers. I cannot thank Kris, Greta, Nick and Chuck enough for being such a big help on site. They made sure I had everything I needed and toted large trailers around all morning.

Lena Roxanne Bradford at Sunrise

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of shooting with local model, Lena Roxanne Bradford for the very first time. We got a great set of clouds and a gorgeous morning on the lake. Truthfully, there were so many gorgeous photos, it was hard to choose my favorites. Here are the ones I settled on.

Impromptu Wedding

Sometimes you just get to be part of something special. Brenda and Trip were traveling from Florida to Wisconsin to visit family and friends, and they chose downtown Knoxville on the way through. They called me on Monday, and there I was on Thursday shooting wedding portraits and covering the ceremony at the courthouse. It was frankly one of the most beautiful, intimate and special days I've ever been a part of, and I appreciate Brenda and Trip allowing me to be a part of it with them.

Model, Shelby Lindsey

Saturday morning, I was all set to shoot a sunrise session in my favorite location for sunrises. I had the perfect model, and the weather was breaking in our favor, and then we arrived at the location and there was a charity dragon boat race scheduled. Guh! So, after two quick runs down Northshore Drive, we found the perfect location and the weather broke just enough for a brilliant colored sunrise. The model featured in this session is Shelby Lindsey, and this was our second shoot. I want to thank Jody West (and Shelby) for waking up well before the crack of dawn to get this done. You both, as always, are fabulous. Here are some of my favorite images from the shoot.

Fun in the Sun Session

Had a great time this weekend shooting a sunrise, "Fun in the Sun" session with three lovely models: Brenna Bentley, Danna Lee, and Candi Houston Perez. Here are some of my favorite images from our shoot.

Brittany Powers

Last weekend I had the pleasure of doing a fashion portfolio shoot with Greeneville model, Brittany Powers. We had a blast! Special thanks to Candace Wilson for coming out to help and Brittany's mom, Belinda for driving her down to Knoxville at the last minute.

Pinterest is an incredible tool that you should stop using as a ‘Shot List’ for your photographer

Don’t get me wrong. I love Pinterest as much as the next hot-blooded American. It’s a great way to find inspiration and new ideas about all kinds of things, but as a photographer, I can’t think of anything more disheartening than a client who decides to use Pinterest to create a “Shot List” for our session. Used improperly, Pinterest hurts results, produces unrealistic expectations, and ultimately leads to disappointment. Ream more now...

Joy at Christmas

I'm not going to tell you how old Joy Pavlis is. That'd just be rude, but I can tell you that she wasn't born yesterday (or probably the day before). What I can tell you is that she's beautiful and was a pleasure to work with in my studio for corporate head shots and portraits. She loved the results and told me, "Before I came to you, I hadn't had professional portraits made in probably 20 years. You made it so easy." I just love that. Here's a little Joy at Christmas

Black: Brandi

Here are some crazy portraits Brandi and I did in the studio. Yes, it was a…

Black

I had the pleasure of working on some personal projects with model Hana Lyn…

“Redemption” & “Breakdown” Illustrative Series

A week ago I had the pleasure of working with model, Autumn Livesay on three illustrative series. You've probably already seen the "Redneck Summer" series, but we also created "Redemption" and "Breakdown." Redemption is a modern-day cleansing or baptismal series, and Breakdown focuses on a woman who is fed up and wants rid of all the stress in her life. Special thanks to makeup artists, Stephen Mee for helping create the look and hone the ideas for these two sets. Here are some of my favorites from the shoot. Click the link below to see all of the images.

Editorial Illustration: Redneck Summer

So, I recently had the pleasure of working on part two of a personal project that I started years ago: Redneck Summer. Special thanks to model, Autumn Livesay and makeup artist, Stephen Mee (who created the perfect redneck makeup look - right down to the blue eyeshadow and lip liner). Here are a few of my favorites from the set. Click the link below to see all of the images.

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